4 ms·

Long covid has ruined my life and career.

lend000 3y ago
Try living like a monk, if you have the privilege. (Seriously). Cut out all sugar, all refined carbs, all stress, and prioritize sleep, meditation, and relaxation (especially before sleep) above all else, and then gradually amp up the low intensity exercise. It really does help. Some of these tips were from someone who cured their M.S. (a very similar disease) and was describing the process on HN. Source: self. I'm not completely cured, but I've made huge strides and I probably could be if I was better about avoiding stressors / my career ambitions.
- atemerev 3y ago
  I have a family to support, sorry.
  - seper8 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - hiddencost 3y ago
      Pull your head out of your ass.
  - benterix 3y ago
    You can talk to them. Are you a male? Because males live much shorter than women and while some of it is biological, differences between countries show that most of this is social conditioning. Your family will be better off if you can live longer and in better health. Don't make it just your problem that you alone have to solve. Many men before you died because of this,
  - DANmode 3y ago
    I have done this while supporting a family. Saying these are incompatible is a pretty immovable state of mind that will prove harder to fix than COVID.
ianlevesque 3y ago
You're very not alone. I don't think society is yet grappling with the implications of disabling so many people on an ongoing basis.
dmichulke 3y ago
I had two weeks of "long" covid and I was absolutely scared it wouldn't stop.
- piva00 3y ago
  I had acute cognitive problems on my first infection that were really scary. I remember playing chess with my girlfriend on the 5th day, after losing smell and taste, and I looked at the board after our openings and... Simply couldn't make sense of how the pieces moved, why I had positioned them the way they were, I couldn't connect past thoughts and make a plan, I simply lost the ability to "connect the dots". It scared me shitless, a huge wave of anxiety of how the fuck I was going to be able to work if that persisted, my whole job is to connect the dots, predict the future, and for a few days that was simply impossible. I cried a lot from that fear. Can't really imagine how it's for someone to have this brain fog persistently, it was so disorienting, sad, and scary.
  - atemerev 3y ago
    I still can’t play chess for this very reason, yes. (11 months since my last infection).
    - piva00 3y ago
      I'm really, really sorry for you, I can't begin to imagine how would life be if I was in your shoes. I hope you recover somehow, from the bottom of my heart.
    - seper8 3y ago
      What was your elo before and after? Curious to hear.
aeim 3y ago
I'm sorry to hear that. This is an open question which I've pondered for a while (so atemerev, your circumstances may not align, but I hope you don't mind me asking it here): > I wonder how often/ to what degree, circumstances of long covid might be attributed to individuals whom pre-covid were on the cusp of developing more severe symptoms of burnout or depression (for the first time), being abruptly nudged over that threshold? It strikes me, this likely happened in some cases, such that some individuals simultaneously faced both kinds of cognitive phenomena for the first time So implicit – I wonder how often the two are conflated? Or how one ought to reconcile specific (relevant) circumstances between long-covid, and burnout/ depression? So back to yourself atemerev (with no assumptions): can you speak to this at all? Many thanks
- johnchristopher 3y ago
  This is weird. If you don't mind my asking, why don't you google for studies with larger scale experiments/surveys rather than using a single random data point ? Edit: yeah, that's what I thought...
  - aeim 3y ago
    huh?
- Reubend 3y ago
  It seems to me like you're thinking of depression and anxiety as the main symptoms of long COVID, but that's not the case. Issues with short term memory, breathing issues, and sleep issues are the most common symptoms. I think burnout is unlikely to be the main cause of these symptoms, particularly when it comes to respiratory symptoms.
  - aeim 3y ago
    no not all circumstances of all cases – and to be clear, covid is brutal, so is burnout. remember though, they aren't mutually exclusive i've heard some speak of long-covid symptoms as if burnout, without other respiratory concerns. and given numbers of sufferers of both, there must be many who have experienced burnout before covid, so already make a distinction where symptoms overlap, and circumstances align, the simplest explanation for those overlapping symptoms, might be the aligned circumstances; and anything we can do to simplify the problem space is worth exploring, in parallel, of course
hiddencost 3y ago
I feel you. Two years later I finally feel like I'm not always in crisis. It took quitting a job of 8 years for a less abusive team, and trying to make things in my personal life 0.5% better every day. I just do tasks religiously, hoping that eventually I'll be able to do more than that. I cut out a lot of things I used to do, down to the bare minimum, and slowly started figuring out small ways to make my day to day better. My hope is that diagnostics and treatments slowly catch up and give me more back.
khazhoux 3y ago
How so?
- atemerev 3y ago
  Short term memory is screwed up, very low energy for almost a year, barely can write code at all.
  - Mountain_Skies 3y ago
    I had covid in late spring of 2020. It took about a year for my energy to return to a reasonable level. Intellectual endurance took a big hit too and has had a longer tail than the physical but it's hard to know how much was due to covid itself and how much has been due to changes in the social environment because of the pandemic response. Each person is different so I can't tell you that things will get better for you, but I can say that it did get better for me over time. Exercise to the degree you can, both physically and mentally, because even if the effects of the infection goes away completely, you will never get back to 'normal' without building up your system again.
havkom 3y ago
I know two people who have had a hell with long covid (breathing, pulse and brain/memory/focus issues). After a coupe of years of hell one seems to be almost recovered and the other slowly recovering. Both were absolute top performers before.
user568439 3y ago
My wife is on the same boat for 2 years already… she is barely a body just waiting for a treatment. She is not as bad as other we know who can’t even leave the bed, but she has to stay home and had to stop working, studying, exercising, learning languages, reading books… Only some very limited home activities, and short slow walks are possible. She improved compared to the first 6 months but since then the average is stable. With very bad and a bit better days sometimes. Tried a lot of medicines and supplements with some effect but little.
thenerdhead 3y ago
Hey, there is some promise on the horizon. It is very possible that this illness mostly lives in our guts and that with proper drugs or even existing ones, we can build up our gut, take some combination antivirals/monoclonal antibodies, and be potentially reversed. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/monoclonal-antibodies-new-treatment-long-covid-2023a1000wfa https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/monoclonal-antibodies-n... Also if you want to look at any research easily, go check out my app here: https://www.longcovidinsights.com/ https://www.longcovidinsights.com/ Feel free to email me if you can find my email on my about page (offer is for anyone struggling)

Try living like a monk, if you have the privilege. (Seriously). Cut out all sugar, all refined carbs, all stress, and prioritize sleep, meditation, and relaxation (especially before sleep) above all else, and then gradually amp up the low intensity exercise. It really does help. Some of these tips were from someone who cured their M.S. (a very similar disease) and was describing the process on HN. Source: self. I'm not completely cured, but I've made huge strides and I probably could be if I was better about avoiding stressors / my career ambitions.

atemerev 3y ago
I have a family to support, sorry.
- seper8 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - hiddencost 3y ago
    Pull your head out of your ass.
- benterix 3y ago
  You can talk to them. Are you a male? Because males live much shorter than women and while some of it is biological, differences between countries show that most of this is social conditioning. Your family will be better off if you can live longer and in better health. Don't make it just your problem that you alone have to solve. Many men before you died because of this,
- DANmode 3y ago
  I have done this while supporting a family. Saying these are incompatible is a pretty immovable state of mind that will prove harder to fix than COVID.

ianlevesque 3y ago

You're very not alone. I don't think society is yet grappling with the implications of disabling so many people on an ongoing basis.

dmichulke 3y ago

I had two weeks of "long" covid and I was absolutely scared it wouldn't stop.

piva00 3y ago
I had acute cognitive problems on my first infection that were really scary. I remember playing chess with my girlfriend on the 5th day, after losing smell and taste, and I looked at the board after our openings and... Simply couldn't make sense of how the pieces moved, why I had positioned them the way they were, I couldn't connect past thoughts and make a plan, I simply lost the ability to "connect the dots". It scared me shitless, a huge wave of anxiety of how the fuck I was going to be able to work if that persisted, my whole job is to connect the dots, predict the future, and for a few days that was simply impossible. I cried a lot from that fear. Can't really imagine how it's for someone to have this brain fog persistently, it was so disorienting, sad, and scary.
- atemerev 3y ago
  I still can’t play chess for this very reason, yes. (11 months since my last infection).
  - piva00 3y ago
    I'm really, really sorry for you, I can't begin to imagine how would life be if I was in your shoes. I hope you recover somehow, from the bottom of my heart.
  - seper8 3y ago
    What was your elo before and after? Curious to hear.

aeim 3y ago

I'm sorry to hear that. This is an open question which I've pondered for a while (so atemerev, your circumstances may not align, but I hope you don't mind me asking it here): > I wonder how often/ to what degree, circumstances of long covid might be attributed to individuals whom pre-covid were on the cusp of developing more severe symptoms of burnout or depression (for the first time), being abruptly nudged over that threshold? It strikes me, this likely happened in some cases, such that some individuals simultaneously faced both kinds of cognitive phenomena for the first time So implicit – I wonder how often the two are conflated? Or how one ought to reconcile specific (relevant) circumstances between long-covid, and burnout/ depression? So back to yourself atemerev (with no assumptions): can you speak to this at all? Many thanks

johnchristopher 3y ago
This is weird. If you don't mind my asking, why don't you google for studies with larger scale experiments/surveys rather than using a single random data point ? Edit: yeah, that's what I thought...
- aeim 3y ago
  huh?
Reubend 3y ago
It seems to me like you're thinking of depression and anxiety as the main symptoms of long COVID, but that's not the case. Issues with short term memory, breathing issues, and sleep issues are the most common symptoms. I think burnout is unlikely to be the main cause of these symptoms, particularly when it comes to respiratory symptoms.
- aeim 3y ago
  no not all circumstances of all cases – and to be clear, covid is brutal, so is burnout. remember though, they aren't mutually exclusive i've heard some speak of long-covid symptoms as if burnout, without other respiratory concerns. and given numbers of sufferers of both, there must be many who have experienced burnout before covid, so already make a distinction where symptoms overlap, and circumstances align, the simplest explanation for those overlapping symptoms, might be the aligned circumstances; and anything we can do to simplify the problem space is worth exploring, in parallel, of course

hiddencost 3y ago

I feel you. Two years later I finally feel like I'm not always in crisis. It took quitting a job of 8 years for a less abusive team, and trying to make things in my personal life 0.5% better every day. I just do tasks religiously, hoping that eventually I'll be able to do more than that. I cut out a lot of things I used to do, down to the bare minimum, and slowly started figuring out small ways to make my day to day better. My hope is that diagnostics and treatments slowly catch up and give me more back.

khazhoux 3y ago

How so?

atemerev 3y ago
Short term memory is screwed up, very low energy for almost a year, barely can write code at all.
- Mountain_Skies 3y ago
  I had covid in late spring of 2020. It took about a year for my energy to return to a reasonable level. Intellectual endurance took a big hit too and has had a longer tail than the physical but it's hard to know how much was due to covid itself and how much has been due to changes in the social environment because of the pandemic response. Each person is different so I can't tell you that things will get better for you, but I can say that it did get better for me over time. Exercise to the degree you can, both physically and mentally, because even if the effects of the infection goes away completely, you will never get back to 'normal' without building up your system again.

havkom 3y ago

I know two people who have had a hell with long covid (breathing, pulse and brain/memory/focus issues). After a coupe of years of hell one seems to be almost recovered and the other slowly recovering. Both were absolute top performers before.

user568439 3y ago

My wife is on the same boat for 2 years already… she is barely a body just waiting for a treatment. She is not as bad as other we know who can’t even leave the bed, but she has to stay home and had to stop working, studying, exercising, learning languages, reading books… Only some very limited home activities, and short slow walks are possible. She improved compared to the first 6 months but since then the average is stable. With very bad and a bit better days sometimes. Tried a lot of medicines and supplements with some effect but little.

thenerdhead 3y ago

Hey, there is some promise on the horizon. It is very possible that this illness mostly lives in our guts and that with proper drugs or even existing ones, we can build up our gut, take some combination antivirals/monoclonal antibodies, and be potentially reversed. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/monoclonal-antibodies-new-treatment-long-covid-2023a1000wfa https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/monoclonal-antibodies-n... Also if you want to look at any research easily, go check out my app here: https://www.longcovidinsights.com/ https://www.longcovidinsights.com/ Feel free to email me if you can find my email on my about page (offer is for anyone struggling)