Ask HN: What helped you with long Covid?

[negative_zero]

Hello HN community.

This is my second time with long covid and it is much much worse than the first time, especially with my mental faculties. I've been unable to work for five months at this point.

I have brain fog and low mental energy. My working memory and short term memory are almost non-existent (I'll forget I'm making tea even while holding a kettle and cup in my hands). I struggle to comprehend my work notes from just a few months ago. I am constantly forgetting simple words and get "jammed" trying to recall them. It took me a whole day to setup a ZFS pool (something which I used to do in minutes). It's easy to zone out and "loose lock" on people speaking to me to the point where I don't understand them unless I really force my brain to "relock on" their speech.

I am getting better but it's so damn slow. It just sucks. I've finally managed to secure a spot in a long covid clinic, but there just seems to be still so much we don't know and the approach is scatter-shot and hope something works. In addition to meds, currently I'm being encouraged to do puzzles that involve using my hands like physical puzzles and lego and such.

I'm doing Worldes, crosswords, meditation and exercise when I can.

What's also bizarre is that I can still drive perfectly well so there's that at least.

I was wondering about any HN readers out there that have had struggles like this and if you have any anecdotes on what helped you reboot/rebuild your brain?

Thank you in advance.

[theGeatZhopa]

i struggled with concentration issues, too, after my 4th infection for a few weeks. What i didn't do the last time is to take ACC/NAC (Acetylcysteine) against the cough and slime during the ongoing infection. Its just an expectorant (? I googled the translation. Does this word even exist??).

So, just in a reason of prophylaxis and getting rid of the last coughing, i took acc/nac for a week and I felt an relieve with my concentration issues. Then, just because I'm interested in human body & illness & medicine in general, i saw a few (german) studies that concluded, that ACC/NAC does somehow help with post-covid symptoms.

here is a start for this topic:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7649937/

its an early study, but its just for the start :)

wish you a fast getting-better!

[negative_zero → theGeatZhopa]

Thank you!

[reify]

Futher

My colleagues and I used to have an ongoing joke about mental illness and those that claimed to have such mental illnesses. Its a psychotherapists gallows humour.

If we decided to make up a name for a new mental illness, or in fact any illness.

lets call it "Gnomes disease", using the gnome desktop too much

Opened a new clinic called "The therapeutic gnome disease clinic". A website proclaiming how fantastic our new therapy was in curing this new illness.

It would not be long before the general public would come flocking to our door and our books would be full. All convinced they had this new made up illness.

By creating any illness human beings will find a way to convince themselves that they have that condition and go seek help.

Its an insight into how vulnerable and easily manipulated human beings really are.

This scenario also applies to the tech world and all their claims.

[theGeatZhopa → reify]

the power of suggestion. Thats psychology, your part of expertise. The others are experts on other fields :)

[randm_sequence → reify]

Longcovid is a persistent infection of the SARS-Cov2 virus. It is not psychosomatic. Most of the symptoms can be explained by vascular inflammation and vascular damage in the various affected tissues throughout the body.

SARS and MERs survivors Longhauled as well. If you need more convincing, Feline infectious peritonitis is a coronavirus extremely similar to SARS-Cov2 and is persistent and can be cured with the same set of antivirals that help with COVID.

[negative_zero → reify]

I haven't been gaslit by someone in the medical profession before, especially one from a field arms deep in a replication crisis. But I guess there's a first for everything...

[theGeatZhopa → reify]

being sceptical is good. Denying science is not. By now, there's plenty of research and studies that may fullfill your needs for facts, data and information.

the classic:

> I have seen far too much damage caused by all psychiatric medications over 25 years to convince me that the covid jab was safe and effective. It wasn't.

The problem with this thinking is: It was effective. It was never meant to completely and for 100% make you not getting infected, but rather reduce the severness of the infection. If one understand that, then half of the understanding has been built up.

For that, studies of more than hundreds of thousands partipiants with P-levels higher than for e.g. flu conducted - one who likes facts, data and information should put the ears up.

As a psychologist, you should know how studies are concluded, right? As an expert by yourself, how comes that you don't accept other experts expertise?

I'm with you, that some measures where over-the-top. But I think, i wore a mask and have done the jabs and stayed at home -> not for me. But for -> the others. In my social circle, there have been a lot of people who got severe infections, with some of them having damaged lungs now. I think that makes the difference. If the people around them wouldn't think like "all made up for the money and some so called experts ... ", it wouldn't be that pandemic at all.

In my opinion, people became egoists and do not care about others anymore. Just as an example: We have a "small" October-fest (that beer thing in the autumn in Munich, Germany) here in my city. Just in the first week, thousands got infected by the noro-virus. It was found, it was only one guy who worked filling glases and doing meals in one (beer-)tent. So, having the highly infective noro-virus with diarhea and puking and feeling really ill - that one didn't stay at home, and whats more severe - didn't adhere to hygienic measures.

How can that be and how a human can do that on purpose? Is there a psychological explanation for that? I really want to understand.

[awaythrow999 → reify]

This is the equivalent of telling a depressed person to eat healthier and exercise more.

[theGeatZhopa → awaythrow999]

which actually also might help :) It depends on the person and the cause of the depression - a lot of felt& diagnosed depressions aren't caused by faulty brain-chemistry, but by other reasons. So, if a person suffers depression caused by other reasons, than eating healthier and exercise more would, in fact, let the one feel better and high'en up self-esteem (placebo kicks in..).

But yes. That should be left for the experts :)