3 ms·

It took me a little over a year to feel back to normal. That’s cognitive function and reduced anxiety. It introduced depression and anxiety to my life that I ne

It took me a little over a year to feel back to normal. That’s cognitive function and reduced anxiety. It introduced depression and anxiety to my life that I never had prior. I’ve had to learn to cope with this and sought solutions every new day. What helped me most was exercise, little to no mainstream news or social media, and getting clearer on my purpose of life. It was a very rough 14 months, but I got through it and feel back to normal.

ren_engineer 5y ago
how much of this could be attributed to the world events surrounding Covid and basically correlation vs causation? There have been studies that the majority of people claiming "long covid" when tested have never actually been infected. Most of the symptoms described could be depression due to being locked in your home and your normal lifestyle disrupted for nearly 3 years now. Plus general anxiety from the negativity of the news in general creating constant doom and gloom even this study is somewhat suspect to me, they injected spike protein directly into the mouse's brain rather than using a natural infection. There's only a single study saying Covid can cross the blood brain barrier, so I'm not sure this methodology translates to real world infection
- pydry 5y ago
  My first thought as well. I never caught covid but social isolation definitely induced anxiety and cognitive deficit in me.
  - fffobar 5y ago
    What if it was caused by both? I'm in your shoes, and pondering this very question.
    - forum_ghost 5y ago
      It is both. Social isolation does cause depression and anxiety, as social interaction is a very well proven anti-depressant. Covid is also known to destroy your sense of smell. The olfactory bulb. which is neural tissue in your nose, goes right into your brain, and has no protection from blood brain barrier...because it doesn't have it. Covid is neurotoxic. Isolation does cause depression. Both are true.
      - IdEntities 5y ago
        "SARS-CoV-2 attacks olfactory mucosae but spares the olfactory bulb": https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(21)01282-4.pdf https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(21)01282-4.pdf
        forum_ghost 5y ago
        That doesn't mean the brain is spared. Covid does get into the brain, and CNS positivity is correlated with olfactory mucosa positivity. Something we've known since autopsy report after autopsy report since 2020. Two years now. Fig 1b, 1c. Fig 5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-00758-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-00758-5 "Presence of intact CoV particles together with SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the olfactory mucosa, as well as in neuroanatomical areas receiving olfactory tract projections"
- encoderer 5y ago
  I used to think long covid was total bullshit. Now here I am with tinnitus for 3 months after a pretty mild case. Probably it’s best just to trust people about their own experience, if this pandemic has shown us anything it’s that nobody knows anything. No masks! Wait, wear masks! Surfaces are the problem! Nevermind on surfaces! Close playgrounds! Wait, outdoors is where we should be! — and all this from the professionals.
  - javajosh 5y ago
    You can easily estimate precautions from first principles, knowing that the Covid virus is ~100nm in size, a human cell is ~100um in size - so Covid is 1000x smaller. These things are expelled in water vapor from breath (masks), and water as spit (surfaces). They "gum up the works" of other cells, because they are so small. The first advice to avoid masks was purely to avoid impacting the PPE needs of frontline workers. So you could have ignored that. As for surfaces, it seems dumb to wash your groceries, but it seems smart to, I don't know, not eat from a salad bar that lets all the customers exhale on the food (this is gross pre-covid). People taking precautions outside was always dumb. The concentration of virus scales as r^3, in general. Plus, UV destroys them. Playgrounds are a mixed bag, because kids are adorable, but gross. They are constantly touching each other and their own nose, mouth and so on. OTOH they have good resistance AND its really really important to socialize young kids, or they don't get socialized. I respect going either way (I picked "allow"). Its tough to see so much angst about Covid, and the messaging has been terrible. Hardly anyone explains the why of any guideline, so you can't really decide for yourself. So, like any good physicist, I applied first-principles and so far have only caught it once! (It was post Pfizer vaccine, and quite mild).
- thenerdhead 5y ago
  I used to think the same way as you until I got it pre-vaccine. When you get it and there’s no treatment available, you glue yourself into the current events for hope. Yes all of this begets more anxiety because of all of the misinformation and disinformation out in the world. I had to shut up the world and do my own thing to recover. For what it’s worth I had antibodies doing a blood test multiple months after suspected infection.
- forum_ghost 5y ago
  You are denying lived experience of a person that was injured by the disease? Do you also lecture people in wheelchairs to stop feigning their unproven "illness", until they a 4 volume rebuttal, starting from the Krebs cycle, and finally convinced you their legs actually do not work? the original covid is conclusively known to impair your sense of smell, sometimes total anosmia. Sometimes total anosmia for life, but luckily that seems rare. Blood brain barrier? The olfactory bulb in your nose does NOT have the blood brain barrier. But you didn't know that, did you? Remember this next time when you are going swimming. Never been infected? That would require lymphocyte testing, and none of those tests have been clinically validated, and never will be. no money in that, and original strains no longer circulate. Do you have any biology training aside from mandatory high school curriculum?
  - hotpotamus 5y ago
    You don't have to deny lived experience to have doubts about the effects of Covid. Anxiety can cause all sorts of issues that are truly debilitating.
    - forum_ghost 5y ago
      If you still have doubts after two years of pathology report after report of lymphocyte infiltration in the brain - you too, may also have lymphocyte infiltration in your own brain. "43 patients were included in our study. Patients died in hospitals, nursing homes, or at home, and were aged between 51 years and 94 years (median 76 years [IQR 70-86]). We detected fresh territorial ischaemic lesions in six (14%) patients. 37 (86%) patients had astrogliosis in all assessed regions. Activation of microglia and infiltration by cytotoxic T lymphocytes was most pronounced in the brainstem and cerebellum, and meningeal cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration was seen in 34 (79%) patients. SARS-CoV-2 could be detected in the brains of 21 (53%) of 40 examined patients, with SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins found in cranial nerves originating from the lower brainstem and in isolated cells of the brainstem." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33031735/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33031735/ It's astounding how seemingly most people just jump to "oh its in your head, just some anxiety". A fairly nasty virus, that causes severe disease that literally kills people even. Penetrates into the brain, cranial nerves, spinal fluid. Causes peripheral neuropathies, palsies, paralysis. ..but no, let's just ignore all that and jump straight to "it's all in your head"
millirem 5y ago
Are there any tips for getting into exercise or any other approaches you can recommend? I'm coming up to the 1 year anniversary of a covid infection and even though I don't have any physical symptoms, the last 12 months have been a constant fight with burnout and depression that, similar to you, I have not experienced before. Therapy has been tremendously helpful, but more as a coping mechanism - I have not been able to get back to "normal" yet.
- IdEntities 5y ago
  If you're up to trying some supplementation, after my Delta infection in October I took a PQQ-CoQ10-glutathione-NAC combo that my local store recommended, along with some straight NAC, and my lingering fatigue cleared up about a week after the illness had abated. There are lots of other long COVID recovery protocols out there which are pretty easy to find -- who knows how much of it is snake oil, but as long as what is recommended is safe, possibly taking some placebos is a minor risk to run for a chance at some relief IMO.
- thenerdhead 5y ago
  Start small in anything you pursue and gradually improve each day. If running, start with walking. If weight lifting, start with the bar. Do something that grounds you and challenges you at the same time so you stick with it.

ren_engineer 5y ago

how much of this could be attributed to the world events surrounding Covid and basically correlation vs causation? There have been studies that the majority of people claiming "long covid" when tested have never actually been infected. Most of the symptoms described could be depression due to being locked in your home and your normal lifestyle disrupted for nearly 3 years now. Plus general anxiety from the negativity of the news in general creating constant doom and gloom even this study is somewhat suspect to me, they injected spike protein directly into the mouse's brain rather than using a natural infection. There's only a single study saying Covid can cross the blood brain barrier, so I'm not sure this methodology translates to real world infection

pydry 5y ago
My first thought as well. I never caught covid but social isolation definitely induced anxiety and cognitive deficit in me.
- fffobar 5y ago
  What if it was caused by both? I'm in your shoes, and pondering this very question.
  - forum_ghost 5y ago
    It is both. Social isolation does cause depression and anxiety, as social interaction is a very well proven anti-depressant. Covid is also known to destroy your sense of smell. The olfactory bulb. which is neural tissue in your nose, goes right into your brain, and has no protection from blood brain barrier...because it doesn't have it. Covid is neurotoxic. Isolation does cause depression. Both are true.
    - IdEntities 5y ago
      "SARS-CoV-2 attacks olfactory mucosae but spares the olfactory bulb": https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(21)01282-4.pdf https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(21)01282-4.pdf
      - forum_ghost 5y ago
        That doesn't mean the brain is spared. Covid does get into the brain, and CNS positivity is correlated with olfactory mucosa positivity. Something we've known since autopsy report after autopsy report since 2020. Two years now. Fig 1b, 1c. Fig 5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-00758-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-00758-5 "Presence of intact CoV particles together with SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the olfactory mucosa, as well as in neuroanatomical areas receiving olfactory tract projections"
encoderer 5y ago
I used to think long covid was total bullshit. Now here I am with tinnitus for 3 months after a pretty mild case. Probably it’s best just to trust people about their own experience, if this pandemic has shown us anything it’s that nobody knows anything. No masks! Wait, wear masks! Surfaces are the problem! Nevermind on surfaces! Close playgrounds! Wait, outdoors is where we should be! — and all this from the professionals.
- javajosh 5y ago
  You can easily estimate precautions from first principles, knowing that the Covid virus is ~100nm in size, a human cell is ~100um in size - so Covid is 1000x smaller. These things are expelled in water vapor from breath (masks), and water as spit (surfaces). They "gum up the works" of other cells, because they are so small. The first advice to avoid masks was purely to avoid impacting the PPE needs of frontline workers. So you could have ignored that. As for surfaces, it seems dumb to wash your groceries, but it seems smart to, I don't know, not eat from a salad bar that lets all the customers exhale on the food (this is gross pre-covid). People taking precautions outside was always dumb. The concentration of virus scales as r^3, in general. Plus, UV destroys them. Playgrounds are a mixed bag, because kids are adorable, but gross. They are constantly touching each other and their own nose, mouth and so on. OTOH they have good resistance AND its really really important to socialize young kids, or they don't get socialized. I respect going either way (I picked "allow"). Its tough to see so much angst about Covid, and the messaging has been terrible. Hardly anyone explains the why of any guideline, so you can't really decide for yourself. So, like any good physicist, I applied first-principles and so far have only caught it once! (It was post Pfizer vaccine, and quite mild).
thenerdhead 5y ago
I used to think the same way as you until I got it pre-vaccine. When you get it and there’s no treatment available, you glue yourself into the current events for hope. Yes all of this begets more anxiety because of all of the misinformation and disinformation out in the world. I had to shut up the world and do my own thing to recover. For what it’s worth I had antibodies doing a blood test multiple months after suspected infection.
forum_ghost 5y ago
You are denying lived experience of a person that was injured by the disease? Do you also lecture people in wheelchairs to stop feigning their unproven "illness", until they a 4 volume rebuttal, starting from the Krebs cycle, and finally convinced you their legs actually do not work? the original covid is conclusively known to impair your sense of smell, sometimes total anosmia. Sometimes total anosmia for life, but luckily that seems rare. Blood brain barrier? The olfactory bulb in your nose does NOT have the blood brain barrier. But you didn't know that, did you? Remember this next time when you are going swimming. Never been infected? That would require lymphocyte testing, and none of those tests have been clinically validated, and never will be. no money in that, and original strains no longer circulate. Do you have any biology training aside from mandatory high school curriculum?
- hotpotamus 5y ago
  You don't have to deny lived experience to have doubts about the effects of Covid. Anxiety can cause all sorts of issues that are truly debilitating.
  - forum_ghost 5y ago
    If you still have doubts after two years of pathology report after report of lymphocyte infiltration in the brain - you too, may also have lymphocyte infiltration in your own brain. "43 patients were included in our study. Patients died in hospitals, nursing homes, or at home, and were aged between 51 years and 94 years (median 76 years [IQR 70-86]). We detected fresh territorial ischaemic lesions in six (14%) patients. 37 (86%) patients had astrogliosis in all assessed regions. Activation of microglia and infiltration by cytotoxic T lymphocytes was most pronounced in the brainstem and cerebellum, and meningeal cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration was seen in 34 (79%) patients. SARS-CoV-2 could be detected in the brains of 21 (53%) of 40 examined patients, with SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins found in cranial nerves originating from the lower brainstem and in isolated cells of the brainstem." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33031735/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33031735/ It's astounding how seemingly most people just jump to "oh its in your head, just some anxiety". A fairly nasty virus, that causes severe disease that literally kills people even. Penetrates into the brain, cranial nerves, spinal fluid. Causes peripheral neuropathies, palsies, paralysis. ..but no, let's just ignore all that and jump straight to "it's all in your head"

millirem 5y ago

Are there any tips for getting into exercise or any other approaches you can recommend? I'm coming up to the 1 year anniversary of a covid infection and even though I don't have any physical symptoms, the last 12 months have been a constant fight with burnout and depression that, similar to you, I have not experienced before. Therapy has been tremendously helpful, but more as a coping mechanism - I have not been able to get back to "normal" yet.

IdEntities 5y ago
If you're up to trying some supplementation, after my Delta infection in October I took a PQQ-CoQ10-glutathione-NAC combo that my local store recommended, along with some straight NAC, and my lingering fatigue cleared up about a week after the illness had abated. There are lots of other long COVID recovery protocols out there which are pretty easy to find -- who knows how much of it is snake oil, but as long as what is recommended is safe, possibly taking some placebos is a minor risk to run for a chance at some relief IMO.
thenerdhead 5y ago
Start small in anything you pursue and gradually improve each day. If running, start with walking. If weight lifting, start with the bar. Do something that grounds you and challenges you at the same time so you stick with it.