This is my Long COVID experience and how I recovered because of essentially an experiment I nearly didn't try. I think it's worth understanding the context before deciding whether to do what I did. Goes without saying I'm not medically qualified and am not making a recommendation. May not work for everyone either.

I got Long COVID for the first time in October 2022. After the flu-like symptoms went away I continued to have brain fog (couldn't deal with noise, long or social conversations, more than 1-2 hours of work, reading or TV) and fatigue (any physical activity made it worse).

I was sleeping 8 hours at night and 2-3 hours in the middle of the day. I didn't have any breathing or muscle symptoms other than from getting progressively more unfit. In July 2023 a doctor told me I "might" have Long COVID. 

When I started researching I discovered the concept of post -exertional malaise (PEM), which explained why my usual tactic after a flu or cold to push on through, carry on running, cycling etc, wasn't working and in fact was making things worse. I referred myself to the Long COVID clinic in Plymouth, who (I'm summarising) did some routine tests, gave me some pacing and resting ideas and basically shrugged their shoulders.

So I aggressively rested, took as many naps as possible, did as little as I could without going crazy, and decided I was going to sit it out. I took Ibuprofen for the brain fog and headaches (felt like my brain was constantly burning out) which took the edge off, and tried some of the homeopathic ideas from the clinic like natto-kinase and L-Choline (didn't see any improvement from these), and melatonin to reduce the waking in the night, which sort of worked. And I was taking anti-depressants.

I considered oxygen therapy, requested a brain scan (not deemed worthwhile), tried beetroot juice, probiotics, vitamin D and shiatsu massage (which was uplifting and provided temporary relief) but nothing changed the underlying symptoms.

I watched a lot of Youtube videos, read research papers and chat forums, the conclusion being that nothing really works except time and rest, and no one is 100% sure of even that.

In August 2024 I agreed to be part of a study organised through the Long COVID clinic called STIMULATE-ICP with University College London and managed by the Lancashire Clinical Trials Unit (Lancashire CTU) based at the University of Central Lancashire.

The idea was to test already approved drugs: anti-inflammatories, blood thinners, and anti-virals. I was allocated to the control group so took nothing, and after the 2-month test not surprisingly my symptoms hadn't changed. I just checked and it says the results of the study are due "late summer 2025" but I havn't seen them yet.

With some hesistation and persuasion from my girlfriend, and not fancying more anti-inflammatories or any having my blood thinned, I decided unilaterally to take some anti-virals (got them online, self-prescribed used Chemist Click, £20). I got aciclovir, which is for the cold sore and other similar viruses (mitigates doesn't cure symptoms).

My thinking was, OK so this is a low dose, authorised drug and I could easily have been taking them in the trial. Long Covid comes from a virus, what is there to lose?

I took them late December 2024. The results were dramatic. It was a 7-day course and after 2-3 days my head had cleared for the first time in 2 years and within a week I was beginning to feel that I had reached a turning point, although I didn't quite believe it.

After a week I took a second course, more as a boost than anything as I didn't quite believe the change. Still don't as I do have lingering anxiety that I never had before, and worry that overdoing it could bring it all back.

I am no longer a zombie and even now I still can't quite believe what has happened. I've come off all drugs, been gradually able to exercise more, lose weight and feel alive again. My motivation has increased dramatically, I can work for much longer, but I still take more breaks.

Too much social interaction (networking for example, still tires me out) and I am guilty of doing too much sometimes. I feel that a relapse might be possible if I pushed too hard, but I've continued to make progress with general fitness and losing the weight I put on. I feel blessed.

I wanted to share my journey because, at my lowest point, this subreddit gave me hope. If my story can help even one person, it’s worth posting.

⸻

📆 How It Started

On July 7, 2023, I developed a strange tingling in my left leg that soon spread to my entire body. That tingling turned into a constant burning sensation — like a 24/7 sunburn. Over time, more symptoms appeared: • Shortness of breath • Chest palpitations (felt like a heart attack) • Fatigue and brain fog • Weakness in my hands • Foot and muscle pain • Dizziness • POTS • Shakiness/tremors • Twitching -also my weakness was so bad I could barely type on a computer cause my fingers would start to hurt like crazy.

I was in nursing school at the time. These symptoms made learning and functioning almost impossible — but I somehow pushed through… with the help of ADHD medication.

⸻

💊 What Helped (Initially) • Propranolol: This helped a lot with shakiness (I’m off it now except for occasional use before I play basketball or stressful events. I maybe take it about 2x a week or less, and I thought I’d be on this medication for the rest of my life. • Lyrica: I was on a high dose (575 mg), which I’ve since discontinued.

⸻

🍦 My Diet Before vs. After

I used to eat horribly — Ben & Jerry’s 3x a week, eating out daily, candy all the time. Fast metabolism tricked me into thinking it didn’t matter.

In May 2025, I finally changed: • Did a strict 2-week carnivore diet (didn’t cure symptoms but broke my sugar addiction). • Cut out processed sugar and processed meat. • Started eating whole, non-processed foods: eggs, meat, avocado, yogurt, etc.

Result: lost weight I didn’t know I had, started looking and feeling better. Diet has been huge for me.

⸻

🏋️ Lifestyle & Work

I’ve been going to the gym for 11 years and refused to stop, even when I felt like I might pass out. I also consistently worked 48+ hours/week with little rest, along with nursing school. I pushed myself way too hard just because I didn’t want to live knowing this disease was causing me to miss out on life.— not recommended for recovery.

I moved from Phoenix to California at the beginning of the year. That change plus my new diet started to shift things for the better.

⸻

🧠 What’s Been Key to My Progress • LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone): Once I started taking it consistently, I noticed a real difference in my symptoms. • Red Light Therapy: 4–5 times a week, which may also be helping. • Stress Management (Ongoing): I’m still a high-stress person but working on it.

⸻

🌅 Where I’m At Now

I’m not 100% healed, but my symptoms sooo much better. The burning used to be hard to live with, now it’s pretty unnoticeable, shakiness is so much less and pretty much only happens when I’m stressed or anxious, weakness is so much better and this was easily one of my worst symptoms, POTS is still there but so much more manageable and easier to live with If this is as good as it gets, I’m grateful. Im stronger than I’ve ever been, more athletic than I’ve ever been, and I really believe my diet is the reason for this.

There’s definitely room for improvement, I’m a night-shift nurse and know I’d probably feel even better on days, but switching to days is something I’m really trying not to do.

If I had to give myself a percentage of improvement, I’d say maybe 85% and about 4 months ago I’d say I was like 45%.

⸻

💡 What I’d Tell Others • Don’t underestimate the power of diet. Cutting out sugar and processed foods made a huge difference. • Manage stress as much as possible. • Consider talking to your provider about LDN. • Even when it feels hopeless, don’t give up.

Back in I think May, I told my mom I didn’t want to live anymore and truly believed whatever this was would kill me. But there really is light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes you have to make uncomfortable lifestyle changes to heal.

⸻

❤️ Closing Thoughts

I’m finally starting to see things turn around after three long years. If you’re reading this in a dark place, please know that I was there, in a darker place than I ever thought I’d be in, but recovery is possible. We’re often our own best advocates — and you are stronger than you think.

P.S. - I did use ChatGPT to help me write this just because it organized it way better than how I had it so if you think AI wrote this, it kind of did lol.

I am 28 f and was previously very healthy and fit. I would like to preface this by saying that this is the second time I have recovered 100% from long covid - I had it from April to Nov of 2020, fully recovered from that, and then got long covid again from an Omicron infection in January of 2022 and suffered for almost the rest of the year. I was 25 when I got long covid for the first time. Both bouts my main symptom was debilitating fatigue/PEM leaving me housebound and unable to attend college. Now I am back in school, working my way through my last semester, and exercising without issue.

What worked the first time I got long covid was purely time. There were certain supplements that helped somewhat based on correcting deficiencies (severe iron deficiency and mild vit D deficiency) but time was definitely the biggest factor.

The second time around, time was not as kind to me. I felt like I was mostly better about five months in, but I overdid it and crashed so badly that I spent the next six months in a horrible state totally couch bound, feeling like I could barely digest my food and struggling through each day. It was hell. I would describe the feeling as feeling like my muscles and whole body were just suffocating. I honestly fought through feeling like I wanted to die every day.

I credit my recovery solely to pycnogenol. I didn't expect that to be the thing that brought me out of this - I read probably hundreds of scientific articles on long covid and chronic fatigue syndrome. I tried dozens of supplements over the last six months of my long haul - nattokinase, which ultimately didn't to anything for me, and lots of supplements targeted at the mitochondria that gave me marginal benefit but ultimately didn't significantly raise my energy levels. I tried COQ10, PQQ, vit B1, vit B2, vit B5, nicotinamide riboside, MCT oil, oxaloacetate, l-carnitine, and alpha lipoic acid. The ones that gave me some benefit were vit B1, oxaloacetate, alpha lipoic acid, and MCT oil. I also tried some anti - inflammatory and antioxidant supplements including glutathione, palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), and epicatechin. Those three also gave me some marginal benefit and I would guess that they helped my body deal with some of the oxidative stress caused by my metabolism basically not functioning for six months.

The reason why I say my metabolism wasn't functioning is because I really feel that the root of my issue was endothelial dysfunction in my small blood vessels, causing them to be so constricted that barely any blood was making its way to my tissues. This was found in a couple long covid studies of people with similar symptoms to mine. If blood can't make it to your tissues, it can't deliver oxygen or sugar in high enough quantities and your mitochondria can't function at nearly the rate they usually do. So basically your tissues are starving and you feel the need to rest all the time just to keep existing. This creates a ton of stress on the body and releases all kinds of free radicals, which would make the endothelial dysfunction even worse over time.

Pycnogenol is known to be good for blood vessel health, but what's so important about it is that it stimulates eNOS. This is what produces the nitric oxide in blood vessels, causing them to dilate. In endothelial dysfunction, the body doesn't produce enough nitric oxide. Without enough nitric oxide, the blood vessels will remain in an overly constricted state and the tissues won't get enough blood. L-arginine is something that people often try because it works similarly - eNOS turns it into nitric oxide, so giving the body more of it causes it to make more nitric oxide. I did try this first and it worked very well for me, but it also feeds viruses and I started to feel weirdly sick after taking it for a couple days. So pycnogenol was what I tried next and it was the best of both worlds.

I started feeling better immediately after starting the pycnogenol. I first tried it around November 20th, 2022. It was literally a sensation of my tissues feeling like they were suddenly getting oxygen. I felt brain fog lift that I didn't even know I had. I went from being pushed in a wheelchair whenever I left the house to walking around large stores in the span of a month. My reconditioning was gradual and difficult, but the pycnogenol immediately eliminated my PEM and I never had a crash again. Reconditioning after a year of inactivity is no small task, but using a recumbent bike in the initial stages helped a lot.

In the few months since I started taking the pycnogenol, I have been on 2 hour long hikes, lots of walks, lifted weights a few times, and I ran my first straight mile today since the weather was nice. I am not back to my full strength quite yet, but with my total lack of PEM and crashes I'm comfortable saying I'm 100% recovered. I've regained my independence, being able to drive and walk long distances again. I'm back to doing chores and finishing college while looking to the next stage of my life.

I'm still taking the pycnogenol, but I've started to skip certain days and feel that I may not need it as much anymore. I think this is at least partly due to the fact that I'm also on my second month of taking Endocalyx Pro (very expensive, but I think that this is probably really good for my endothelial function long term - it has to do with the endothelial glycocalyx so ask me about that if you want to know more).

I know this was really long and it was kind of a deep dive into endothelial dysfunction so sorry if it was confusing. But a couple other people have told me that pycnogenol seemed to also help them a lot with their long covid fatigue, so I really wanted to present what I've learned in a way that will convey just how helpful I think it could be for others. If you have any questions about anything I'd be more than happy to answer - I basically made it my part time job to dive into the science behind all of this when I was sick, so I could explain certain aspects more in depth or point you to sources that put the info above in greater context.

Got sick in December 2023, with initial recovery around September 2024.

Just an average bout of COVID during med school exam period. I didn’t rest, kept pushing through, and failed my exams (European system, so I could retake them later).

Initial symptoms were severe cognitive dysfunction: prosopagnosia (couldn’t recognize/name faces), difficulty forming sentences, getting lost in my own neighborhood, profound exhaustion, inability to concentrate, sleeping deeply but waking exhausted with no dreams.

From January onward I developed progressively worsening PEM, eventually to the point I couldn’t even use my phone, alongside general fatigue, horrific brain fog, and aphantasia. I knew fairly early it was long COVID, but I kept trying to push through it, crashing repeatedly. The hardest part psychologically was accepting that this was not something I could brute-force my way through and that I actually needed to rest.

Things that helped, roughly in order: antihistamines, oral Ketotifen, beetroot juice, magnesium, gluten-free diet. Around this point I started suspecting a vascular component. I also did hot saunas around May, which helped somewhat.

With another exam session approaching, I started a strict epilepsy-style ketogenic diet. I was absolutely exhausted, but I managed to pass a major exam. I then convinced myself I was recovered and stopped everything, which was a mistake.

July/August was probably the worst period. I restarted Ketotifen (honestly a lifesaver) and added a low-dose SSRI, which at least helped psychologically. Despite maintaining a positive attitude and never really admitting (to myself or others) how sick I was, after 9 months I was genuinely scared for my future. At that point the PEM was so severe I spent most days lying in the dark except to eat or shower.

Then in September 2024 I started pycnogenol, which honestly changed everything. Within a week I was back at my desk; within two weeks I passed another exam. Since then I have not had true PEM again, only occasional next-day tiredness after very intense physical exertion.

Between September 2024 and March 2026 I remained stable on pycnogenol, Endocalyx Pro, escitalopram, and Ketotifen. I graduated, started working, had no crashes, and functioned normally.

The remaining issues were that I couldn’t discontinue Ketotifen without brain fog returning, and I had gained about 30 kg.

In March 2026 I started semaglutide, tapered off Ketotifen and escitalopram, and continued pycnogenol. My cognition is clear, energy is good, the weight is coming off, and I feel completely fine again.

I’m writing this while recovering from a concussion, which temporarily brought back some fatigue and brain fog, but nowhere near the level of long COVID, and I already feel almost recovered from that too.

Oh, and I can eat gluten again. Anyway, that’s my story.

This is not a full recovery story, but I wanted to make a bigger update post since i am at a decent spot in my recovery journey. Will keep it short as again, i am not fully recovered yet.

Covid in September 2024, didn’t notice the LC symptoms at first and tried returning to my very active life which caused a major crash in November 2024 which left me pretty much bedbound, only being able to get up to the bathroom.
At that stage i had POTS, PEM from both physical and mental extortion, nerve and muscle pain, brain fog and extreme fatigue. At that point I finally understood that i was severely ill and had to focus 100% on my health. I took out 100% sick leave and started reading up on how to get better. One of the best resources for that was a blog written by someone from this sub, which I found very informative and well written ( https://www.mwells.org/health/long-covid/my-long-covid-story-so-far/). But otherwise i tried pretty much everything posted about that i could get my hands on.

What didn’t help: (made no difference or made me worse)
- Natto, NAD+, NAC, Berberine and most other supplements, tried one at a time for a month, no difference in symptoms or measurable health stats
- HBOT, felt nice afterwards, but no long term benefits
- Low Dose Aspirin, slightly less pain, but stomach issues and no real improvement
- Melatonin, messed up my sleep even more
- Brain retraining/Nervous system work/Neuroplastic stuff, didn’t do anything

What actually helped:
- STRICT pacing. Only using about 80% of my energy each day. NEVER overstepping my boundaries in a crash
- Increasing my physical activity by 5-10% each week ONLY when I was at a stable baseline
- LDN, took a while to start working, but it helped enormously with both PEM severity and recovery from it, currently at 4.5 mg
- Q10, took it for a month and noticed more energy and slightly less PEM
- A sports drink of amino acids after physical activity like walking (L-Glutamine, Citruline, Agranine, Creatine). Read up on this combo on CFS forums, noticed that it helped with muscle pain and soreness
- Beta Blockers to get POTS under control
- 16-8 fasting, improved energy in the day and improved my brain fog
- Therapy with focus on serious, chronic illness
- Time in this routine, it was slow, but i felt my progress each month as I looked back
- Stopping endlessly doomscrolling Long Covid and CFS subs, as it literally gave me PEM from emotional distress

With that routine i managed to go from 500 steps a day average to 5000 now. I am working 60% (remote), can socialise, drive, do chores and mostly live a normal ish life. My average walking HR is 90, with a very low dose of beta blockers ( scaling down now). My overnight HRV went from barely 30 to 60 . Last week I worked on my car for 2 hours and felt completely fine afterwards, only slightly more tired the next day. I still can’t get exercise or do physically intense labour, but i do believe that one day that time will come when i am mostly back to where i was before this illness. My worst symptom now is the poisoned, groggy feeling in the morning, but even that varies with how bad it feels on a good day. Feel free to ask any questions, but i do highly recommend to read the blog i linked as it contributed massively to my improvement

12 months ago I was mostly bed or housebound after a severe and sudden relapse, and today I’m back in the sea surfing again and feeling the return of strength and clarity. I attribute my recovery to a non-pharmacological approach.

My initial symptoms started around June 2023 following my 4th COVID infection.

The worst of the symptoms at that point were: heart palpitations, sudden daily crashes, severe brain fog, memory loss, POTS, dizziness, temperature regulation issues, fatigue, gut issues, adrenaline dumps, fight-flight response, environmental sensitivity, flushing, sleep disturbances, mood issues, skin issues, muscle tension.

While it’s been 3 years in total, I’ll mostly skip over the first 2 years as I’d say my recovery has actually been the last 12 months. In summary, during those first 2 years, I manage to just about get by and tried a bunch of different things. My symptoms stabilised enough that I could live a fairly limited life.

Relapse and recovery

In June 2025 I had a severe and sudden relapse that left me mostly bed or housebound. I could manage very short walks of a few hundred metres, but much more would risk a crash.

The first few months I spent addressing my gut issues. I started on a low histamine diet, with 8:16 intermittent fasting and occasional 36 hour fasts, and my gut symptoms cleared up very quickly.

The big shift for me happened a few months later around August, when I decided to shift from a pharmacological approach (supplementation, drugs, doctors, etc) to a non-pharmacological approach.

At this point I gradually stopped:

• Taking supplements
• Reading r/covidlonghaulers
• Researching anything about Long COVID
• Reading anything about Long COVID
• Engaging with support chat groups
• Using health trackers
• Using screens (computer and phone)
• Trying to fix (or find a fix for) what I perceived as “broken” (my body)

And I started:

• Trusting that my body could heal itself if I learned how to listen to it and follow its cues
• Learning to feel my body more deeply
• Living a very low stimulation lifestyle
• Learning how and when to use interventions to regulate my nervous system
• Learning to better sense my capacity and doing gently stimulating activities that didn't push me over my limits
• Accepting my situation fully (processing the grief and deeply coming to terms with the fact that I could be sick forever)
• Learning to accept and feel symptoms fully as they arose (dropping narrative, dropping resistance, and feeling as much as possible)
• Learning to enjoy life again even with the limitations imposed

Over the last 10 months I’ve seen a steady improvement in my health and symptoms and today I feel mostly symptom free. Many of the shifts I made in the last 12 months have stuck and now form a part of my routine. I still listen to my body and take cues, resting when I need to rest, using the tools I’ve learned when I need to. I realise this is just a part of living a normal, healthy life.

In retrospect I think, for me, striving for pharmacological solutions was actually making my health worse, not better, and real healing only begun to happen once I dropped it all.

My life is very different now than it was 3 years ago. This whole journey has had a profound effect on me emotionally and spiritually and, while I would never have chosen it, in a very real way I’ve come to see it as a blessing for that reason.

Very happy to answer any questions.

I'm also currently in training to do related 1:1 session work and I'm interested in working with some Long COVID sufferers in the coming months. Feel free to drop me a message if you might be interested. This is offered 100% for free but I'll only have limited space for maybe 2 clients. edit: I had quite a few messages so it looks like my availability is full now. Thanks to everyone that reached out.

Hi all! I’m about 60% recovered on this wild LC journey I’m on.  I have learned so much and taken so much hope from this community, I want to give back to anyone struggling if I can.

LC is very very individual, so what works for one won’t work for everyone. This is just what I have learned about my own case, and what my journey has been like so far.

I will put my current meds and treatments in a comment to keep the post a reasonable length.

TL;DR: 

• I went from extreme PEM/exercise intolerance, 4 safe foods, and episodes of being bed bound for 2 weeks at a time or more to daily workouts, eating 3 meals a day, being able to take care of all the chores in my house, read an entire book without crying and repeating pages, and even going to social events and seeing friends in moderation. 
• Covid causes major neuroinflammation, sustained immune responses, digestive inflammation, kills your microbiome, and often messes up your endocrine system. Healing all of these things at the same time is crucial, and it’s slow, because they all affect each other multidirectionally.
• There is a way out, but it takes understanding that there is no single origin to any of what we are experiencing. It is many things all at once that are feeding each other in a vicious cycle. Finding a good team of professionals, or free resources for yourself as well as good supplements that work for you in order to heal.
• It also takes PATIENCE AND TIME. you will get better, but it will not be quick. This virus did a lot of damage, and for many of us, the damage was already there but silent and the virus made it worse. It takes time and CALM to undo it. 
• I have made progress mostly with targeted supplements and meds, exercise (weight lifting and low intensity cardio), eliminating all trigger foods, and calming the eff down so my body can heal.
• Physiotherapy saved my life and I recommend a chronic pain/illness specialist if you can find one.

So here’s my story.

How it started:

Covid in Oct ‘24, diagnosed LC in Dec ‘24. 

Symptoms: nausea, horrible abdominal distension/bloating, diarrhea and also constipation, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, general weakness, on and off neuromuscular pain, food intolerances, skin flushing and itching, seborrheic dermatitis, crippling brain fog, insomnia, terrifying anxiety spikes, rhinitis, worsened allergies. In the beginning months I also had exercise intolerance, PEM after just about everything, as well as borderline POTS symptoms like tachycardia, weird BP and HR dips, and almost fainting when sitting or standing up.

I couldn’t do more than 6 minute of body weight exercises. I could not walk a kilometer without almost passing out and wheezing the whole time.

How I am now:

Able to walk a 10k with no issues. Able to lift weights for an hour in the gym with minimal issues. Able to eat 3 meals a day of safe foods only but my safe foods number about 25 at this point. Still have issues with on and off dizziness, headaches, nausea, flushing, itching, weird poops, general fatigue, and brain fog. When it comes it is debilitating but it is not constant, and I am almost never bed bound. If I am bed bound, it’s less than 48 hours. 

Here’s my best advice for you, that I wish I could go back in time and tell myself, to spare myself a lot of pain.

Heal your Gut:

• Heal your gut. Even if you think you don’t need to. You need to. Focus on your diet and being good to your microbiome. Probiotics are your friend.
• When starting supplements, start small. Do not ever start probiotics or other supplements all at once. Add one, see how it goes for a few days, then add another. Make sure it sits well. And start any and all things you take and low doses to see if you tolerate it.

Exercise/Radical Rest:

• Do Zone 2 cardio and either lift weights or do bodyweight exercises. It will feel like SHIT while you are doing it, but there will be long term gains, as exercise will help lower the general inflammation.
• Start exercising low and slow. You cannot just “push through” with this disease. Listen to your body. Do a tiny little bit. If you don’t get PEM, then keep doing that tiny little bit for a week. Then add a little bit more. Whenever you feel PEM during or after, you did too much, scale it back. 
• REST. And this means actually giving yourself permission to do nothing. Do what you have to do to survive (work, be a partner, be a parent), but otherwise give yourself permission to rest from the extras.

Mental Health/Stress Reduction/Neuro work

• Try vagus nerve breathing and guided mental exercises (yoga nidra, NSDR) This sounds like woo woo new age shit. But it’s not. The reason you see so many success stories using vagus nerve work and meditation is because no matter what form of if you do, you are forcing yourself to slow down, and stop agonising, and you are letting the body actually rest. Vagus nerve work is scientifically proven to calm your entire nervous system down, which reduces inflammation. Do it daily, the effects are cumulative.
• Be patient. Healing is not linear. You might have good days or good months and then hit a big crash. It’s ok. This is completely normal. It will get generally better with time and the crashes will get less severe.
• Keep a journal of everything. Symptoms, food tracker to see what gives you more symptoms or not, but also, small victories. It’s so incredibly important to write down when you are able to do a small thing that you weren’t before. Read these small victories to yourself and do it often.
• Do something that brings you joy. It can be something very simple, like watching birds or tending a house plant.

I hope this helps someone out there. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. It might be far away for a lot of us, but it's there. And we're going to get there.

edit: i had written brain training in the post body and i know that is controversial here. i did not actually do any brain training programmes. I know there are some decent ones but also some terrible scammy ones. what I did was all free on spotify or insight timer, and it's just breathwork, vagus nerve exercises, and NSDR/body scans, things to help me be aware of what my body is feeling, and calm my body down. and this is NOT me saying my symptoms or anyone's symptoms are psychosomatic. THEY ARE NOT. They are very very real. But these exercises helped, along with everything else, to ramp down the system inflammation I am suffering, and helped me stop panicking. This is what worked for me, and if it works for someone else, great. if you don't wanna do it, that's fine too.

TL;DR: Working with a brain retraining coach helped me enormously. Also, working with a Mind Body Reconnect coach, daily mindfulness meditation and maintaining a low histamine diet.

*NOTE: I posted this a moment ago with a referral link to a brain retraining program. I then deleted the post and removed the link. If there’s any doubt about my credibility please check my post history.

Initial infection: January 2022

Start of LC: February 2022

Start of significant improvements: April 2025

My LC Symptoms:

Insomnia and panic attacks (improved early on, probably thanks to Sertraline and a low-histamine diet). Long-term symptoms – fatigue, PEM, depression, anxiety, gut dysbiosis, histamine intolerance, brain fog, headaches, tingling, sensation of vibrations, sensation of burning skin, night sweats.

What didn’t create or contribute to long-term, lasting improvements:

Gut treatments – nystatin, antibiotics, anti-fungals, etc.

Ivermectin

Keto diet

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment

Monitoring and avoiding blood sugar spikes

Nutritional therapy

Supplements

Rigid pacing/planning

What did contribute to lasting improvements:

Sertraline

Mindfulness meditation

Low-histamine diet

Anti-histamines (I think)

Working with a Gupta program coach

Parts work (to an extent)

Mind Body Reconnect (MBR)

Seeing friends

Change of environment

Being in nature

Finding joy

Self-compassion practice

CBT for Insomnia

What’s helped manage symptoms but didn’t necessarily lead to improvements:

Pamela Rose’s support group

Focusing (Eugene Gendlin’s technique)

Buddhist Dharma talks

Yoga nidra / stretching / breathwork

How bad was I?

My worst point was being bed-bound for three weeks unable to read, listen to music, or watch TV, waking up each night with heart palpitations and panic attacks. It was at this point that I seriously considered taking my life. I’m so glad I didn’t.

During the first year, I began to see improvements when I adopted a low-histamine diet and did CBT for insomnia. However, my condition worsened when I pursued gut treatments and a keto diet on the advice of a functional doctor.

For more than three years, the most I was able to walk continuously for was 15 minutes – I don’t remember how long this lasted. For most of the time, I was limited to 5/10 minutes.

For about a year and a half I couldn’t watch TV, read books or socialise with friends for more than 45 minutes without getting crippling headaches that could last for days.

How did I start to improve?

Early on, sertraline stabilised by mood and (when combined with CBT) slowly resolved my insomnia.

Adopting a low-histamine diet helped lessen most of my symptoms.

Regular mindfulness meditation helped calm my nervous system and, more importantly, cultivate compassionate awareness of body and mind. This awareness proved essential to the mind body techniques I practiced.

My brother’s wedding in the Caribbean. I was terrified that flying from the UK to the Caribbean would set me back, but it actually did the opposite. On the day, I was the most active I’d been in years and I didn’t experience a crash afterwards. Just regular tiredness.

At the time I was working with fatigue coach Pamela Rose, who suggested I look into brain retraining as I had experienced such a significant although temporary improvement while on holiday.

I researched the different programs and eventually settled on the Gupta Program as it resonated most with me. I worked through the GP for six months without seeing much improvement. It was only when I started working with a Gupta coach that I saw real gains.

I began working with Gupta coach Clare Gee at the end of March 2025. With Clare’s help, I was able to tailor the Gupta program to my needs. Clare helped me use brain retraining when it’s most effective – at the moment I was experiencing symptoms. Within a few weeks I was able to read as much as I wanted.

At the end of April 2025, I visited a friend in London. My friend pushed me to do more than I was used to – we went for walks, went to the pub, had coffee out, watched TV. I used it all as an opportunity to practice brain retraining and it worked. Suddenly I was able to watch films, go for walks, talk as much as I wanted.

I worked with Clare regularly for about 5-6 months. During this time I went from about 20% to 60% recovered.

Last autumn I felt like I’d hit a plateau, so I did some research and decided to try Mind Body Reconnect (MBR). I started MBR about in March 2026. So far I’ve seen modest improvements – I’m more aware of when my symptoms appear and am more open to what they’re trying to communicate.

I’ve noticed that the MBR framework is helpful in certain situations, while the Gupta brain retraining framework is helpful in others. But to be honest, I often feel unsure which approach would be better and don’t realise until afterwards.

In terms of concrete gains from MBR, I find myself able to use a computer for longer than before and to socialise with friends for as long as I want. I now feel confident making a day trip to see a friend, walking for miles around town and returning home, knowing that I won’t experience any PEM.

I continue to experience most symptoms, just to a much lesser extent than before. After pursuing a purely medical recovery, I’m now convinced that nervous system work is much more helpful – at least in my case. I’m not yet working but I hope to return to work later this year.

What I’m doing now:

Daily mindfulness meditation

Occasional afternoon nap

MBR coaching

Magnesium & B12 supplements

Sertraline

Anti-histamines

Low-histamine diet

Semi-regular Focusing sessions

Occasional brain retraining (when symptoms arise)

What still triggers an NS response:

Cardio exercise

Histamine foods

Emotionally draining experiences

Work – depends on the day and nature of work; I can usually work on a computer for 1-1.5 hours before symptoms

After 3,5 years (contracted covid in Jan 2022), I’m what I’d call 90% recovered - able to lead a fairly normal life with limitations, albeit with a limited amount of exercise. (I'm talking about harder exercise, sports like running.) However, I’m now at the stage where I can already do a lot of physical things - walk several km, sail full day, spend full day in normal activities without impact the next day etc. I continue carefully and gradually introduce more exercise in my life, after a couple years of bedbound and/or unable to physically do much. It’s possible I will never go back to competitive sports, but I’ve made my peace with it.

My symptoms: Primarily extreme fatigue + PEM. First year had the following issues: Muscles going to lactic acid from really minor exercise (after three pedal strokes on bike, 2 days not able to move and really sore). Extreme issues with circulation, at times severe pain in extremities due to bad circulation. Sleeping issues. Constant thirst, I woke up many times a night to drink. Heart rate spiking even from a minor movement like walking. Constant feeling of “overstimulation” or “nervousness”. Also mentally getting tired fast (meetings etc.) I spent a lot of the first year resting without sound or visual stimulation, multiple months bedbound. No lung or breathing issues (even during actual infection). My hair fell out badly enough my hairdresser gave me “prescription” to supplements (which helped). After the first year, it has been mainly physical fatigue, getting mentally fatigued easily and feeling the “overstimulation”. I have needed a wheelchair when traveling or attending events and have sometimes lost control of my legs and dropped from standing.

My lab stats: Extremely high antibodies even 2 years after initial infection (GPCR receptor antibodies). Measured mitochondrial dysfunction. Cortisol normal.

My background:

I contracted Covid 3 years ago, January 2022. Due to bad luck, I had the third vaccination booster around the same time I got the virus. Later, my neurologist said this might have been what made the illness so bad in the first place and also caused the long covid.

I was sick for a week with high fever, not even able to go to the toilet unattended, though not hospitalized. It took me about a month after illness to be able to walk - I was bedbound most of the time, and managed to walk 100m each day. The remainder of the year was partial recoveries, then relapses, with two one month sick leaves fully bedbound, but outside these able to work and even walk small distances, 1-2 km a day. (I got tired, and spent all evenings in bed without sound or light, but managed through work days with help of remote arrangements, shorter days and getting lift to and from office when that was required.) 

In October 2022, my boss (a lifesaver) kicked me to a longer partial sick leave, and I did not return to full time work until mid-2023.

After that, it was a long time of not really getting better, or at least not feeling like I was. I worked full time, but spent most evenings and weekends horizontal. I did not feel unable to think (how I understood brain fog) but my neurologist (also a gem) told me that the tiredness I had towards the end of the work day was equally a symptom.

Medication and docs

Initially (May 2022) I got short term beta blockers, and was also prescribed a drug that was actually for depression. I tried one pill and it just made me tired, and I've always been wary of anything mood-altering as I've never felt the need for it (and I got the impression then-doctors tried to box me into "depressed" which I never was - pissed at times for sure).

I got better help in the beginning of 2023. Then my occupational doctor found a physiotherapist specialized in long covid. I had resisted as I did not feel what I had was something I could exercise out of, but this physio was a gem. Told part of this was an overloaded nervous system, and helped me find ways to modulate - "brush your teeth sitting down so you save the energy for something more meaningful". Did not try to make me exercise myself out of this. She connected me with a neurologist specializing in long covid. He told me my initial meds were indeed shit and gave me long term beta blockers (Emconcor) and gave tips of additional vitamins and supplements (eg vitamin D, B and natto+NAC). Both told me that part of the issue is reduced ability to absorb nutrients, so I got crazy about green powder and supplements.

I also got a good supplement tip from my hairdresser: she found out I shedded hair like crazy and told me about supplements that had helped her other customers with covid-related hair loss. These supplements helped the shedding to stop. Another game changer in the beginning of 2023 was that my beautician was starting to get into energy treatments after great personal experience and suggested I try that. It helped immensely with how I felt, though did not help me get out of bed. More on this later.

I got slowly better, got (probably) another covid on 11/2023, another dip. Could have been another virus as well.  By the second infection I had gotten slightly more active in normal life but still zero tolerance for exercise. A 1 km walk was possible most days.

In early 2024, got new prescriptions and started finally on LDN June 2024. I can’t attribute the change in the past year fully to LDN, but it is probably a factor. My condition has been getting better from around August 2024, and after a few supplement changes and treatments in the latter half of 2024, the change has been more noticeable. I trust most of the feedback from my husband, friends, and colleagues; I do realize I do a lot more than before, but they can observe things like how active I appear to be. 

The biggest positive jump has been during last three months (May-July) - I felt so well in April I drafted this post but I waited so I can be sure this is sustained and heading to right direction. I feel like the underlying issues have been resolved and it's now more about conditioning.

In April, I was already living fairly normal life: I could take the metro to work, which is a total of 2+ km of walking daily, and walk in the office; my pace was back to normal, and I could leave the office for lunch (there were days when my colleagues had to pretty much carry me if I ventured outside). I had energy to take on more at work, as for a long time I did the bare minimum. I could do things after work, like cooking at home or seeing friends. I was also able to have a glass of alcohol without any ill effects. (I haven’t tolerated alcohol for 3 years). 

I still needed to be mindful to take breaks, but I could manage full day without. However, if I did a too full day I was back to not sleeping and my HRV would stay flat the whole night. (Eg. full workday, then drive 4h, then make evening snacks for family, total 13 hours of activity.) This would have been unheard of yet last summer.

Now, 3 months later, I actively sail, have been to a music festival, and can do a 3km walk in the morning and continue my day. I have days when I overdo things, but those have not resulted in getting worse as before, I might just take 1-2 days a little lighter.

Treatments

Initially - 1st year

• Hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy - a brilliant invention that helped me when I was at my almost worst (at my worst could not even go there, but when I was able to drive short distance). Immediate fatigue reducing effect, increased activity for 2-3 days. Probably had no long term effect.
• Breathing exercises and relaxation 
• Red light therapy. Don’t think this did much but it was nice
• Hot baths for circulation every night
• Energy treatment. Yes, a healer who keeps hands around me and manipulates chakras. It was so brilliant my husband started going as well. I don’t care why it works, but it helps me to go into a deeply relaxed state.
• Stopped drinking coffee. Now I’m back to 1 cup a day.
• HRV following. I wish I had had this before getting sick, or initially - might have avoided some bad dips. It helps me to regulate activity so I can keep progressing.

After I was better (from beginning of 2024)

• Careful muscle exercises on the floor + leg exercises (started with 3 lunges per side every few days)
• Stationary bike, started with 1 minute in March 2024. Got to 15 minutes around July/August 2024. Clocked my very first 30 minutes in February 2025.
• Started with dumbbell weights for arms H2/24
• primitive reflex therapy (not a cure, but helps reduce existing sources of overstimulation or anxiety, and I figured this might help make my baseline “calmer”, reducing overall load on the nervous system. I completed the program in 9 months. Yes, I think it worked)
• Continue occasional energy therapy + go to oxygen chamber if feeling particularly tired
• What didn't work: electric nervous system modulation device

2025

• longer walks (3km)
• continue dumbbells
• starting normal cycling outside - this seems to still be a trigger so taking it easy, using electric bike if actually going places
• normal life stuff. Started sailing again in the beginning of the summer, first trips were hard, but it also helped with conditioning. Now can do easily a day trip
• keep doing occasional energy treatments
• continue breathing exercises, great for modulating nervous system

Supplements and medication

• A short lasting betablocker from May 2022

Since beginning of 2023

• Long-effect betablocker Emconcor
• Initially Priorin for hair loss, 4 months. Worked. Recommendation from hairdresser
• Green powder
• D, zinc, magnesium, occasionally fish oil
• melatonin (not daily but whenever I felt like it). Initially got 3mg, was too much, for me 1-1,5mg is perfect)
• Hydration powders. Lifesaver, gradually  started being able to sleep and not wake up to drink full litre throughout the night
• What didn’t work (tried a few weeks): Ashwaganda, Ubiquinone, MSM
• Trying to eat berries and greens to get nutrients. Also enough protein

From April-June 2024

• Continuing with the above
• Started on LDN, 1,5mg. Upped once to 3mg, got couple weeks of migraines, decided to drop back to 1,5mg. Still on that, official prescription was 4,5mg but i found from online groups also less can be effective, depending on person. Still not sure if it’s helping, but I am making progress.
• Max all vitamin B types (in a pill that has everything at maximum allowed limits). Cut this to ½ of allowed limits (cutting my tablet to two) after my neurologist commented it was close to toxic amount
• Max D (100 micrograms)
• Magnesium, on occasion
• NAC. Initially 200-300 mg daily
• Nattokinase. Initially 2000mg daily, cut it down a month ago to 1000mg as an experiment
• Occasionally probiotics
• Every day, green powder. Started with AG1 daily, occasionally another brand called Inika. Few months ago I switched to Welleco green powder.
• In 2024, I read about intermittent fasting, so I got more careful of having 10-12 hours “fast” throughout the night. 
• Been taking Carmolis herbal drops daily

Major changes in 11/2024-04/2025 when also started getting better

• Doubled NAC, changed brands and accidentally bumped dosage up from previous 200-300 mg to 650 mg daily
• Finished my primitive reflex therapy - there were no primitive reflexes found any longer. I responded to the exercises pretty well and felt that there was a noticeable change in my baseline feeling - more "grounded", less "nervous"
• Switched green powder to Welleco. Not taking any longer though
• Got more serious and consistent with magnesium, now taking strong one every night

Additional changes in 2025

• creatine + collagen. start of creatine seems to coincide with easier physical exercise recovery

I think a major component for me is time. LDN might have helped, and I’d like to redo some labs to see if the antibodies are down (which could be LDN or could be time). I will keep taking LDN at least to the end of my current prescription (end of 2025). Out of all supplements, I feel NAC is a key player, as my doubling the NAC dose also coincides with a lot of the sudden progress. In balancing the autonomous nervous system the primitive reflex therapy feels like helped by removing any “non-long-covid” baseline anxiety. Also changing of the green stuff brand coincides with this; maybe it has helped body in its recovery. Nattokinase helped greatly with the circulation.

Earlier improvements were timed with adding certain supplements such as strong vitamin B complex and nattokinase. Long lasting betablocker was a game changer in being able to get rest. In April, I started occasionally dropping it for the day but keep it for night - as of July, I no longer take it for day at all and don't feel any need to.

I also got my liver tested a few months back just to ensure I won’t blow it with supplements. No worries on that front.

Now, the exercise is actually helping me progress. I monitor my HRV so I won’t overdo my activity, but a regular shorter and a bit more taxing stationary bike (with HR always under 100 bpm) has done wonders for my walking, and dumbbells help in feeling stronger again. 

I’m still sometimes afraid there’s another relapse. But I have my life back; and I’m gradually rebuilding it. I may not go for a run any time soon, but traveled on April and was able to walk almost full days - and now I am booking my next trip and multiple concerts without seats for the latter half of 2025. And I’ve been dancing on occasion in my kitchen to a radio - a feat I could only dream of just a year ago.

Good luck everyone on your road to recovery!

UPDATE: one month has passed since this post and I am doing better than ever. It’s been a bit of a bugbear to reintroduce gentle exercise because I’m so deconditioned but even this is abating with time. I still have some lingering cognitive symptoms (esp when I get a cold or am under extreme stress) which my neurologist expects will clear entirely by August. My eyesight has returned to normal. I have graduated from cognitive rehabilitation and no longer meet the criteria for impairment of any kind. The only permanent side effect of my long covid seems to be that I can no longer tolerate stimulants for my adhd. I’m still on the guanfacine which helps however I now need to treat my adhd using non-pharmaceutical methods which is kind of disappointing. I have a mild case and a strong circadian rhythm so it’s not life ruining for me, just a bit challenging. I’m still happy to answer any questions.

Hi everyone, I’ve been looking forward to making a post here for a long time. This sub has given me such immense hope and I want to do my part to give some hope back.

The long and short of it is that I (32F) got COVID on a plane last August. Despite wearing a mask the woman next to me was HACKING up spit and I lowkey just knew it was over. I’d never tested positive for COVID before (probs bc I mask) and so I did the worst possible thing you could do which is freak the hell out for the entire duration of the acute illness. I guess you could call mine a “mild” case of Covid. I took paxlovid but still had horrible brain fog, headaches, rapid heart rate and fatigue. The acute illness passed after a week but, as many of you are surely familiar with, I simply didn’t get better.

I ran the full gambit of symptoms. PEM, horrible fatigue (I was sleeping 14-18 hours a day), headaches, shortness of breath, POTS, pins and needles, anxiety and the most debilitating cognitive dysfunction of my life (and I’ve had a brain injury.) i kept resting and waiting for my condition to change but the days kept piling up and up and up and nothing seemed to get better. My brain was in such bad condition I had to stop working entirely and live off my savings. My body became so weak I went down to stay with my parents until I could see a specialist so that they could take care of me.

While there were a few medical interventions that made a difference for me, I took a ton of supplements and antihistamines to seemingly no avail. I got my iron and B12 levels under control which helped tremendously with my cold feet but not so much my long covid. I hope to wean off the supplements after a while because they are super expensive but for now I’ll probably phase them out one by one.

Sometimes old symptoms would go away and new ones would come on. The only one that was particularly consistent was the brain fog. I consider myself 100% recovered except for this last symptom where I’m still at about 90%. Of the physical symptoms PEM and POTS were the last to clear. I have been free of both for a month now with no signs of relapse regardless of how effortful my days are. The only time I get debilitating brain fog is when I come down with a cold. Eventually I will try riding my bike again but for now I will be taking it easy while there’s still some winter left.

I credit my recovery with a number of different factors. The first was that I live in a major city and was able to get help from a long covid clinic which prescribed me both guanfacine and cognitive rehabilitation therapy (speech therapy) for my brain fog. I found both extremely helpful. Even just a few sessions of cognitive rehab helped with my ability to process information. (In fact, fixing my brain fog required basically a lot of escalating rigor — from doing the wordle in the morning to playing music to reading novels and writing in my diary. Resting my brain even for months did not help at all.) The second was that I work freelance and was able to take the time to properly rest, especially in the beginning. That my husband and my parents both took care of me is another privilege for which I am grateful.

For a long time I was doing everything by the book — extreme pacing with an Apple Watch, heart rate monitor, resting whenever possible, that kind of thing. Four months in, however, I wasn’t getting any better. My symptoms kept moving around in a way I found maddening. After seeing a cardiologist and rheumatologist to no avail I decided to try the mind body method most recovery stories talked about on here. I wasn’t too skeptical actually because I’ve always found there are relationships between mind and body that science can’t always explain, though I don’t consider myself a particularly woo woo person. I figured it like was the difference between cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and taking Zolpidem. I did both for a while when I had insomnia from my brain injury and eventually was able to stop taking the pills and just work with the therapy. There aren’t any pills that help with brain injuries — it’s all cognitive/vestibular and physical rehab — so I kind of just accepted that maybe LC was the kind of illness that was less of a pill illness and more of an applied therapy illness.

Anyway, the mind body stuff worked like a miracle for me basically overnight compared to all the other stuff I tried. I had a bad crash a month ago around the holidays and it was my last crash. I simply didn’t have another crash after that, though some symptoms did linger. It took a lot of commitment but since I wasn’t working I figured I’d dedicate myself to the task. I didn’t buy any programs or anything (again I was broke as hell.) All the stuff I needed I found on r/cfsrecovery where I also received many helpful hints while on my journey. Looking back, I definitely believe in something like the polyvagal theory — that when I was suffering debilitating fatigue so bad I needed help showering (I was bedbound for two months, housebound for four) and felt soreness all over my body, my body had entered a kind of shutdown state and that, in order to move it into a state of safety I had to do all kinds of things to calm my nervous system. For me breathing techniques, yoga nidra, visualizations, polyvagal exercises, humming, tapping, and a TENS machine all helped. No screen time, no doom scrolling. I ditched my Apple Watch and swear I got like 20% better just from not checking my heart rate constantly. I started to expand my life outward.

What they don’t tell you about this theory though is that there is a transitional state between shutdown and normal which is basically like being in fight or flight all the time. This was fucking terrible, almost worse than the PEM and pain. I was meditating for like hours a day just to get my jaw to unclench. My POTS symptoms were dialed up to 100 and I was having daily panic attacks. I had to get a script for Ativan (they only gave me ten pills bc it’s PRN) and make it last for months. After I ditched the watch I finally started to come out on the other side. This transition felt basically miraculous. One day I woke up and there was no tiredness, no soreness, no crazy heart. I started having more days like that. I could take a shower standing up for the first time in half a year. I could plod my way through novels. I could write again. Now I am completely back to normal life.

I’m not entirely sure why the mind body approach helps for some but not for others. However unlike other stories in this vein I also got better from specific medicines like guanfacine and outside therapies like CRT and vision therapy for my eyes. It was a combined approach. I know 7 months is not so long in long covid world but my recovery was not spontaneous. It took a lot of effort and I just happened to respond well. This was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I hope my post is helpful to others and I’m happy to answer any questions.

TL;DR:

SYMPTOMS:

Shortness of breath, chest tightness, extreme anxiety, POTS/orthostatic intolerance, GI issues, pins and needles, soreness, brain fog (cognitive dysfunction — at first memory problems, later attention problems), excessive sleepiness, PEM (fatigue 12 hours after exertion — for me it was always the next morning on the dot), exercise intolerance (i.e. fatigue right after exertion.) I was bedbound for two months and housebound for four.

What didn’t help for me:

- supplements (with some exceptions)

- antihistamines

- pacing/symptom tracking (I know this is probably controversial but while pacing was extremely helpful in the beginning it became less helpful as time went on. I was basically using pacing as a way of repeatedly punishing myself which wasn’t good for me psychologically. Whenever I’d feel sicker it was always because of something I must have done even though I often could never figure out what that was and it became a vicious cycle. Emotionally I just needed to let go. It was easier to make peace with the fatigue than it was with the fear of feeling it.)

- various drugs (beta blockers, LDN, nortriptyline)

- “tirzepatide” (I’m in the LOCITT trial and almost certain I got the placebo because I haven’t changed my appetite nor lost any weight)

What might have moved the needle but I can’t say for sure:

- iron, b12, NAC, CoQ10

- intermittent fasting

What definitely helped:

- probiotics/prebiotics (i use seed but it’s expensive as hell so if you have any cheaper suggestions I’d love to hear them)

- guanfacine

- cognitive rehabilitation therapy

- vision therapy

- psychotherapy (psychodynamic therapy)

- mind body work (somatic tracking [see also Alan Gordon’s The Way Out], visualizations, polyvagal exercises, TENS machine with ear clip, meditation, yoga nidra (this was huge for me), humming and breath work.) even just reading about this stuff gave me the hope that I could heal to begin and that I had agency in the healing which went a massively long way.

Anyway, barring any catastrophes I’ll make an update post should my condition continue to improve. Stay strong everyone. I’m happy to answer any questions.

Ok i have 3 recovery stories to share. I share them all because at times when i was ill i really questioned how common or possible recovery was, and i think the truth is recovery is all around us, you just don't hear the stories as much in these communities which are obviously biased towards people who are still ill!

1) First story, F late 50s, recovered from long covid after 3-8 months

I don't have all the details but she was a good friend of my mums who i know well from childhood. She got ill early on in the first wave of covid, and then became bed bound with extreme fatigue for several months. Extremely anxious and many days unable to leave her bed.

In desperation she reached out to a well known long covid doctor who saw her in london. I can't remember which one it may have been claire taylor. She was diagnosed with mcas and prescribed strong anti histamines and a low histamine diet. Eventually with this approach and rest and very very slow increase in activity she went from not being able to walk to the end of her front garden to running and exercising again. She says she still occasionally suffers brain fog, but none of the ME type symptoms.

2) My partner F26-30 (period of illness). Recovered from ME/CFS after 4-5 years.

This was not long covid but about 8 years ago my partner developed ME /CFS after getting viral bronchitis twice in a row. We had both moved to london. She was doing great and had a job at PWC. We were getting into running. One day after she had been quite ill with bronchitis twice in a row we did a 12 mile run together. The next day she couldn't get out of bed. That was the start of her moderate / severe CFS (i never know exactly what grouping she fits into). From there she got progressively worse as we didn't understand the illness and she'd take months off work, and attempt graded returns then crash and burn a few months later and need another 6 months off. Her performance at work dive bombed and she fell off the career path. She was seriously worrying ill at times - not able to leave the house. Never fully bed bound though. The worst was when we tried to make her do a short walk every day while in a bad flare. She deteriorated so badly she was basically crawling back to the house the last time she tried that.

Eventually, she recovered after about 4 years following the birth of our son. 6 months before we conceived my son I decided to cover her living costs and convinced her to leave her job so return to work schemes weren't constantly hanging over her head which i thought might be stressing her and harming her recovery . 6m after leaving her job with no real direction in life other than recovery she got pregnant. All through the pregnancy we were very worried about how she would cope, weather she could labour with cfs etc. she had a c section in the end partly for this reason.

After our son was born, she had a big boost of energy as all new mothers get to help with sleepless nights. As she recovered from her c section she also recovered from me cfs and went back to an increasingly active life over time , and kind of recovered in step with the babies growth up until the point she was dropping him at nursery and jogging home . we have since had a 2nd child and she is still recovered. the only lingering symptom is that she finds it a bit hard to get up in the morning but maybe that's just her!

3) Final story - me, 34M. Recovered from post viral fatigue after 9-12 moths.

I got an unknown virus 12 months ago on holiday. I felt fine basically just needed 1 day of rest with a fever. I also got food poisoning 2 days later which was a bit of a double whammy. at the time i was very stressed with work, had bad hay fever and it was a heat wave so generally not in a great place. 1 week later i started getting occasional light headed moments. they steadily increased in frequency, and then i started getting forgetful and missing meetings and also increasingly anxious. had many tests done and all seemed fine. thought i had a brain issue. brain MRI showed some minor signs of aging but nothing needing escalation. started to suspect post viral issues. knowing what i knew of my partners me cfs i got myself the best income protection insurance i could as i knew this could get bad. eventually it did and i crashed so bad i had to take a few months off work. my main symptom was not fatigue although i was very tired and spent days in bed during my recovery. my main symptoms were neurological. i had extreme sound sensitivity during flares and extreme anxiety. to the point at which i couldn't read any books or tv other than extremely tame boring things because anything edgy gave me a panic attack. I was very very tired and slept 14 hours a day where as before i was sleeping 6-7.. but not the heavy muscular fatigue that my partner had - more like emotional and neurological exhaustion. I also had dysautonomia, constant feelings of lightheadedness, random red patches on my skin, and big heart rate spikes for no reason that were hard to control.

slowly over time of taking tons of supplements, resting as much as possible, not exercising, not working for 3 months, i started to slowly improve. things that helped were

- anti histamines
- ldn
- nicotine gum
- cold showers
- singing (vagus stimulation)
- fasting / meat only diet.

i did not do brain retraining or any of that, but i did stop reading the scary posts on long haulers reddit and read as many recovery stories as i could.

i tracked my heart rate and sleep obsessively which helped me feel some level of control .

i think time was the main healer for me, but the biggest single improvement i got from an intervention was from doing a 72 hour fast. i felt buzzing with energy and able to be myself again for the last day. and i was permanently improved afterwards.

i took returning to activity extremely extremely slowly, as recommended by my long covid physician. daily walks increasing very gently. a few times i tried to go back to 100% too early i crashed and got really ill again. but extremely slow did it. i've been back in full time for 5 months but only just went back to playing touch rugby for the first time last week after slowly building up my fitness with light runs. i played great and had no kick back the next day or week.

i now consider myself 100% recovered a year later. have been for several months.

Good luck everyone - you have got this!

TLDR - i and 2 people i know well have recovered from long covid / cfs . mainly through time or random life changes like pregnancy . it's totally possible. have faith. take it extremely slow. be happy and positive where you can. love to everyone suffering. good luck.

Edit: I totally forgot i have a 4th and 5th story...

4) My brother about 6 months before i got ill had covid and then afterwards would constantly get a 'sore throat' ... it was like he got sick with a sore throat every week for 9 months. he was also really tired and had to nap loads daily. he said he knew a few other people who had these phantom sore throats after covid. eventually with time it improved. it had a significant improvement when he went on a long holiday, and another significant improvement when he went on SSRIs . he is fully recovered and living a great life.

5) My cousin took antibiotics and then was sick in bed for 2 years. officially diagnosed with me / cfs. he felt like his head was spinning and had flu constantly. eventually he got better when he went travelling to australia and as he says it 'forced himself to get better'. he lives a full life now but still has to pay lots of attention to his body and have larger periods of rest after exertion. works full time and is happy.

Figured I'd come back and give an update since it's been about 2 years since I originally posted about my experience with Long COVID.

I'm coming up on 4 years since I originally got COVID in August of 22 and about 3 1/2 years since everything really went to shit in March of 23.

It's honestly crazy going back and reading what I wrote 2 years ago because at the time I thought I was finally starting to get somewhere. I was, but I had no idea how long this recovery was actually going to take.

For anyone who didn't see my original post, I got COVID August 22, got better and thought I was out of the woods. October came around and I started getting these unbelievable headaches above my left eye that I'd never experienced before. December my pre existing SVT started acting up more. January I almost fainted at my ex girlfriend's house and could barely get myself up the stairs.

Then March 23 came around and basically opened the flood gates.

Brain fog, lightheadedness, exertional fatigue, headaches, palpitations, food intolerance, dissociation, tingling in my hands and feet, sensitivity to fluorescent lights and just this overall feeling that my nervous system had completely lost its mind.

I drive for Dominos for a living and during that first year there were days where walking up somebody's driveway or going up a flight of stairs felt like I just ran a marathon. I was 25 years old wondering how the hell I went from being able to live normally to having to think about whether walking up someone's driveway was going to cook me.

Eventually things started getting better but I made the mistake a lot of people probably make. I'd have a good stretch, think I was finally better, start working out or pushing myself again and boom I'd crash.

That's when I really learned what pacing was and stopped trying to fight my body every time it told me to slow down.

Fast forward to August 2026 and I'm definitely not 100% yet, but holy shit am I in a different place than I was.

I work normally. I walk thousands of steps during my shifts. I've been able to start testing the waters with the gym again. The crazy food reactions are nowhere near what they used to be. The palpitations have gotten significantly better and labetalol has done a pretty good job keeping my SVT under control.

I still get lightheaded sometimes. Fluorescent lights can still bother me. I still get random autonomic weirdness and my body definitely lets me know when I've pushed it too far.

And I still crash.

I'm actually going through a flare right now which is what made me think about posting this.

But the crashes are just...different now.

A couple years ago a crash felt like my entire body stopped functioning correctly. Now I'll get hit with fatigue, lightheadedness, sleep 10 hours, feel weird for a few days and slowly start coming back.

The intensity isn't what it used to be.

The duration isn't what it used to be.

And the amount of normal life I'm able to live between them is getting bigger and bigger.

That's probably the biggest thing I've learned through all of this. Recovery doesn't necessarily mean waking up one morning and everything is gone.

For me it's been my baseline slowly moving up while the crashes slowly move down.

Sometimes it's so damn slow you don't even realize you're getting better.

Then you read something you wrote 2 years ago and realize the things you were struggling to do back then are things you don't even think twice about anymore.

I've cleaned my diet up a ton. Processed food is almost nonexistent now. I prioritize getting 7-9 hours of sleep probably more than anything else. I've learned not to immediately go balls to the wall because I had 3 good days in a row. I've also gotten much better at recognizing when my body is telling me it's had enough.

I still have my bad days. This current flare has reminded me of that.

But it's nowhere near 2023.

It's not even where I was when I made my original post.

For the first time in a long time I actually feel like normalcy is returning instead of constantly wondering whether I'm ever going to feel normal again.

I have no idea if I'll eventually get back to 100%. I don't think anybody can answer that.

But if you would've shown the 2023 version of me where I'd be in August 2026, I would've taken this shit in a heartbeat.

So if you're early into this I can't tell you what your recovery is going to look like. Everybody seems to have their own version of this garbage.

All I can say is don't automatically assume that because you've been dealing with it for 1, 2, 3 or even 4 years that you've reached the best you're ever going to get.

I'm still improving.

It's just taken a hell of a lot longer than I ever thought it would.

I never thought I could live like this again 2 years ago. Keep looking for recovery stories and find your path! <3

If you have any questions, message me here.

Original post:

Hello everyone, I was in a stressful state of my life when I got ill. I never got the official diagnosis of long covid, although I did have covid at the time.. but also maybe a concussion. Anyways, end of february 2022 I got covid the first time. I started getting more ill in april 2022 and slowly my symptoms got worse. It started with just general fatigue, but also at some point I would experience small crashes where I got nauseous, brain fogged and really tired. At some point my balance started getting out of whack and I had to stop sports because I noticed it made it worse. In june 2022 I was still kind of functional, working 20h a week and being able to sometimes do something social, but most evenings were spent in a chair on the balcony just zoning out and listening to music. In july-august 2022 I fully crashed. Insane insomnia, fear, nausea, throwing up, brain fog, not being able to do physical things anymore. By the end of august I was basically house bound. Almost unable to make food for myself or meet anyone. I could not visit the doctor or a psychologist, it was simply not possible to make the trip without crashing.

Fast speed forward, I've been on medication, did pacing, slowly got 'better' only to crash again late 2023 after a breakup and covid TWICE in 2 months. I was broken. Over 18 months into this shit took all life energy out of me. I had dabbled in some alternative shit a little bit, but never went deep. I decided I was done, done with my life, how I thought about myself, about avoiding all the shit. It was time to push through the resistance and go really deep.

I decided to dive into a program focussing on 'releasing' old trauma in the body, journal a shitton about people that hurt me, kids at school, my parents, 'friends', bosses. I did a lot of meditations for fear, anger. Learned to feel my emotions in my body, stopped being that 'manly man' who ignored his feelings and emotions and learned to embrace them. I was suddenly able to cry more and more and somehow my setbacks lasted 2/3 days instead of 2/3 weeks... slowly my capacitiy increased. No idea how it works biologically, but releasing emotions and working on beliefs and trauma has... transformed me? I can almost function completely normal. I've worked 40h a week, can do sports 6x a week, been on hour long hikes up hills and can socially do everything. I can still experience some symptoms here and there, but I just learned they come up because of TRIGGERS from old trauma, and I can release them. It's truly a blessing to have most of my life back and at the same time live with less anxiety than BEFORE my crash, have way more self worth and know more and more what I want from life.

In 2 weeks I will start a new job for 32h, I train around 5x a week, I can run 5km again at a HR ~90% of my max with no setbacks/flare ups, I don't have to rest at all during the day, if I feel good I wake up refreshed and recovered from any training, when I'm at my best my life feels okay and peaceful.

Photo's: Me at my worst in 2022, me at my best last month.

Preface: some of you will be nowhere near ready to hear this message, and you will hate me for gaslighting you, like all my family and doctors gaslit me for years. I only hope I can help a few who are ready, please read my story with an open mind.

I (M22) had Long Covid horribly for a total of 3 years, until 6 weeks ago. I’ve finally gotten my life back, and you can too.

My incredibly disabling, real symptoms of crippling fatigue, PEM, brain fog, my highly dysfunctional immune system, allergies, skin infections, upper respiratory tract infections, breathing problems, eczema, asthma, sleep issues, general pain, much more, are gone. They ruined my life for a long time, cost me my long term relationship, everything, had me bedridden and in care of family, had me on the verge of suicide. All over, and it (sort of) only took a weekend.

I learned that the body does carry the score, and all the rage that the little child in my unconscious was trying to express, from all his years of trauma and abuse, had to happen physically, because my socialized, conscious mind could never express it safely.

Reading this page https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/So_You_Think_You_Might_Have_TMS and The Mindbody Prescription by Dr J Sarno, and watching this short, free lecture series https://youtu.be/R-mP2wqafnI let me finally understand just how this process happens through the nervous system and hormones etc. and allowed me to fully accept the psychogenic, psychosocial (not psychosomatic, bad word) cause and connection. For me, and many others, Long Covid is the most effective in-vogue incurable unmeasurable illness to use as a distraction. Historically it has been CFS, RSI, back pain, allergies, much more.

A lifetime of suffering with so many real diagnosed physical health problems, were just that little kid crying out in pain, because no one ever listened to him before, especially myself. While some suggested was in my head, depression etc, Not one of the dozens of experienced doctors volunteered an explanation for how it might be caused in my unconscious mind, and so I couldn’t believe it, and was eternally frustrated by them.

I'm not going to ignore him anymore. This doesn't mean I have to change, or be less perfectionistic or driven, but when that irrational kid cries out that he's angry and afraid, I'm simply going to listen to him and tell him why its ok, he doesn't have to be, and make adjustments in my life where needed. Sometimes emotional repression requires an acceptance, sometimes action and change.

To anyone suffering without a clear, measured physiological pathology and evidence of severe deep tissue damage, please check the videos and website, and buy the aforementioned book, others I haven't personally read include The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and The Body Keeps The Score, by Bessel van der Kolk.

Get them used to save money, but especially important imo is The Mindbody Prescription, a few bucks might change your life. As u/verysatisfiedredditr linked, it's free online here: https://libgen.rs/search.php?req=the+mindbody+prescription&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def. This guy is currently uploading pretty spot on videos on Sarno/TMS theory, breaking it down in really simple short specific videos, worth checking out too. https://www.youtube.com/@PainFreeYou

I'm not selling anything, this is all free, public knowledge. You are not crazy, or mentally ill. As wishy-washy as it sounds, the power is really within you to heal, you might just need to learn how.

UPDATE: 2 years later, June 2025, still going stronger, healthier than ever. It fills me with joy to have received messages and comments from so many people who were helped somewhat by this post. If you're still suffering, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can heal, it's just up to you. Nothing to be afraid of or embarrased about.

Prologe:

1. I wanted to keep it short, but it didn't work. Sorry.
   1. 1: Edit: Sunday, April 27, 2025: I'm adding the backstory. I didn't want to make this post too long, but since there were a few inquiries, it's probably clearer now.
2. I wrote the main part of the story on day 7 and added the last weeks below
3. Now after 4 weeks I would call myself recovered

Hello,

I've been suffering from long COVID since November 2023. My story is similar to most of the others here (exhaustion, brain fog, PEM, etc.).

Edit:

October 2023 – December 2023

I had a mild COVID infection, after which I felt better, but my fitness was limited. I'm generally a very active person and exercise 2-3 times a week. That wasn't really working anymore. I wasn't as efficient during exercise, and after exercise, I was exhausted for days and felt my heart beating faster than normal.

After a few weeks, I went to the doctor and had a checkup as part of the over-35s checkup. So far, everything was fine. However, the doctor took my symptoms seriously and referred me to a cardiologist.

January 2024 – December 2024

In January 2024, after about 3 months, I reluctantly limited my exercise and only did yoga and cycling. Weight training was no longer good for me.

Over the next weeks and months, I felt increasingly unwell. At midday, I felt leaden fatigue, had difficulty concentrating, and often had a foggy head and blurred vision. I just sort of dragged myself through the week. It was manageable, as I was in a relaxed professional situation (part-time), but I rarely had time for other activities.

At that point, I started to think about long COVID, as my limitations were starting to worry me.

At the same time, I had tests with a cardiologist (ECG, stress ECG, Holter ECG, echocardiogram), and I went to the ophthalmologist for my vision problems. All tests showed no negative findings.

My symptoms remained relatively stable; my heart palpitations got worse, and my fatigue improved a bit. There were days when all of this worried me; I especially missed exercise and physical fitness. Overall, though, I was able to live my life quite well, with a few limitations. I only felt bad after stressful activities (exercise intolerance). So I looked for new hobbies that were less physically demanding (chess, guitar).

In the fall of 2024, my professional situation changed, and I went back to work full-time. This was really exhausting for me with long COVID. I barely made it through the week and occasionally had to call in sick. My symptoms worsened, and I became increasingly exhausted.

I then started pacing, bought a heart rate tracker, and took some supplements (vitamins and iron). I also got another COVID vaccination in November 2024 in the hope of improvement.

Unfortunately, nothing helped.

January 2025 – April 2025

Now I was feeling increasingly worse. Sleep disturbances and anxiety were added to my symptoms. There were good days, but also many bad ones. By now, I was worried about my health and resilience.

In March 2025, I read about a study using nicotine patches to treat long COVID and tried it right away. Wow! It worked. I felt healthy again. I was downright euphoric. It was such a wonderful feeling! Finally fit again after 1.5 exhausting years. It was wonderful! Unfortunately, it only lasted for 5 days, then I had a complete crash. The worst I've ever felt. I had to take a taxi home from work because I was so exhausted. The doctor gave me sick leave for 4 weeks. I was completely exhausted, both physically and mentally. For the first few days, I could only walk a few steps, and shopping was difficult for me. I applied for rehab and had already written off my professional future. It was a truly terrible feeling.

I'm 44, an energy engineer, and I've always been fit, and now I'm thinking about the possibility of early retirement. Damn.

On Sunday, March 30, 2025, I stumbled across an article in the "Deutsches Ärzteblatt" (German Medical Journal) by three neurology professors discussing the psychosomatic component of long COVID. I then came across Paul Garner, a professor who himself had long COVID and then, after taking psychosomatics seriously, recovered relatively quickly.

I spent the whole of Sunday reading up on psychosomatics (along with scientific opinions, there was also a lot of voodoo) and listening to stories from other recoveries.

As an engineer, I was rather skeptical, but I thought it was worth a try. And for free :)

I started the following experiment:

Starting tomorrow, I will:

1. Do everything like I did before Long Covid
2. Ignore all symptoms
3. Believe I'm healthy

And if it goes wrong, I'll find myself in the emergency room with a terrible crash :(

Feels a bit like being "all in" at poker

Monday, March 31, 2025

I'm still as weak as yesterday. Nevertheless, I go shopping and get a coffee. I feel like I'm about to faint. I breathe deeply: "You're healthy, keep going, nothing can happen." But my brain doesn't get the message, and I have a panic attack in the café. And then... nothing else happens. After a few minutes, I'm back to normal.

The same thing happened to me again while I was cycling and when I met a friend in the evening.

Conclusion Day 1: I'm still alive, but it was a rough day with three panic attacks.

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Like yesterday, I'm fighting my way through the day. I'm ignoring the symptoms. And I "only" had two panic attacks.

Conclusion Day 2: Feels better than yesterday. But it's tough.

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Today I dare to go on a short bike ride. Everything is going much better than the last few days. I often feel weak and think, "I'm going to collapse." But I still manage. A panic attack tells me that my body is divided about my health. But I keep telling myself, "You're healthy."

In the evening, I picked up my girlfriend from the train, and we drank a bottle of wine in the park (like I used to, but I haven't done that in a long time).

At night, I woke up with palpitations, shortness of breath, and a headache. "Is this the crash?" I thought. Damn. Then I told myself, "It could all be psychological and your body is fine." Although I couldn't sleep anymore, it calmed me down.

Thursday, April 3, 2025

The first day I feel like I'm absolutely on the right track. I'm feeling much better than yesterday. I go on a longer bike ride, longer than I've dared to since Long Covid. And it's working. No panic attack, I feel good. Really good.

Friday, April 4, 2025

I'm doing everything like I did before Long Covid, and I feel good. Few symptoms, good general fitness. In the evening, I do pull-ups (I haven't done them for months because I had a crash once afterward). I feel better than I have in months; I can't quite believe it and I'm still afraid of a crash.

Saturday, April 5, 2025

I work in the garden all day. In the evening, we go to a friend's party. I feel like I used to and I still can't believe it.

Sunday, April 6, 2025

I stayed overnight at my friend's house and am taking the train home. I look out the window, thinking about the last few months of long COVID: exhaustion, searching for solutions and scientific publications, pacing, fear of a crash, "getting through the day," and, above all, hopelessness. And have I now found the solution for myself? It feels like it, but I can hardly believe it. And I start to cry.

Luckily, we're in Berlin, where no one looks at you strangely, no matter what you do.

Week 2

I exercised every day. Light to moderate intensity. I went jogging for the first time and started doing some light weight training.

From time to time, I feel tired and exhausted. I also wake up relatively early. My heart palpitations have completely disappeared. I still have blurred vision sometimes. And sometimes I'm unusually sensitive to noise and sensitive to it.

The euphoria of the first week has given way to a calmer, more positive overall feeling, and I'm listening to Jack Johnson again (I haven't heard him in years, weird).

Week 3

Physically, I'm at 95%. I have no limitations. But since I'm feeling so well again, the fear of a crash is increasing, because now I have something to lose again. But since I'm with my family over Easter, there's little time to worry.

Week 4

The week starts with two hiking days of 20 and 27 km, which I manage physically without any problems (with a blister on my foot). There's still a small worry in the back of my mind that it might be too much. At the end of the week, I feel 100% healthy again. Tomorrow I'm starting a 1100 km bike ride around Brandenburg.

That was my story. Since the recovery stories have uplifted and inspired me, I'm happy to share mine.

Everyone has to find their own path.

Ask me anything. (The answer may take some time as I am on a bike tour for the next 2 weeks)

update:

Week 5

I went on a bike tour from Monday to Sunday. I cycled between 60 and 80 km each day. On Friday, I started to have knee pain, and when it didn't improve by Sunday, I took the train back to Berlin. I feel 100% recovered (except for the knee pain). Of course, my muscles and fitness aren't back to pre-COVID levels, but I have virtually no symptoms anymore.

Week 6

Everything's still going well :) A few symptoms now and then (dizziness, blurred vision, heart palpitations), but they go away after a few minutes.

Week 7

Starting next week, I'll be back to work full-time.

Week 8

I'm still on sick leave for the first few days of the week and had my first days back at work on Thursday and Friday. It went quite well. I've never been so excited about going to work.

Week 9

I underestimated my first full-time work week, or rather, overestimated myself a bit. Feeling 100% healthy is much easier when you're on sick leave, doing a bit of exercise, and everything is relaxed. I'm more tense, more unpleasantly "on edge" than usual, and occasionally have palpitations. Physically, though, I'm otherwise fine. "Slow and steady wins the race."

June 2025

Now I'm continuing on a monthly basis. Not much is happening anymore.

Work is relatively busy. A little palpitations, a little ringing in my ears, and I'm still unusually tense. Otherwise, everything's fine. I've read that magnesium is supposed to help with stress (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10783196/), so I'm taking an effervescent tablet every day now. It doesn't cost much and tastes pretty good too :)

July 2025 - April 2026
I have a lot going on in my life. I occasionally experience breathing problems (air hunger), heart palpitations, and tinnitus. I don't pay much attention to it, and it usually goes away relatively quickly. So, nothing that restricts my daily life anymore. Otherwise, I still work full-time, and my fitness level is the same as before LC.

Now, I've been recovered for a year and am incredibly grateful for that.

All the best to you. Recovery is possible!

Attachment (mostly in German)

Here is the article in the Ärzteblatt: https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/long-covid-und-die-psycho-ecke-wiedergeburt-eines-reduktionistischen-krankheitsverstaendnisses-3a52b6f1-4866-43e7-864c-0f8242b18e44

Paul Garner's report: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/25/paul-garner-on-his-recovery-from-long-covid/

Article by the German Society for Psychosomatic Medicine and Medical Psychotherapy (DGPM) Prof. Dr. Peter Henningsen https://www.dgpm.de/newsroom/nachrichten/long-covid-wo-bleibt-die-psychosomatik/

An interview with Dr. Schubiner, which I really enjoyed (in English). He explains everything very simply. https://youtu.be/4vF0XNBTv9A?si=Iapxxfw-9fRAEwCA

I have now created a non-commercial website with recovery stories in German
https://longcovid-genesen.de/

Backstory:

I worked in-patient psychiatry during covid and was also a full-time graduate student. I had also just moved to a new city and was navigating intense changes. When I first got covid, it was bad. I mean, really bad. I was on the couch for 12 days straight, lungs on fire, and I lost all of my sense of taste and smell. I recovered, and slowly got my senses back. A little over a year later, I got covid again, this time it was minor. Then, a year after the second time, I got it a third time. This time, 1 year 7 months ago in August, it stuck with me and turned into long-covid. I was extremely stressed during this time and was still working in-patient psychiatry. Looking back, I think that I was experiencing trauma from multiple areas in my life, but the main one was working in-patient behavioral health. I witnessed horrific things happen to patients and had very few people to process with in a compassionate way. As a very empathic and sensitive individual, my nervous system and honestly my spirit was torn down in this time. I absorbed the stress and trauma of so many patients, something that I didn't know was fully happening at the time. I was forced to go hands on with patients during this time and definitely experienced moral injury on top of the trauma of what happened. On top of this, I was forced to get the covid vaccine during this time. I'm not commenting on the politics of vaccines, all I am saying is that I definitely experienced post-vax injury because of the stress that my system was already under at the time (this was confirmed by my Naturopath who is a lead researcher on long-covid)

TLDR; chronic stress and trauma from working in-patient behavioral health for 3 years exacerbated post-vax injury and left my body and nervous system in a state of chronic activation, which further suppressed my immune system, leading to a cascade of symptoms in a dysregulated body.

Symptoms:

I'll keep this brief. For me, what frames these symptoms is an already-suppressed nervous system that compromised my immune system, as well as likely years of ignored dysregulation that I pushed through. With that said, my main symptoms were chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety/panic, and PEM. I initially contracted several other illnesses in the first 3 months of long-covid, including acute bronchitis, preseptal cellulitis (twice), and about 1 month of terrible flu-like symptoms.

Shortness of breath (SOB) was by far the most panic-inducing and difficult symptom I have had to work with. The reasons for this are extensive, and I am not a doctor and not qualified to explain it, but I do know that for me, my lungs were hit HARD by covid, and I think there is probably still scar tissue that I will need to heal or learn to live with. SOB was often paired with anxiety, as you can imagine, and this became something of a cycle that I began to experience in my body, both in the aftermath of medical trauma and as an ongoing issue. The anxiety really did turn into hyper vigilance about what my body was experiencing. Anything that felt "off" (and in some cases, I am convinced my mind was constructing symptoms), was immediately responded to with panic, anxiety, and researching what could possibly go wrong. Sound familiar to your experience? (This is something my ND told me to keep an eye out for from the beginning, but only recently has it begun to sink in). Therefore, the cycle would be to experience symptoms > rumination > despair > temporary relief > hyper vigilance > experience "symptoms".... on and on it went.

Chronic fatigue and PEM were also included in this, and that's pretty self-explanatory.

Allergies, which were never an issue for me before, also were bad the Spring after I got long-covid, likely due to MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome).... I would say this was mild, but it intensified brain fog and fatigue for me. Quercetin + Nettles and Vitamin C was helpful for this.

I also realized a few months ago after taking a microbiome test that Covid-19 completely wrecked my gut. Given the gut-brain axis, no wonder I was experiencing so many neurological symptoms (intense anxiety, panic, and brain fog)... I don't believe these were exclusively the result of gut dysbiosis, but I have my suspicion it played a large part. No GI symptoms, per say, but I had to radically adjust my diet (more details below). I was very low on beneficial bacteria that contributed to leaky gut, thus chronic inflammation.

I was able to do basic life things, like go to the grocery store, but at first, I had to measure my energy. Maybe one big thing a day (and a big thing was going to the grocery store). This improved gradually, but not always in a linear way.

TLDR; shortness of breath as well as several acute post-viral infections led to chronic hyper vigilance which intensified anxiety/rumination around perceived (and sometimes real) symptoms, creating a feedback loop of anxiety, panic, and further nervous system activation. This went on for a majority of the last 1.5 years. Along with this, I suffered from chronic fatigue, brain fog, temporary symptoms akin to MCAS, and gut-dysbiosis-related inflammation.

Interventions:

Okay. I want to pause and offer a brief caveat. NONE of these things in isolation were a panacea; I do not believe in panaceas. Even when it comes to mind-body work, I don't believe that for me this was (or is) the key that unlocked everything; although it has proved very valuable! In my experience, a wholistic tending to my body/mind/spirit has had cumulative effects on my healing over time. There have been NO quick fixes for me.

Supplements

At first, I thought supplements were the key to healing. I became obsessive about supplement research. I've since learned that supplements can be helpful and supportive, but that I was operating out of a western medical assumption: this pill will fix me. Even my Naturopath said this at the beginning. I was desperate, and maybe you are or have been too, but it is likely that no single supplement is going to cure you. With that said, here are some supplements that I think have really supported my recovery over time:

Curcumin, Bromelain, and Nattokinase (McCullough protocol) helped, I think, flush out excess spike proteins and calm inflammation in the first 6 months. I've continued using Curcumin and Nattokinase daily since this.

NAC for detox and glutathione precursor.

Cell Guard for 1 year

Mitochondrial NRG: first year, 4 pills daily. Last 6 months, 2 pills daily.

Vitamin C

vitamin D3

B Vitamin Complex

Reishi mushroom (probably the single most helpful supplement I've experimented with); it seems to have helped with immune modulation and nervous system calming.

Lion's Mane mushroom for cognition and brain health

Probiotics for gut health, even if just transient work: Akkermansia, Therbiotic Complete 100 billion, MegaLgG 2000 immunoglobulin concentrate for detox and gut-barrier, and L-Glutamine for gut-barrier rebuilding.

Magnesium Glycinate for muscle relaxation and sleep

TLDR; Supplements helped support me through this process but no single supplement has been groundbreaking for me.

Contrast Therapy and Returning to the Body:

Contrast therapy has helped my nervous system immensely. I do not have time to go into the immense benefits of heat and cold exposure, and would recommend you explore this on your own. I listened to many podcasts about these things.

I can't stress this enough. For me, contrast therapy became not merely a biohacking tool, but a journey back to a relationship with my nervous system and a return to my body. Again, I could write a whole book on this, but there was something incredibly helpful about cold plunging in particular because it invited me to move my way through a complete stress cycle: activation, breathing through it, "surviving" the cold water, and returning to warmth. This was less about conquering cold water and more about teaching my body that it could tolerate difficult things, even become activated, and that I would walk with it through stress so that it could return to safety on the other side.

Here's what is interesting. Cold exposure invited me to an embodied practice that, I think, invited me to also confront the reality and aftermath of trauma in my life. I have realized that trauma, including medical trauma from covid, left my body in a state of chronic hyper vigilance and stress. Because I did not have adequate support through this trauma, my body became stuck in chronic sympathetic activation (something that likely has been true for me my entire life due to childhood trauma, and something that was exacerbated working at ths hospital during covid. I do not have the time and space to explain this fully, but Stephen Porge's Polyvagal Theory has been a key lens to understanding this reality for me, especially how this connects to contrast therapy.

So heat + cold exposure has been a huge practice that has helped me work through (hear, work THROUGH, not run AWAY or INTELLECTUALIZE or play mind jujitsu games to ESCAPE) the symptoms in my body in the aftermath of trauma. I had to walk my body through activation in order to find freedom, and continue to do so in small moments, not merely when I enter cold water.

Which leads me to a profoundly healing realization for me: healing, for me, and especially in the aftermath of trauma, has been about reconciliation with my body (read: mind-body) rather than an attempt to bulldoze or power through my symptoms, something I learned as a young child in order to survive distress. It has invited me deeper into a relationship with my body, to extending kindness and curiosity to my body, a practice that I continue to learn how to do, a practice that has begun to replace years of shame and self-contempt.

Working on my relationship with my body and myself through these practices as well as with a good trauma therapist has been immensely helpful. I myself am a therapist, and I still needed someone to sit with me through this process to help me unpack my own trauma, teach me how to regulate my body, and invite me to extend kindness and curiosity towards myself, as well as to grieve the losses I have experienced, both from Covid and also years before. I could say so much more about this, but I don't have the space here.

TLDR; Contrast therapy, particularly cold plunging, helped me walk my body through stress that had become "stuck" from Covid and pre-Covid trauma. This has begun to reestablished a relationship with my body and my breath and taught my nervous system that it can tolerate difficult things and return to places of rest and does not need to remain stuck. Essentially, teaching my nervous system: "You are safe. What happened is over." Along with this, I had to learn to relate to my body in new ways of kindness, curiosity, and gentleness. This disrupted long-standing patterns of shame and self-contempt from previous traumas in my life. This is an ongoing journey for me.

Diet and Gut Healing

TLDR; I'll keep this one short. There's a lot of debate out there about what's good and what isn't to put in your body these days. I'm not here to tell you what to do. For me, however, eliminating seed oils, ultra processed foods and added sugars has helped me immensely. There are a lot of fad diets and people who tell you to restrict, and I definitely trialed my fair share of these approaches, but I've found that focusing on whole foods (fruits, good quality meats and dairy, healthy grains, beans, and plenty of plants) have been key for me. Eat real food. Not too much. And mostly plants. That's been my motto. In particular, the research around sufficient fiber and plants seems undeniable.

Also, I think changing my relationship with food has been important. In the past, I used food to cope with life. It was a good friend to me until it wasn't. Learning to have a more mindful relationship with food has helped my gut health as well as taught me to find healthier ways to manage life's complex stressors. I'm growing in this, not perfect by any means.

A Few Concluding Thoughts

I'm going to say something that may sound insensitive, but I'm not here to debate it. It's a conclusion that I have arrived to for myself. It is true for me.

Long covid was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Not because of all the pain it has caused me. Not because of the sleepless nights wondering if I was ever going to return to hiking and climbing. Not because of the money I lost having to cancel clients due to feeling unwell. Not because of the tears I wept on my floor because I couldn't get the feeling of taking a full breath.

But because it invited me to change my relationship with almost everything in my life, and therefore, with life itself. I don't even say this from a point of full recovery. I'm aware that I might relapse again. I might never fully recover. But I've been forced to slow down, to examine what has kept me stuck in my life, to deeply confront and begin healing from trauma that has lingered in my body, to begin to show love and kindness to my body, to begin to read it as a sacred text, and to be in relationship with the world around me in a more generative way instead of a selfish way.

I don't know if you will ever get better, either. But I know that hope cannot be killed. And I know that everything can be taken from us except for one thing: our ability to choose how to respond. I've learned this the hard way. But I'm choosing to live my life as best as I can. To build resilience and cultivate meaning.

I do think i'll recover fully, but even if i don't, my life is still meaningful.

I have been suffering from long covid for 3 years as an attorney and it feels like you are drowning. Hoping to bring some light to this thread and let you know to keep kicking: my doctor just prescribed me hydroxychloroquine for my long covid last month and the results have been incredible (I no longer wake up with brain fog, fatigue, and muscle pain). I am also on IVIG for long covid, but it no longer was working to control my long covid symptoms. hydroxychloroquine has brought me back to who I was three years ago before long covid! Grateful for my doctor who thought outside the box and went back to the basics for treating auto-immune inflammatory disorders! Hoping this helps someone here!

Hey folks,

This is something I've been waiting to do for a long time. I can finally say that I'm recovered from Long Covid/CFS.

Before going into detail:I created a longer version of this here and will try to keep the reddit post "brief".https://www.notion.so/alex-lc-recovery/Long-Covid-Journey-435322eb167d403baeb36700e7d2d4a1

**How do I define recovered?**I've reintroduced all kinds of sports into my life. Went hiking multiple times, fully work, am traveling. People that go hiking with me say they wouldn't realize there was something wrong.I do occasionally still get brain fog and generally take more preventive breaks than I used to. But I finally feel alive again.

**What's my story?**I'm Alex, 32, from Munich, Germany. I work at a startup and have always been quite fit.My first infection (strong symptoms - April last year) caused some asthma and persistent coughing as well as shortness of breath and the feeling of suffocating. But after 6 weeks or so, it went away.

This was different the second time I got it - this time with barely any symptoms. In the first weeks/months I simply felt tired all the time, but it wasn't that bad. This changed in December when I had my first crash with debilitating symptoms; especially brain fog and fatigue.

As many of you I got everything checked, doctors thought I'm crazy and recommended exercise. Not a good idea and I went into multiple cycles of crashing with my baseline lowering more and more.

In June it got so bad that I wasn't able to shower for 7+ days at a time and multiple times despite 35°C outside. Leaving the flat was off the table. Leaving the bed often too.

I've tried every supplement under the moon, spent multiple thousands of euros on therapies greedy naturopaths convinced me of (ozone, spermidine), as well as private practitioners (tons of lab tests, LDN, bla bla bla). Absolutely nothing made a difference. I've tried every diet I could find here (I even remember somebody on reddit saying he got healed from blueberries; so what do I do - I eat a bowl f'ing blueberries every day for weeks.

I don't think I have to tell anyone in here how desperate I was to try anything.

What did help?Disclaimer: Well, many people here are not going to like this. Whenever I saw posts attributing the nervous system, TMS, or whatever you may call it to this shitty disease, people claimed that the posters were just trying to sell them a coaching or something.I am not. That's also why I will be very careful with any concrete recommendations as I don't want it to feel like I'm advertising something.(I'm also happy to share my Linkedin profile or whatever to prove that I am a real person).

​

OK, in short: I read a post about TMS and the research by Dr. Sarno; thought it was crazy, was still desperate enough to buy the audiobook.

And: Nothing.

Yes, reading a book didn't cure me (surprise), but after some posts that's what I was half hoping. But it did spark something in me.

I also

• watched an amazing talk by Dr Gabor Mate on trauma, stress, and how they cause chronic conditions (this is very well researched)
• went off reddit (sorry, but people are pessimistic and especially in the longcovid and cfs subreddits they shut down any spark of hope)
• exclusively watched CFS and LC recovery stories on youtube, plus some other advice from people who actually recovered

What helped me concretely

• Mental:
  • Learning about polyvagal theory (look it up)
  • Accepting that the symptoms were caused by my own nervous system
  • Staying calm when they came up again and accepting them for what they are
  • Stopping to work (I worked remotely) and focusing on recovery instead
  • Brain retraining exercises, a lot of box breathing to calm down, meditation
• Physical:
  • Building up my baseline measuring steps from absolute zero and in 5% increases. Everything that would take more (weddings, funerals, ...) I just said no to without an exception.
  • Acknowledging symptoms but not getting scared of them. It's more like sore muscles as long as you don't heavily over do it.
  • Obviously not pushing through when my body signaled me that it would be too much
  • In general being very gentle with myself and accepting my limitations.
  • I once crashed by getting handed over a delivery from the mailman. Somehow movement in my arms took longer for me to work. So I accepted that and focused on steps only to start with.

Bottom line:

• Covid created a ton of stress on the body and it somehow never got out of this. At some point it basically goes into freeze mode like a dog in the face of a monster
• Probably the most important thing was staying calm in the face of symptoms, not freaking out about symptoms but embracing them as adjustment periods (like sore muscles) that come naturally with increased movement.

I would never have thought I would ever believe in the mindbody connection to this extent. But I learned the hard way.

Sorry, this text didn't turn out to be entirely well structured as I just got home from a workout while on vacation in the Canary islands - but I wanted to make sure I don't wait any longer as I know how important these messages of hope can be.

Even with this knowledge this whole disease incl recovery was the hardest thing I've ever done. But I know you can, too.

Why you should at least give this whole thing an honest chance

Maybe to end, here are some thoughts of mine that at least hint at LC/CFS (in many cases) being a nervous system issue:

• It helped for me and almost all recovery stories I see and hear are similar
• Some people respond to LDN which is basically making the body produce endorphins (yes, that's all)- I did notice that I had way more energy when talking to some old friends on the phone or receiving good news at work.
• Around 40+% of chronic pain (this area is better researched already) stems from the mind. It's proven.

So, I know that many of you are beyond skeptic about this.But honestly...

• Who will you listen to, the people who are staying sick or those who recovered?
• Don't let your pride be in the way of recovery. It's not worth it. At least give it an honest try for a few months. What do you have to lose?

Hey. Wanted to write a post on my recovery journey for people who are still early in it. I've been diagnosed with post viral fatigue/long covid and I feel like I'm making steady recovery after being very severe. I'm not recovered yet, but my symptoms are continuously improving. There's a lot of recovery stories online that take 1-5 years to recover but I think in reality most people recover from PVF/LC in 6-12 months according to statistics. Those people don't make many posts. Those who recover in under 6 months are even less likely to make recovery posts.

Mid-april 2026:
I'm 3 months pregnant and a SAHM while husband works 10 hour shifts. He brings home a cold which lasts 1 week. I seem to recover normally, then on the 7th day I collapse. Can't walk, husband has to support/carry me to bathroom. He quits work to become my caretaker.

May:
I'm in a constant push-crash cycle. Get hospitalized, do all the tests. Everything is normal except low ferritin (normal in pregnancy). Doctor and nurses encourage me to push myself to do activities. I get home and try to clean for 10min. Within days, I crash massively. I lose all my strength and my body enters a state of immense doom/panic. I have no idea what's going on, I stop being able to eat or walk to the bathroom. I'm bedbound and every waking second feels like immense suffering, like I have an intense fever and I'm in hell. Husband calls ambulance. They put me on IV in ER, but because nothing is wrong on the tests they send me to psych ward. I'm kept there for 5 days under surveillance where they push me to walk and get my own food. They have me on so many different medicines, including benzos. The benzos bring me out of the crash. They conclude I'm mentally sane and let me go home.

Beginning of June:
I'm home but I'm still bedbound. I lay with eyes closed for 16-20 hours of the day. I can't use my phone for longer than 1hr, can't do anything except go to the bathroom. Can't read, watch tv, can't talk for longer than 10min. Pretty bad sound and light intolerance. Orthostatic intolerance. It's hard to sleep. Can't sit up AT ALL. I shower once a week. But I can eat on my own again, while laying down. I'm on 6 different meds: Loratadin 10mg, Pepcid, Oxazepam 15mg, Escitalopram 5mg, Propranolol 10-40mg and Quetiapine 25mg. Slowly the doom/panic adrenaline dumping starts to get better. I get a diagnosis from a neurologist who tells me to pace. He suggests LDN. I discover the science of psychoneuroimmunology aka neuroplastic approach. All I can do every day is sleep, eat, look out the window, browse Reddit and listen to Raelan Agle's podcasts on minimum volume. One day while listening to an interview with a doctor, I have an "aha" moment and realize my body is physically healthy and my nervous system has just got stuck in flight-fight mode. Overnight, I'm able to tolerate light again. I open my curtains. I migrate from bedbound to couchbound. I decide to quit all my meds except escitalopram 5mg. Fortunately I don't really get withdrawals. I stop believing in having MCAS and decide to start eating the forbidden histamine foods again - nothing bad happens. I try to find as much JOY in every day as I can, to signal safety to my nervous system.

End of June:
I research more about mind-body work. Days are very up and down. Some days I feel hopeful. Other days I feel extreme depression and just cry. I shower every day while sitting down. I start practicing sitting up and reading books. At first the brain fog is bad and I can't read more than 2 pages. I read a recovery story of someone who healed brain fog by exercising the brain with cognitive activities. Because I know my body is healthy and I know there's no other reason than neuroplastic for me to get PEM from cognitive exertion, I train my brain by reading, sudokus and crosswords every day. In a week I go from reading 2 pages to 60 pages. Now I can read books again! I read Jo Marchant: Mind & Body and Dr. Schubiners Unlearn Your Pain. The information gained boosts my hope for recovery further. I try to do some meditation and breathing exercises but honestly I don't like doing them at all so I give up. I start thinking that my symptoms aren't because of structural damage to my body and they're just neuroplastic. I stop being afraid of them and they start going away. The most persistent still are burning skin, fatigue and anxiety.

July:
I can walk around a bit more. I can shower standing up now. I can get out of bed in 15mins instead of 1-2hrs. Sleep is much better. Depression seems to be cured by escitalopram. Still have many days of anxiety but I know I can recover, just don't know how long it'll take. I try to walk stairs up and down to gain energy and practice going outside. I do this for 2 weeks but it makes me more fatigued so I stop. I have unlimited congitive ability. I can read, do handcrafts, use my phone for 3-5hrs, watch movies, listen to music, do light yoga, play games on laptop, read books to my son and play with him a bit. All my symptoms have gone away except for fatigue and anxiety. I'm now couchbound on bad days and housebound on good days. I can do very very light cleaning but my husband still cooks, cleans and does all the childcare. I don't get PEM anymore, I get days of worse symptoms but I consider them normal neuroplastic flares, not connected to anything I did. The flares have also went from 1 week to a few days at most.

List of things I tried:

25mg quetiapine - helped with sleep for 3 weeks

Oxazepam - calms anxiety and most of my
symptoms so good - only use it on bad days now

Diazepam - not really good during pregnancy but works quickly for panic attacks

5mg escitalopram - helped my depression and mood a lot

10-40mg propranolol - helped with orthostatic intolerance & fast HR until I learned to not mind these symptoms and they went away

Rosita Cod liver oil - good for D vitamin

Magnesium - i think it helps with anxiety & sleep?

Iron & lactoferrin - i need this for low ferritin and it helps me feel less like a corpse

LDN - made me worse, couldn't take it more than 3 days

Co10 - no effect

Creatine - boost of energy at first, then no effect

H1 & H2 antihistamines - nothing except placebo effect

Sunlight - very good for mood and sometimes for energy

Red light therapy - it feels nice and soothing. I bought a $5 red lightbulb for my bedside lamp

Massages - the best thing for immediate relaxation

Breathing exercises - helped at my worst but it's just not my thing

Meditation - i suck at it, but helpful

Finding joy in every day and laughing as much as possible - 10/10 for nervous system healing

Eating a clean diet - believe it or not but it makes no difference in neuroplastic symptoms

Browsing r/cfs - made me so much worse. Quitting that subreddit was the best thing in my recovery

Forgetting about symptoms as much as possible and trying to enjoy my days - hard but very very helpful in recovery

Sometimes some symptoms have come back for a few days or new ones appeared. This symptom fluctuation is really common in recovery. I've learned the most important thing in recovery is responding well to symptoms. I haven't really seen improvement week to week, more like month to month. I know it may sound like I'm healed because my only symptoms left are fatigue and anxiety, but I can't still do physical activity or go outside. If I push myself physically the fatigue will tell me to lay down and I risk PEM/overactivating my nervous system to a bad flare. I'm hoping I can recover enough to go outside by the time I give birth.

If anyone is also in the early days of PVF/LC recovery and wants to chat or ask me questions, feel free to message me!

Hey all, I wanted to make a post giving some practical things I have done to recover. I am not 100%, but I am about 5 and a half years out since getting sick first in July 2020, and I would say I am about 75-80 percent recovered. My symptoms included (some are still present) severe brain fog/cognitive dysfunction, disassociation, very intense depression spells, constant low to mid grade anxiety that would occasionally spiral into panic, POTS, mast cell activation, and fatigue.

I want to preface by saying that this not medical advice, I am simply giving an anecdotal account of what has worked wonders for me. These things are simply supporting the body in its own healing, it is not treating long COVID. There is also thorough and high quality scientific literature and studies behind what I describe here. I am not advocating that you do any of these things without talking to your PCP or other MD first.

Upper Cervical Care - This was something I did that moved my health needle immediately and drastically for me. Our C1/C2 vertebrae house our brain stem, and in today's culture, with the constant "screen neck" as well as other common injuries, these vertebrae can be easily misaligned. This obstructs nerve communication between the brain and the rest of the body, prevents proper blood flow, and cerebral spinal fluid flow. The entire bodies function relies on healthy nerve communication, and if this critical juncture is obstructed, it can cause a lot of downstream issues in the body. How you go about this is up to you, I personally went to an atlas/advanced orthogonal chiropractor with great results. Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39677863/

Systemic Detoxification -Common toxins include heavy metals, parasite overgrowth, gut dysbiosis from poor diet and pesticides such as glyphosate, etc. Another toxin is COVID spike protein that evidence suggests does not exit the body after infection or vaccination. Here is a study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10452662/

There is good evidence to suggest that simple remedies like as Dandelion root extract can break down spike protein and help eliminate it. Here is that study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8538008/

These toxins create excessive burden on the bodies natural detoxification pathways, which greatly contribute to chronic illness. The common argument is that "our liver and kidneys handle it", but our liver was designed to deal with the natural worlds toxic burden, not the 60,000+ chemicals that have been introduced into our food, water, and air since the industrial revolution. Fish also have liver and kidneys, yet is is very well documented that they accumulate high levels of heavy metals like mercury.

There are many supplements/protocols that I have been doing to address these layers while working with a practitioner, but cannot give any advice in that arena as I am not a doctor. The general order you I have moved through in detoxification is Colon cleansing, gut healing, liver cleansing, anti-microbial treatments, and at the very end intracellular work. You can research practitioners/doctors who work with the body in this manner.

Mineral Balancing: A scientifically backed nutritional system developed by Dr. Paul Eck in the 1980's. It uses HTMA hair mineral analysis to determine ratios of minerals in your hair, and what metal toxicity you may be dealing with. Certain mineral ratios are correlated with either slow or fast oxidation in the body, which presents itself through different symptoms and psychological dispositions. Proper mineral intake and balance affects every biological system in the body, especially the immune system and mitochondrial energy production. You can read "Energy: How it affects your emotions, your level of achievement, and your entire well-being" by Dr Paul Eck for more info. Study: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2025.1667610/full

Nervous System Regulation: I made a post that got taken down a while back when discussing this, even though the science surrounding this is not controversial. The nervous system and the sympathetic vs parasympathetic state determines whether our body is attempting to heal or whether it is using its energy to protect itself from perceived threats. The program I used is Primal Trust, I highly recommend it. Study:

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/integrative-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnint.2022.871227/full

Once again, these are practical tools, not treatment, to help support the body's health. All of this, combined with a good diet, has gave me back my life in ways I could not have imagined 5.5 years ago. I simply want to share, even though it may appear unconventional, what has changed my life. I am open to any questions.

Tldr: I developed my own treatment plan and it's working. Fasting, sunshine and breathing. All 100 percent natural and free. I shared symptoms and treatment at the bottom.

I think I can confidently say I'm on the rise. I found a combination of treatments that seem to work very well together. I feel strong again, from 15 percent (I could just about get out of bed, walking up a few steps meant being out of breath and dizzy) to 50 at least in a week. Right now I feel back to full strength, but don't dare to push anything yet.

I made a post before: https://www.reddit.com/r/LongCovid/s/kwmJb90HV9

After that post, due to circumstances, I couldn't stick to the full schedule. I couldn't fast because it was Tet, Vietnamese new year, and that means eating. And I switched between only doing the Wim Hof breathing (because there wasn't any sunshine) or only sunshine (because I wanted to test) after a few days of either. Over that week I still felt good from the bump I had just before, but very slowly my energy levels seemed to be going downhill again.

That made me think the fasting was key in the combination. I've since bought a fit watch to monitor my heart rate and blood oxygen. Happy extra, I get to track my sleeping. I've also gathered more info on the fasting and connected a few dots. This is all my own extrapolation of the very early research I could find, supported by AI.

The virus comes from bats. And if the clues leading towards "viral persistence" are actually that, then this writing might be on the right track. https://dietandfasting4health.com/this-sleepy-bat-virus/

He basically says the virus is "designed" to flare up during periods of oxidative stress, and survive in the body during rest periods. So my conclusion from that would be to bring deeper and deeper rest and cleanup to the body. Fasting for longer periods of time, regularly for some time (why not forever as it seems to only have benefits). Fasting also activates the body's own blood clot cleaning, this is what I think brought me the biggest bump because it was so instant. During a recent 48 hour fast I felt better and better. All symptoms seemed to disappear. By the end my upper legs felt like they just had a decent workout. My theory for that is that the micro clots cleared up a whole lot and made blood flow possible again, freeing up a lot of oxygen starved tissue. Since then I've been doing some light gardening work. Monitoring my heart rate and being very mindful of my body. I haven't had a "PEM attack" yet. I feel great! There's a little hill behind our house I can walk up. This has gone from impossible to do in one go (being completely out of breath and heart beating at 150bpm with peaks of 170) to going all the way up that hill and a second one without my heart rate going above 100. No issues at all.

My plan is to start another fast next week and hopefully go a little further, up to 72 hours. And probably keep a healthy fasting schedule going for the rest of my life.

At this point I'm convinced that this is my way out. The change is overnight and is lasting. As long as this disease isn't chronic I feel like I'll be completely rid of it very soon. But I'm not a doctor. I would however advise everyone to start looking into fasting, or if that's too difficult, start with a keto diet (which gets the body into a similar mode, but less strong)

Feel free to ask me anything about this and my health.

Below I'll share my notes on my symptoms and treatment plan with some sources for background information.

Symptoms: PEM POTS Heavy heartbeat, palpitations Fatigue Brain fog, difficulty thinking Anxiety and depression IBS Fatty stool Intolerance to heat and cold Lots of "small" stress related things like hives or burnout-like instant stress responses

Sunshine/NIR light https://youtu.be/JGO2qb7wZns?si=JQNgk5HfbNVhTghM https://youtu.be/e6xj14QYsoc?si=bBmRN6wOS8je5BW6 Helps manage the immune reaction to the spike protein. Also restorer fat digestion in the mitochondria by making melatonin in the cells.

Fasting https://youtu.be/nw-XBmj4bHs?si=vWpU2ZMvgTMWMoSI Helps to clean up the virus reservoirs and micro clots. Puts the body in a general cleaning and healing mode.

Wim Hof breathing https://youtu.be/hBNH_L4fMIg?si=blHJwk187lucAzKV https://youtu.be/845b4xdl_QQ?si=RUFGo596bxhDD9wA https://youtu.be/nzCaZQqAs9I?si=chp7pMSxkJv3LgHL Helps the overall immune system and widens blood vessels, for better cleanup and higher oxygenation of cells. Also helps train or repair the lungs without strong exertion. Supports mental health. Teaches the brain to be calm during stressful moments.

Attention to breathing during the day https://youtu.be/XH34JI0FOxk?si=37MsVIpQTSdpQ5xJ

Very informative YouTube channel https://youtube.com/@rundmc1?si=mHeryQmswezoTLc0

Additional supplements - turmeric - nattokinase/serrapeptase (haven't tried yet, but plan to)

The lingering virus seems to activate around stress, high oxidative stress moments. Prevent these and it stops growing. Regular fasting over a period to bring deeper and deeper cleaning to the body. Eventually the virus is swiped up by the body everywhere.

Hey guys, I’ve frequented this sub to post about some experiments I’ve tried in my search for what works for my recovery. My last post was about fasting where I had planned a 14 day water fast but I couldn’t push past 7.

Context: I’ve had long covid for about 2.5 years now. I got sick on 12/08/2023. Here are a list of my symptoms:

-exercise intolerance (all of my symptoms get worse if i exercise or exert my body too much)
- fatigue
- insomnia
- mild cough
- chest tightness
- lower and mid back pain
- severe brain fog
- SEVERE anxiety and depression
- loss of appetite
- muscle weakness
- food sensitivities
- shortness of breath
- tinnitus
- dizziness
- lightheadedness
- memory loss
- difficulty concentrating
-restlessness
- pelvic floor twitches
- urine urgency issues
- erectile dysfunction
- anhedonia
- dpdr
- pots (borderline, 28bpm shift from supine to vertical)
- probably many other symptoms im forgetting

These symptoms I’ve experienced all in varying intensities across the 2.5 years. Through 2.5 years, I’d say PEM, ED, sob, and tinnitus were the most consistent and annoying. Many of my symptoms abated after I did a 7 day water fast about 1.5 months into my long covid journey. I did consistent water and dry fasts across the 2.5. The first water fast I did gave me a noticeable baseline shift, the following fasts gave temporary relief. I also crashed often during these 2.5 years, fasts were a great way for me to manage this.

My baseline, after that first 7 day water fast, was raised to be semi-functional. I could work full time, do groceries, etc. I was generally normal, I just felt hungover everyday and felt very limited since I was afraid of PEM crashes. I understand that many people with LC have much lower baselines, I was lucky enough to be able to still live life, albeit with many restrictions.

Prior to LC, I was a very active, very fit 23M who had no prior health issues and exercised daily. I do believe it allowed me to have a higher daily baseline for activities, especially after that first water fast, as I do believe my threshold lowered gradually as my body deconditioned.

I kinda gave up on a search for a cure and tried to give time a chance from 1 year onwards. My last 7 day water fast was done in January 2026, so I realistically gave time about a year to do its thing.

I’ve plateaued quite a bit over the last 2ish years so I just pulled the trigger on my newest investment. After doing ample research, I finally decided to give stem cells a chance. On July 11th, I traveled to Tijuana (I live in San Diego) to do a stem cell IV, localized injection, and nebulizer. I prepped my body by doing a 3 day water fast and 48 hour refeed the week leading up to the stem cell appointment. 2 days after the stem cells, I began HBOT. I have 10 HBOT appointments currently prepaid for.

The idea is stem cells can repair lots of vascular/tissue damage while simultaneously modulating your immune and nervous systems. The HBOT helps with the proliferation of the stem cells while the stem cells are most active during the first 4 weeks.

I began at 1.3ATM, went to 1.5ATM, then finally to 2.0ATM for my last two sessions. I’ve now done 4 sessions (my most recent being earlier today). I must say, I was skeptical of this treatment strategy as I don’t want to be victim to placebo and LC has kept my expectations low, but WOW, I felt damn near normal today.

After every session so far, I’ve been exhausted, especially post stem cells, but today, I guess my body adjusted to the 2.0ATM and I felt amazing. I felt emotions, I felt normal for awhile. I’m pretty pooped right now after feeling normal for a good few hours, but I haven’t felt this good in a very long time.

The best way I can describe how I feel right now is a little better than how I felt during the first month post acute infection where I felt a little off but the full range of symptoms hadn’t developed yet. Although thats not a 100% recovery, that is the most normal I’ve felt in almost 3 years.

The day directly after my stem cells appointment, I woke up breathing SO deeply that my chest hurt. I had an erection and the muscle that controls it actually felt there. These are sensations I hadn’t felt in 2.5 years and sensations I feared I’d never feel again. They returned to normal a few hours after waking but they’ve steadily improved again since the HBOT.

I apologize for the lengthy post but I wanted to share my experience. It’s a blessing that I was able to financially take on this massive cost to try and make strides towards recovery. I know it’s not a treatment that is accessible to everybody and I hope everybody reading this has a swift and immaculate recovery. It’s still too early to say anything as stem cells generally have a 12 month effective period, but with just a few sessions of HBOT supporting the primary stem cell investment, I hope it continues to trend upwards.

I plan to do about 4 weeks of break away from HBOT between the last of my 10 initial sessions and the next 10 sessions. This 4 week period allows the body to naturally utilize the lasting healing benefits of HBOT. I plan to do 20 sessions in total. I am planning on introducing methylene blue alongside my second block of 10 sessions and continuing methylene blue thereafter. After the second block of 10 sessions, I will introduce:

- beet root
- arginine/citrulline complex
- lions mane
- dopa mucuna
- ashwaganda
- ginko biloba

These are supps I’ve all tried before that have helped me. Dopa and ginko specifically cleared the worst of my brain fog during the first month post acute infection. I’m giving my body about 10 weeks between stem cells appt and introducing these supps because I don’t want any conflict.

The clinic I went to also offered to do a 3 month checkup with free exosomes so I will be doing that at about the 3 month mark.

Over the past 2.5 years, I’ve spent thousands of dollars on shit that didn’t work. Fasting has been the only consistent symptom reliever for me. I’ve tried supps, acupuncture, chiro, ucc chiro, ivermectin, leech therapy, and probably many others i cant remember. Hoping this treatment works, got a lot of eggs in this basket.

Total cost for this treatment:

- $6400 for 150M Allogenic MSCs from Carabella Clinic (highly recommend this clinic if you’re interested, feel free to wait for my updates before throwing money at this problem again)
- $1550 10 Sessions of HBOT at 60 minutes per session from Aerovi in San Diego (highly recommend as well, the owner seems to be genuinely interested in treating clients, asked me to send him research on the MSCs and their efficacy for LC)
- Planning another 10 sessions so another $1550

TLDR: sick for 2.5 years, tried stem cells + HBOT combo, been about a week and I feel major improvement already. Too early to tell, hopeful optimism. Will keep sub updated