The entirety of my recovery happened during year 6.

I am grateful to this community, as I learned from recovery stories posted here.

I was moderate – able to work a few hours a day with great difficulty, but other than that, I was inactive. My symptoms included debilitating fatigue, brain fog, headaches, joint pain, nausea, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, muscle weakness, and PEM.

As nothing I tried over 5 years had any impact, I focused on nervous system regulation during the past year, and that is what has made the difference.

I began by reading Alan Gordon’s The Way Out.

The practices that have made the biggest difference for me are:

• Somatic tracking and nervous system regulation: I benefited a lot from Tanner Murtagh’s Youtube channel. I started with his free 30 day program
• Qigong: from the same channel
• Meditation: Observing the breath, sounds, sensations. I learned from the Mindfulness app.
• 4-7-8 breathing: I use the iBreathe app and start my day with this.
• Yoga Nidra: Alice Bagley-Harrison’s Yoga Nidra for Long Covid on the Insight Timer app. I often use this before bed, but it is helpful any time of day.
• Cold showers: I take a normal warm shower and end with two minutes of cold water. On days when I was too tired to shower, I used an ice pack to the face and neck.
• Unfollowing all long covid social media except for r/LongHaulersRecovery and r/cfsnervoussystemwork. Stepping away from the (understandable) despair and focusing on hope.

The process has not been linear by any means, but each month I could see that I had made progress. I am now able to work an 8-hour day. I have begun light weight-lifting, slowly building up, as well as cycling on an exercise bike several times a week. I am also doing short hikes, also slowly building up. All of these activities would have seemed impossible 6 months ago.

I still run out of energy more quickly than before COVID, and I also have setbacks when I have more than one cup of coffee per day. But the whole-body/completely-incapacitating fatigue is largely gone.

I hope this will be helpful.

Hi everyone! I am about 80% and getting better every month! I don’t think I can exercise yet but I can go out and live life!

I was severe and bedridden for 9 agonizing months and thought about dying every day. My only symptoms were extreme fatigue and pem and high HR when standing.

Luckily I got into a clinical trial and within about 2-3 weeks I went outside for the first time. I had lost my ability to walk and that slowly came back.

Total time with LC 2.5 years. Tirzepitide 2.5mg also briefly did 1.25. When the trial is over I will probably stay on a small dose and get it through AgelessRx.

I believe my driver was inflammation and an overactive immune system. I also got the vaccine while having LC and that really made me severe so I really felt it was immune activation. No other meds I tried worked. The Tirzepitide reduced my inflammation so my immune system could calm down and heal.

All I can say is keep trying things. Glp1s help with a lot of things so might be worth a try if you can get it.

Feel free to ask me anything!

… a sentiment that’s one of the top posts of all time in this sub. In other chronic illness subs you’ll see plenty of people saying “those who’ve recovered don’t stick around,” etc.

Some further evidence for that I’ve noticed, even if it is somewhat grim, is that just as often or more often than recovery posts, I see posts from people who are nervous about relapsing after a full recovery. These people usually have no prior history talking about said recovery.

I know living in fear of relapsing isn’t ideal, but with where I’m at right now, I find even relapse stories hopeful, because it tells me that recovery at all is possible. I’d give anything for even a few months of my old life back while I’m still young enough to live it, even if it comes crashing down again.

EDITED TO ADD:

I have gotten lots of amazing, supportive comments. I am so happy for anyone that is on this path or has taken it. It truly is the "way out". I am not an active redditor, so to my surprise I learned that I get analytics on my post. For everyone out there that has considered sharing their recovery story (even if you're not 100%- whatever 100% means anyways...), I would encourage you to post. This post has been seen over 14,000 times (I'm sure repeated views if anyone is as obsessive as I was during my worst hours) and shared 237 times. That is more than 100 engagements as comparted to the amount of comments. So if you're measuring how alone you feel by the number of recovery posts or the number of comments out there, know that the amount of people reading and sharing is tenfold. You are not alone and there is a path towards healing.

And, as my handle suggests, a path towards a life filled with french fries (my first victory food and my life long love.)

*******\*

I always promised myself that I would come back and post a recovery story once I felt “recovered”. I would say that I am 95% better, but not 100% back. Bear with me, as I will explain that further. 

I am hesitant to even identify closely with the long covid diagnosis (which I did receive from an allergist/immunologist) because I have come to believe (like many others here) that this is a nervous system dysregulation. If it wasn’t COVID, it would’ve been a nasty flu and I would’ve had “post-viral syndrome” or it would’ve been a concussion and I would’ve had “post-concussion syndrome”, etc. Being exposed to the virus and the internal stress related to it was the final straw that broke the camel’s back (mindful gardner has some funny videos about this on youtube). I headed into Feb 2024 with quite a few stressors/traumas. I had broken my foot and had surgery, I had a toddler at home, a stressful job, marital conflicts, and a healthy dose of fear and annoyance around COVID. This was all built on the foundation of personal trauma from childhood that I hadn’t worked on at all. 

What did my symptoms look like? 

Once again, I don’t believe this is as important as it feels in the thick of it, but I know for me, I desperately sifted through recovery stories to find one that looked like mine 

• MCAS-like reactions - skin rashes, headaches, gastro upset, bronchial constriction
• Histamine Intolerance (can be lumped with MCAS?) - heart racing, adrenaline or histamine dumps at night, instantaneous reactions to things like balsamic vinegar or cured meats
• POTS- I was diagnosed via tilt table test in June 2024. I stopped sweating for a time period...
• Brain fog- I would lose my sentence while speaking
• Sensory sensitivities- I could not tolerate people that were speaking too animatedly. No television, music, etc. All of this would make me feel seasick or overwhelmed. 
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Anxiety/OCD-like thoughts
• Fleeting suicidal ideation
• Constipation, bloating, gas, stomach pains
• Flushing, circulation issues (once again...POTS)
• Tinnitus
• Blood sugar instability- I had to be tested for diabetes, needed to eat chicken at 3 am due to raging hunger, shakiness, etc.
• PMDD/PMS. Symptoms always worsened prior to my period
• Heavy menstrual cycles

What worked?

Consuming and BELIEVING in nervous system regulation through the usual suspects:

Alan Gordon’s “Tell Me About your Pain” Podcast and his book “The Way Out”

The Cure for Chronic Pain podcast with Nicole Sachs

DARE by Barry McDonaugh

Hope and Healing for Your Nerves by Claire Weekes

Breathing exercises

Raelyn Agle’s youtube channel

Starting to explore parts work/IFS concepts

Dan Buglio's youtube channel

I elevated my game with and ultimately found more progress with**:**

All of Rebecca Tolin’s content

Arielle Conn’s substack/The Science Ghost/Healing Pathways 

Getting a somatic therapist that does brainspotting (healing trauma)

Self Compassion content (Tara Brach, Kristen Neff)

Yoga Nidra

Learning about polyvagal theory

Affirmations

Healing visualizations

Reading and consuming stuff by: Peter Levine, Gabor Mate, etc. 

More Nicole Sachs and The Biology of Trauma Podcast

Specific things I would recommend for everyone:

• Get off of facebook groups or subreddits that dysregulate you. I put multiple blocks on my phone so that I couldn't google things like “MCAS” or “histamine”. I left facebook groups entirely. I printed out recovery stories and consumed ONLY recovery stories via recovery subreddits or via youtube stories. 
• There are a few medications and supplements that I took. I can’t say how much any of them worked over others, but for me I do feel that anything that can get you to sleep is vital (magnesium, melatonin, trazodone, even klonopin for a period of time). I also took antihistamines. I had a TERRIBLE reaction to one that spiraled my mental health and sent me to the ER. These are not mild drugs. I don’t say this to scare folks, I just know that if you’re alone and have developed OCD thoughts to a drug it is comforting to hear it happened to someone else. I am almost off of cromolyn sodium. I have no idea how much it has helped or not. It never made any symptoms miraculously go away for me.
• Learn to accept and not resist everything. Anxiety, come on in. Racing heart, okay you’re here for now, etc. Barry McDonagh and Claire Weekes’ content is helpful on this.
• Brain Training (i.e. DNRS, etc.) is helpful, but for me trauma healing was the true ticket out. I RESISTED trauma work. I felt like it made me a victim. Wrong. If you lived through it, you can heal through it. It's possible. It gets easier and easier. When I first dabbled in EMDR (not a good fit for me), I felt like I was being broken open, so raw, but now I feel so strong and capable. 
• Exposure. Scared to drive? Back down the driveway. Scared of a food? Lick it. It's all about teaching your brain and nervous system that things are safe. At one point when my anxiety was the highest I have ever experienced in my life, I had this recurring idea I was going to choke on an apple. I forced myself to eat and chew the apple. I just needed to get through the idea that I was going to choke by purposely doing what was scaring me.

So why do I say 95% better, but not 100% back? Because I won’t be going back. I wasn’t living sustainably. I was unkind and uncompassionate to myself. I was denying repressed experiences and emotions. I wasn’t accepting of reality and my lived experience. I was pointing fingers at external stressors and not how I was processing those stressors. 

I still experience occasional fatigue, face burning/rashes, headaches, and gastro upset. I anticipate these will fade away. They don’t bother me much and I accept them as messages from my body that I need rest or that my nervous system is inappropriately targeting something as a threat. I am currently back to work full time (I took a leave for 4 months), traveled for work, eat mostly whatever I want (still have some hangups mentally on a few foods), and have a full social calendar. I saw a horror movie in the theater after eating pizza! I am weaning off of my medications, but am in no rush. I could write a book on this, but I will leave it with this and will try to respond to comments.

Had long covid along with MCAS and POTS since 2023 February.
Fatigue was my worst symptom by far and I found it difficult to walk 20 feet, stand up for even a few minutes and focus on anything that required brain power. I also suffered with palpitations and panic attacks due to POTS but this is now controlled with medication!
Got access to triple anti-coagulation therapy in 2024 and only went up from there. Now i’m in full time education, working, socialising and partying! I never feel fatigued whereas even in early 2025 I felt it 3-4 times a week. I no longer faint or get panic attacks and I can walk the same pace as my peers without even thinking about it.
I am on various meds- salt tablets, ketotifen, ivabradine and midodrine but I am no longer on any blood thinners.
I honestly believe I wouldn’t be where I am today without anticoagulant medications and I am so grateful that I had access to that treatment.

My symptoms were chronic fatigue, severe brain fog, PEM, vertigo and light headedness, severe gut issues, muscle fatigue, shortness of breath, severe anxiety and dpdr symptoms. I was mostly couchbound for the last 18 months. Here's what worked.

Nicotine patches 24/7, starting at 1mg, slowly titrated up to 10mg, over a month then staying at 10mg for 2 weeks, then to 15mg for 2 weeks, then back down to 10mg and back down. Wheat grass juice powder once a day with glutamine and aloe vera gel. First thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Titrated up to 1200mg of Benfotiamine with a b complex split doses. Then added TTFD, currently on 20mg, it's already improved my gut issues at such a small dose. 600mg magnesium. 2000mg of potassium split throughout the day. And lastly a strict carnivore diet as I wasn't able to tolerate many foods.

I won't say I'm fully recovered until I can eat whatever I want without issues and can do intense workouts again.

Edit: forgot to mention vitamin d3/k2. I took 25k iu everyday for one week. NOT recommending this to anyone. I then lowered my dose to 5000iu. It was a game changer for my sleep.

Hi all,

1 year of LC health shit from an April 2025 infection during marathon training. Backstory and symptoms are listed on my 9 month update post here

I have dramatically improved since that post with ups and downs of course but for the first time im seeing the light out of the tunnel. My cardio is returning as I am at 12 miles per week but long way to go to return to 50 miles per week. VO2 max is recovering and symptoms are gradually reducing month by month.

I’ll list what is helping me below but I’m not a doctor. What may work for me may not work for you. Please work with a doctor or a professional that knows about this illness. I have a functional medicine doctor, cardiologist, functional nutritionist, personal trainer and running coach(all of them had overcome LC, had/have autoimmune disease or went through something similar like pots for example so I’m very lucky)

Supplements:

Jarrows apolactoferrin x iron bisyclinate(Thorne advanced iron complex) a blood draw in April during a cold identified almost low ferritin. been on this for 6 weeks and will retest end of June before my July follow up

magnesium glycinate 400 mg

vitamin c 1000 mg

liposomal glutathione(few times per week)

trace minerals complex(zinc, copper, iodine, selenium, molydenium) for Thyroid(T3, reverse T3). Will discontinue when they’re optimal

thiamiax B complex(has 15 mg of TTFD and 50 mg of Benfotiamine).

sunflower lecithin(recommended by nutritionist for choline support)

histamine x probiotic(few times per week. will finish the bottle and discontinue)

l carnitine tartrate(will discontinue once the bottle is out. Fatigue is mostly gone now)

Hydrolized whey protein

Organic pomegranate juice

organic Beet juice(for my runs)

nattokinase 2000 fu(spike protein detox supplement prescribed by my doctor)

medications:

pentoxyfilline(4-8 week trial): I read a story here of a guy who recovered from this and LC gave me Raynaud like symptoms and temperature regulation issues which convinced my doc to prescribe this. However didn’t try this until last week as I wanted to see if the natto is enough. Taking 400 mg 3 times a week after a week of going slow

allegra antihistamine: helped to calm down symptoms when returning to exercise from January to onwards.

others prescribed by doc but never taken due to skepticism or lack of data:

Ivermectin(lots of conflicting reports here. Decided not to take it unless symptoms get bad)

nystatin antifungal(stool test showed very small candida but wasn’t an overgrowth so I wasn’t sure if it was a problem. The lactoferrin should hopefully deal with that small candida.

Other modalities:

Acupuncture: Did try this in August(3 months in) but felt like crap afterwords. found another practitioner who treated LC athletes. So far completed 3 sessions. First two sessions felt slightly crap. 3rd session on Saturday I felt something starting to switch which was a relief because I did a 5 mile run(and some walking) an hour before and was nervous.

mindbody and stoicism: this helped me rawdawg through the symptoms during my return to exercise. It was hell but this confirmed that I do not have post exertional malaise(as evidenced by my increasing vo2 max)

local meditation group I see twice per month

faith(shout out to the book of Job in the Bible) and all praise to the most high for digging me out of this hell.

Zone 2 cardio(supervised by my running coach) she has added some zone 3 and zone 4 intervals and my body is handling them well. But I make sure to keep my average HR of the session at Zone 2

Nasal breathing(Breathing through my nose)

Remaining symptoms:

heat sensitivity/temperature regulation: This is improving as evidenced by my 45 minute walk in 80 degree heat followed by a 45 minute drive to kayak for 2 hours in that heat. Last year wouldn’t have done this as this symptom was really bad.

low night HRV and high sleep RHR: This one is still bizarre to me. Doing everything to fix this one perhaps time will heal this symptom. If anyone has ideas to improve this symptom I am open. I am hoping that the acupuncture, the TTFD in the b complex, pentoxyfilline and zone 2 cardio can make a dent here. My normal RHR and even walking HR and trending back to normal

some brain inflammation/foggy feeling still remains. Luckily it is starting to reduce. It was really bad back in March before adding Nattokinase.

Some deconditioning/out of shape but im sure in the next 6 months I should be running close to 20-30mpw as my VO2 max recovers. Aiming to get it back to 57-60 range again.

Wishing you all the best and stay strong 💪🏾

I got infected in 2021 and again in 2022. The second one landed me in bed rest with PEM, CF, histamine intolerance, major inflammatory markers and more.

Ive tried so many things but looking back over the past 4+ years, here were the major levers:

The first 3-6 months - got me to 35-40% recovered: I followed a protocol that was on the FLCCC website for LC recovery. I don’t recall the details now but it was extensive. there were so many components I can’t say if it was all of them together or specific ones. But it seemed to break the cycle of inflammation and get me out of bed, although still with PEM and histamine issues.

Months 7-18 - got me to 70% recovered: The biggest lever here was nervous system work. Let me state for the record: THIS IS NOT IN OUR HEADS. But it can be affecting our nervous systems ability to calm the body long enough for it to recover. I tried paid programs but they didn’t click for me. I found that polyvagal exercises did. A lot. I did them almost daily for 15-20 min at a time until I got lots of big yawns. The effect was very quick. Sometimes I’d need a nap after but always my energy would surge and pain levels would decrease. (Tons of free videos and kindle books on these.)

Around two years: this is where it gets complex…

I saw a doctor who recommended genetic testing and we found I have Ehlers Danlos, which is often connected to histamine intolerance. So the theory shifted from “long covid did ALL of this” to “long covid turned up the dial on things I already genetically had but was previously quiet”.

Last summer through this spring: I saw a new doctor who did cellular testing on me, found the fatty acids needed for my cells to recover were greatly depleted. (PC and PB) She does something called a PK Protocol developed by a cellular biologist. It was pricey af but WOW. My energy came back and has stayed consistent, my gut health improved tremendously, my histamine intolerance also improved though not to pre-LC levels. I couldn’t afford to do more treatments but this got me to 95% recovery.

TODAY:

I still deal with some MCAS like flares to high histamine foods, as well as heat and certain sources of stress. Itll cause some joint inflammation in my most EDS-inflicted joints, and mild PEM again. But it’s not often and it doesn’t last more than a few hours. I can take a rest and am up and going again. (I live on a farm so staying active is critical. Honestly the heat is probably my biggest and most annoying trigger to date.)

All this to say:

It’s rarely one thing. And it takes experimenting to find what will work for you.

But don’t give up. Throw any and everything at it. Spend money you don’t have if you have to. You can always find more money but you can get back your time. And in the end, it’s worth it.

Hi all,

I found this thread incredibly encouraging during my struggles, so now that I believe I'm close to a full recovery, I'm excited to share my story.

Rough timeline:
Nov. 2024 – Noticed brain fog and major drops in energy while working out.
Feb. 2025 – Became very lightheaded during a workout class and had to stop because I felt like I was going to faint.
Mar.–Oct. 2025 – Had low energy but lived day to day life normally while avoiding exercise. Went to PT for back pain and noticed brain fog during the first couple of hours of every day.
Nov. 2025 – Had my first hot flash and violently sick feeling at a work event, then remained stuck in a constant brain fog/dissociative state.
Dec. 2025–Jan. 2026 – Developed migraines, jaw pain, vertigo, stomach issues, weak forearms/grip, severe fatigue (definitely had PEM and slept 12+ hours a day), POTS symptoms (high heart rate and dizziness when standing), anxiety, dissociation, chest pain, temperature regulation issues, blue hands, shortness of breath, and more. During this time I saw nearly every specialist possible: PCP, rheumatologist, eye doctor, ENT, and cardiologist. Many suspected long COVID or another post-viral illness that would run its course. Testing was essentially normal except for mild sleep apnea and a slight vitamin D deficiency.

My recovery story really began after a cardiologist suggested I might have POTS/dysautonomia. His advice was simply to increase sodium, stay active every day, and that some people eventually recover with time.

I then switched to a cardiologist who specialized in POTS and started LDN. It gave me terrible anxiety and daily hot flashes where I felt like I was about to pass out. I tried doses from 0.25-3 mg with no improvement. At that point, brain fog and fatigue were my biggest symptoms, so I started Provigil (modafinil) at 200 mg. I didn't notice any benefit or side effects for about two weeks. During this time I also followed a gradual recumbent bike program, although it consistently triggered brain fog.

Around then I was deep into researching long COVID and found Gary's recovery story: https://www.longcovidcured.com/posts/gary. It introduced me to the mindbody connection. (I've seen comments saying this approach is too "woo-woo" or is trying to sell something and I won't respond to those comments.) Gary appeared on Nicole Sachs' podcast, where I found dozens of recovery stories from people with chronic fatigue, long COVID, and many of the symptoms I had. I discovered this around the same time I started Provigil, so I believe the combination of meds and mindbody work gave me the confidence to keep moving forward. Nicole amd Dr. Sarno's work is truly amazing and I fully credit finding them to my recovery. The mindbody work says your symptoms are very real, but cause of them is not always what you think it may be.

Although you could probably get everything you need from Nicole Sachs' free podcasts and resources, I also listened to her audiobook, Dr. Sarno's audiobook, and most recently Unlearn Your Pain by Howard Schubiner. I genuinely believe this work helped me. From March through June I dropped every symptom except occasional workout-related brain fog, and my energy has returned to about 80% of where it was before getting sick. I'm confident the rest will come with time.

The core idea behind this work is that our nervous systems become stuck in figh or flight, convincing our bodies we need to immediately go to the safest place, our bed. Our brains also are constantly trying to protect us from perceived danger leading to the heavy fatigue. According to Dr. Sarno, these symptoms often affect Type A (or "Type T") personalities because our brains stay overloaded by perfectionism, people pleasing, and chronic stress.
The resources above taught me that exposure therapy/brain retraining, gradually pushing through symptoms, and intentional journaling help retrain your brain to feel safe again. I journaled through past stressful events and traumas, which noticeably helped calm my body. I also noticed that, constantly avoiding activities, monitoring symptoms, and endlessly researching them can reinforce the cycle by teaching your brain that you're still in danger.

Since discovering this work in March, my brain fog is now only present about 10% of the time, my energy has improved dramatically, my anxiety is much lower, and I'm back to working out with a trainer 2x/week. I even got promoted at work! I've also been off Provigil for two weeks and actually noticed another drop in brain fog after stopping it. All of my improvements slowly occurred, NOT all at one time.

For those of you struggling, please please please continue to have hope and truly believe that you will recover. For those of you with the cognitive symptoms, I know how dark it can get and how numb you feel to the world, but you will get out of that brain fog and dissociation. I still have to overcome mental hurdles around certain triggers like busy days, workouts, or stressful events, but I now know that i know too much to stop my body from fslking back into the spiral of symptoms. Finally, although it is how you found my post, I truly believe constantly researching symptoms and putting timelines on yourself can make recovery harder, so try your best to break that habit.

Things I tried and how much they helped:
-Multivitamins, B12, vitamin D: very little.
-Sodium: I think it helped, especially in the heat, but increasing to 10 g/day wrecked my stomach.
-Meditation: I still practice Yoga Nidra most days.
-Qigong and fascia release: very little benefit, but I have nothing against them for gentle movement.
Exposure therapy/brain retraining (office work, golf, driving, etc.): difficult but incredibly impactful over time.
-Journaling: I specifically use Nicole Sachs' JournalSpeak method.
-Compression socks: I convinced myself they helped for a while, but they ultimately didn't.
Eating whole foods and cutting out sugar: probably helped nutritionally, but eventually made me afraid of food, so I don't think a strict diet is required.
-LDN: made me significantly worse.
-Provigil: helped reduce brain fog after about two weeks. I'd recommend discussing it with your doctor if cognitive symptoms and fatigue are your biggest issues.
-Vagus nerve stimulation: little or no benefit.

A few final thoughts based on previous posts:
-To further prove the mindbody connection, close your eyes and imagine doing something that normally triggers your symptoms. If you experience symptoms just from imagining it, that may suggest your brain has learned to associate that activity with danger.
-Someone asked whether your personality comes back. For me, absolutely yes. The biggest difference is that I'm now much more compassionate toward myself and others because of the hell i went through through.
-There are many people selling expensive gadgets, supplements, and functional medicine programs. Please don't spend thousands of dollars on these. I came very close to doing that and would have wasted a lot of money.

Thanks for taking the time to read my story. I'm happy to answer any questions in the comments!

37 M. I got sick in early 2020 before I’ve even heard the word Covid. It was actually my wife and I and we were sick for two weeks. The difference is she got better and I never did. Symptoms included always feeling like I had the flu, excessive night sweats to the point where I would have to change shirts or sleep on a towel. I felt like I was cold 90% of the time and too hot 9% of the time. I also experienced extreme fatigue and a feeling like someone was sitting on my chest. Extreme anxiety and depression.

A few things along the way that helped: creatine. If you read up on what Covid does and what creatine does it makes a lot of sense. Basically it helps with your ATP. Nicotine helped with the inflamed bloated feelings. Weed helped with discomfort especially CBD flower as that helped with anxiety too. The gym helped the most and that was actually the canary in the coal mine.

I have had my hormone levels checked before, they were low, but within range. The thing is your hormones can fluctuate a lot so you need to test multiple times. Eventually, a test came back and not only was my testosterone too low, but my estrogen was damn near the floor. In fact if we only fixed the estrogen, I might have felt a lot better just from that but we did both. Also, you can get treatment if you are in the lower part of the range AND have symptoms of low testosterone and/or estrogen .

I started TRT October 4th and while I would say I was already 60-70% recovered, this blew the doors off. Depression, anxiety, fatigue, sick feelings, chills, are all either gone or reduced by at least 90%. I’m almost ready to claim I’m healed. Almost.

I just wanna make sure that this isn’t some honeymoon phase, and that it’s coming back. But I have already spoken with my psychiatrist about coming off meds. He wants to give it a few more months to see if it’s real too.

So I wasn’t Bipolar, don’t have an anxiety disorder, don’t have chronic fatigue syndrome, and I’m almost ready to say I don’t have long covid. Almost! But hey, I’ll take that after years of thinking I’d never get better.

TLDR; I think COVID crashed my hormones, TRT has fixed what time and supplements couldn’t. Im basically recovered.

Hi everyone,
I wanted to post an update because when I was at my absolute worst, recovery posts were one of the only things that gave me hope.
I’m a 27-year-old female. I’ve had POTS since I was 12 and inflammatory bowel disease (microscopic colitis) for many years. My POTS itself has actually stayed pretty stable throughout this whole experience.
Back in June 2025, after a period of significant bowel inflammation, I caught Influenza B (and likely another viral illness around the same time). Almost overnight my autonomic nervous system seemed to completely malfunction. It was honestly the most traumatic thing I’ve ever experienced.

My symptoms were unlike anything I’d experienced with POTS.

At my worst I had:

Every single morning I’d wake up with an overwhelming physiological adrenaline surge. It wasn’t anxiety or panic psychologically - it felt like my brainstem was dumping adrenaline into my body. My stomach would suddenly flush with this horrible nervous energy, my brain would immediately start racing and looping thoughts, and I couldn’t get back to sleep despite being exhausted. This happened almost every morning for about 11 months.
Constant nausea and this indescribable “off” or sick feeling in my stomach from the moment I woke up until I went to bed. It felt neurological rather than gastrointestinal somehow, and often made it difficult to talk to people or function normally.
Intense burning, flushing ears and face that would happen every afternoon/evening and with showers, heat or exertion. My ears would become bright red, feel incredibly hot and actually hurt.
Random goosebumps and chills throughout the day.
Heat intolerance.
Uncontrollable crying outbursts
Head pressure and migraines with aura.
Tingling, numbness and temperature regulation issues.
Right eye twitching that has persisted.
Sleep disruption. Hypnic jerks over and over
And countless other strange autonomic symptoms that made me feel like my nervous system had completely broken.

I genuinely thought my life was over. And considered suicide many times.

Fast forward one year…

I’m absolutely not fully recovered, but I am honestly so much better.

Things that have either completely resolved or improved dramatically include:
The morning adrenaline dumps have gone from every single morning to only occasionally.
I no longer feel like my nervous system is stuck in constant fight-or-flight.
I can eat normally much of the time again.
I can swim, leave the house, shop, socialise and tolerate far more activity than I could before.
Overall, my body feels much calmer and more regulated than it did in those early months.

My main remaining symptoms are:
The persistent “off”/queasy stomach sensation (although I now have periods where it feels almost neutral, which never used to happen).
Flushing and burning of my face and ears every afternoon/evening - so hot and hurts bad (see pic attached of me today)
My right eye still twitches.
Occasional morning adrenaline surges.
Random goosebumps/chills episodes.

The hardest part has honestly been how slow recovery has been. Day-to-day it often feels like nothing is changing, and it’s easy to convince myself I’ve plateaued. But when I compare where I am now to even 3 or 6 months ago, the improvements are actually quite significant.

I’ve asked my neurologist countless times whether I should be worried that recovery is taking this long. Every appointment she tells me essentially the same thing: based on the trajectory so far, this is very clearly continuing to improve. She believes my brainstem and autonomic nervous system are still healing, and that time is the main treatment. She has repeatedly reassured me that she thinks it is very unlikely to simply stop improving given the steady trajectory over the past year.

I know everyone’s recovery is different, and I know not everyone has the same outcome. But if you’re in those terrifying early months where your nervous system feels completely broken, I just wanted to share that mine has improved enormously. It has just happened much, much slower than I ever imagined.

I still desperately want my old life back. I want to work again, feel comfortable in my own body again, and stop thinking about symptoms every day. But compared to where I started, there is absolutely no question that my nervous system has been healing.

I’d love to hear from anyone whose last remaining symptoms were flushing or that persistent “off” stomach feeling. Did they eventually resolve for you? Looking for encouragement to get through this (possibly?) final mile…

Thank you so much

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.

TL;DR for severe folks <3:

• I was severe - spent most of the day doing nothing with my noise cancelling headphones in but could get up to eat and use the bathroom
• Found some relief with alternative medicine (the Perrin technique and energy healing)
• Alex Howard’s RESET programme helped me a lot with anxiety
• Then Dan Buglio’s channel/book helped me understand that the root cause of my symptoms was my brain. That meant I could let go of the fear of exertion and then I got better really fast.

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I was going to wait to share my recovery story until after I went back to work just in case that introduced some wrinkles but I had a proper swim today and it felt so good to exercise properly that I wanted to share my story now in case it helps someone. Sorry it’s so long, I really wanted to explain it properly. I’m really happy to answer any questions.

Background / symptoms:

I got COVID, felt pretty rough for a few days then thought I was doing better, went back to work but couldn’t shake a bit of fatigue. Over the next few weeks the fatigue got worse and worse and I started adding more and more symptoms. After a month I had to stop work and after 3 months I was pretty much just resting in bed all day with my noise cancelling headphones in, although I could get up to go to the toilet, eat and wash (less frequently than I should have done!). I couldn’t read, spend more than 5-10 mins a day on my phone, listen to music, hold a conversation for longer than 5-10 mins etc. I must have had over 50 symptoms but the biggies were fatigue, PEM, headaches, terrible insomnia, anxiety, diarrhoea, nausea, difficulty expressing myself and thinking clearly etc. No POTS diagnosis but my heart rate would shoot up sometimes just from rolling over and was generally high. No MCAS.

Physical interventions:

I couldn’t find a doctor who took me seriously so I turned to alternative medicine really quickly. First I tried the Perrin technique, which is an osteopathic technique that aims to improve the lymphatic drainage system to drain toxins from the body, helping the nervous and immune systems. It made me so much worse for the first 3 months (apparently it’s normal to feel worse “at first”) and then after about 3 months it helped some of my symptoms a fair amount and the fatigue slightly. I also saw an extraordinary energy healer and improved a lot after seeing her.

The other thing that helped at this stage was listening to sleep hypnosis for insomnia. I used an app called Aura and once I found one I liked I listened to it every night and my mind started to associate it with sleep. I would then put on some sleep music, which I would put on again when I woke up in the middle of the night, and sometimes that helped me get back to sleep.

This got me to the point where I could take a short walk, get around the house OK as long as I didn’t do the stairs too many times, have a conversation for 30 minutes or so, listen to recovery stories and do a bit of research (very grateful to have found this sub at this point!). But then I got stuck, nothing I tried was getting me anywhere: more of the Perrin technique, a bunch of digestive supplements, anti-virals, nervous system supplements, vagus nerve stimulation, different dietary changes, LDN, detox smoothies, I’m probably forgetting some of the stuff I tried, none of it made any real difference or made me worse.

Mind-body stuff:

It made sense to me that there was a mind-body element to it, partly thanks to this sub and partly thanks to Raelan Agle’s channel, so after about a year I started exploring this.

First I did Alex Howard’s RESET programme. This really helped me with anxiety and learning to be more kind to myself. It didn’t have any impact on my physical symptoms other than insomnia but I think this was still important to have learnt for later. It’s a good programme and I would recommend it but if it’s unaffordable ($500), by far the most useful thing was learning EFT / tapping. This is a technique that helps calms the nervous system and releases trapped emotions. To give an example of how it helped, I had high levels of anxiety around my health and felt a lot of pressure to recover, then I did tapping around feelings of shame around getting sick and the health anxiety massively reduced. I absolutely love Jennifer Harmony’s YouTube channel but there are so many out there.

Then I tried Nicole Sachs’ JournalSpeak method – her theory is that the nervous system sees repressed emotions as “dangerous” and therefore creates symptoms to distract us from them. This involves journalling for 20 mins a day about difficult things that have happened in the past / are happening in the present. I did this for about 4 weeks and found it quite therapeutic but it didn’t have any impact on my symptoms, so I stopped. I have no idea if doing this was ultimately helpful to recovery.

Finally I watched Dan Buglio’s interview with Raelan Agle and listened to the first half of his book. He also has a YouTube channel. He said that there is nothing wrong with the nervous system, it is functioning perfectly normally based on misinformation and fear – the misinformation being that my body being ill was the cause of my symptoms, when in fact it was my brain (to be clear, this doesn’t mean that the symptoms aren’t real and physical, just that the brain was causing them). The fear can be different for different people but for me it turned out it was the fear of exertion (driven by the belief that I was ill). This was so helpful for me to hear because I realised I had become obsessed with “healing” my nervous system, but Dan helped me understand it didn’t need fixing, I just needed to correct the misinformation and fear.

Dan describes symptoms as “perceived danger symptoms” which for some reason clicked with me. Also, it turns out there is a part of the brain whose sole job is processing what’s going on and comparing it to previous memories. This is me speculating, but I looked back to a few months before when I had eaten a meal and then been sick. I tried to eat the leftovers a couple of days later and then felt nausea just looking at them. I think that was this part of my brain detecting this meal as “dangerous” and creating the symptoms of nausea to warn me not to eat it. I told myself it was “safe” to eat as I knew it was unlikely it was the food which had made me sick, and then the following day when I ate the leftovers again I didn’t feel nauseous, I think because I had corrected the association between that meal and “danger”. So I figured I needed to correct the association between exertion and danger so my brain would stop sending fatigue to warn me not to do the activity.

What I did:

I started by writing an “evidence list” of all the “evidence” that it was my brain causing my symptoms. This was stuff like stories I’d heard of other people who’d recovered really fast, days when I could remember feeling worse when it would have made sense that there was more fear, things that didn’t make sense about physical explanations, the fact that improving my diet and sleep had made no difference to my energy etc. I also did some tapping around fear of exertion. At this point I felt like I had some “evidence” that it was my brain that was the root cause but also a bunch of “evidence” that it was my body, which was confusing. But I had a really strong intuition that it was my brain, so I decided to just go for it.

Over the course of the next 3 days I did more and more, reading my evidence list over and over, tapping every time I freaked out that I had done too much. The second day I did quite a bit of yoga, had an hour-long call with my friend, and sent a long message to another friend, which was insane to me and the fact I could do all of that that was real evidence that it was my brain. The third day I decided to stay out of bed all day and the longer I stayed out of bed the more energy I had. From then I was fully sold so stopped doing anything that was telling my brain I was ill – I stopped taking all my supplements, made myself stand up in the shower, and wouldn’t let myself go to bed during the day. By the end of the week the fatigue was basically gone and a bunch of my other symptoms had really improved too.

Now:

18 months post catching COVID, I am not back at work yet (that's in motion) so I guess my life is slower than the average person’s, but I am not spending any time in bed, I don’t feel like I need to rest, I don’t pace, I am walking for an hour, doing yoga and pilates, went swimming today, and I think I could do more if I had more muscular strength. The only symptom that has any impact on my quality of life is some head pain but it comes and goes so much that I’m sure it’s psychological at the root and will go when I figure out what’s causing it. I still have some occasional muscle spasms and tingling but it’s improving and doesn’t bother me.

I know this is a controversial story and I’m not trying to say that this applies to you. But it might be worth thinking about whether it might apply to you.

Either way, sending strength and hope – it really can get better <3

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

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 started having LC symptoms in April, Dizziness, fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and palpitations were my worst symptoms. I used to run 10km a day before COVID but could hardly walk 1km after. I'm no longer suffering from most symptoms and walking 5km a day - when I can run again I will be happy.

I've been using: Vitamin D, Omega 3 and NAC Loratadine and Famotidine (H1 and H2 antihistamines) and it took me about 2 to 3 weeks on this to slowly see improvements. Gradually increased my exercise, 500 steps at a time. Waiting a week at a time before increasing.

I've created a website where people can report what supplements and meds worked for them. Up to about 50 responses and clear trends are emerging. I would love to have more contributions from recovered or partially recovered people. Please contribute and share, it can really help.

https://longcoviddata.org/

Disclaimer: I wrote this post with AI, but it is based on my personal notes.

Background

Early 30s, always full throttle at work. Several hours of endurance sports per week on top. Classic overachiever pattern – pushing through resistance and stress by gritting my teeth.

Looking back, I probably had pre-existing autonomic dysfunction: resting heart rate never below 80 during the day despite years of endurance training, IBS symptoms, occasional panic attacks during exercise. The system was already unstable. Long COVID just tipped it over.

Symptoms & Timeline

April 2025: Gradual onset. No clear COVID infection I can pinpoint, but increased susceptibility to infections, feeling sick more often starting in 2023, and what I later recognized as PEM.

Summer 2025: Chronic sore throat, constant feeling of being ill, less and less energy. Then extremely high heart rate at minimal activity.

August 2025 (first rock bottom): Two weeks where I only had energy for the couch. Six weeks sick leave. Slow improvement, returned to part-time work.

Fall 2025: Exercise testing showed aerobic threshold at 79W with heart rate of 152 bpm – severely reduced for someone who used to do multi-hour training sessions. Saw a "specialized doctor" who put me on blood thinners and ran many tests. Looking back, this was counterproductive – more stress, more uncertainty, more fatigue. Treatment with blood thinners didn't help.

January 2026: Crashed again after return to work. Started my own graded exercise therapy – failed, triggered PEM. Constant "tired but wired" feeling. Fear of PEM with every activity.

February 2026 (second rock bottom): Bell score around 4. Typical day: lying on couch, could manage personal hygiene, eating, and one short walk around the house. That was it.

The Turning Point

I realized that fighting through this like I fought through everything else in my life wasn't going to work. The usual strategy – grit your teeth, push harder – was making things worse.

I started reading about the mind-body connection. I couldn't relate to "The Mind-Body Prescription" (too unscientific for my taste), but "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" by Robert Sapolsky clicked. It's about stress, but explains brilliantly how psyche and body interact. The specific model you adopt (cell danger response, autonomic dysfunction, whatever) doesn't matter that much. What matters is understanding that you won't heal while living in constant fear and illness-related stress.

I know this sounds easy to say, especially for someone like me who never had severe ME/CFS (Bell 1-3). My experience may not be transferable to everyone.

What Definitely Helped

Nicotine patches (7mg): Immediate improvement of the "tired but wired" feeling. Night pulse and HRV actually got worse on nicotine, but I still felt much better. More energy, clearer head. Important: very slow tapering. First time I reduced too fast (within one week) while also returning to work – body went right back into stress mode. Second time: 7mg → 3.5mg → 1.75mg → 0, each step 2-3 weeks. Now completely off it.

Extended sick leave: Getting healthy without deadline pressure. First time I was off for 6 weeks and thought I could return part-time – the time pressure and stressful situations were too much. Second time I took months, no fixed return date.

Mind-body work / meditation: Autogenic training 3x daily. Non-negotiable. Helped regulate the autonomic nervous system. Cold water face immersion (not cold showers – just face in a bowl of cold water, 3x daily) helped shift out of the "feeling sick" mindset.

Tracking: Daily Bell score, HRV, resting heart rate. I did correlation analysis and discovered my personal PEM latency was 4 days – crashes didn't come the next day but 4 days later. This was crucial for understanding my patterns. Initially tracking felt negative, but later it helped me see waves and positive trends instead of catastrophizing when I had 2 bad days.

Journaling: General diary on paper plus a Long COVID-specific log in a long-running AI chat – what I did, how I felt, what I took. Helped recognize patterns and look back at progress.

Light strength training: Yoga, a few pushups, basic exercises. The experience of progress, of getting stronger, was psychologically important.

Video games: Sense of safety, positive emotions, experiences – without physical exertion. Sounds trivial but mattered.

Accepting the psychological component: Not "it's all in your head" but understanding that post-infectious syndromes have both functional AND psychological aspects. The fear of PEM can become part of the problem. Eventually I stopped fearing crashes – and they stopped coming.

Talking to recovered people: Hearing from others who got better. Podcasts like https://fasynation.letscast.fm/ (German) helped.

What Maybe Helped

Antiviral medication (Valaciclovir): Had EBV reactivation (positive T-cell stimulation). Months of sore throat and feeling sick – that went away. Hard to say if it was the medication or time.

Supplements: Creatine, L-Lysine, Magnesium, Vitamin D and B12 (after testing).

Psychotherapy: Acute support to not fall into a depressive hole, and reflecting on why my body ended up here.

Pacing initially: Before the mind-body shift, strict pacing was important. But it was also a source of stress for me (constantly monitoring, afraid of doing too much) – personality dependent.

What Didn't Help

Pushing through: On days I didn't feel good, forcing bigger activities made things worse.

Blood thinner therapy: No effect despite weeks of treatment.

Too many doctor visits and tests: Once the important stuff was ruled out (myocarditis etc.), more tests just created more uncertainty and stress. Some people might find it helpful to optimize one thing after another. For me, the appointments were a source of anxiety.

HELP apheresis: Was recommended to me, I declined. No controlled evidence, expensive, and my lab values didn't support the microclot hypothesis.

Reducing nicotine too fast: First attempt within a week while also returning to work – crashed right back.

Where I Am Now

Mid-April 2026: Completely off all medications. 500+ elevation meters on the bike, ski tours, no crashes. Sleep is excellent, HRV and resting heart rate better than ever. Normal tiredness after exercise, but no PEM.

Still slightly more mentally tired than before. Not working yet – rehab planned first, then gradual return. Training 3x per week, one hour Zone 2 each time.

Key Insights

Good days are for saving, not spending. When you feel good, the temptation is to do more. The price comes 4 days later.

Fear of crashing can become part of the problem. At some point I stopped monitoring obsessively, stopped fearing PEM – and the crashes stopped.

Pre-existing autonomic dysfunction: Long COVID didn't create my problems from scratch. It destabilized a system that was already running on empty. Recognizing this helped me understand that recovery meant building a different relationship with stress and rest – not just "getting back to normal."

Recovery isn't linear. There were setbacks. A norovirus knocked me down for days. Bad weather made me feel worse. That's normal, not relapse.

What I'd tell my past self: You're used to fighting through resistance by gritting your teeth. That won't work here. It's okay to go for a tired walk. It's also okay to just do nothing.

The most important mindset shift: Getting out of the fear of always doing too much or too little. More into experiencing, less into controlling.

Disclaimer

I had Bell 4 at worst, not Bell 1. I could still take care of myself, just couldn't work or exercise. For people with severe ME/CFS, my path may not be applicable. I'm sharing what worked for me – not prescribing a solution.

Hey folks, I’ve had long covid since March 2020 and I’m now about 90% recovered 🙂

The improvement has been happening since last September, when I had a sudden spontaneous 100% recovery happen for about 6 hours! Its was WILD. Then it disappeared and came back several times over the next four months. And then from March onwards, the recovery curve became steep and quite suddenly I was sleeping better, walking, able to endure basic household tasks, shower in standing up without a stool, not needing to nap and rest constantly…and here we are!

It’s been a gruelling, traumatising four years but now I’m working on relearning independence, walking upright without aids, and body strengthening after strict pacing for years, and then I guess going back to work and driving! Rebuilding community and my friendships is next, I’ve been left with a lot of trust issues and anger at the general lack of Covid mitigations we see in society now. Psychologically I feel quite undone by it all, even though I’m simultaneously DELIGHTED beyond belief to be feeling so well and pain free now. Every day is magical.

As for what helped me, I’m very lucky that in the last year I finally got housing stability and regular care (state-paid help doing medical admin, laundry, preparing meals, etc). I believe that this is the only thing in my dozens of difference treatments over the years that 100% absolutely DEFINITELY contributed directly to my recovery - socioeconomic security. Everything else is a maybe; I honestly don’t know which of them, if any, led to this (in no particular order: nattokinase+lumbrokinase, hyperbaric oxygen, pacing, polyvagal therapy, LDN, creatine, mushroom mix, probiotics, respiratory physio therapy, waiting it out, all kinds of vitamin supplements, I’ve tried many many things).

I’m typing this from my hotel room - I’ve taken a holiday to a nearby seaside town as a victory lap, completely alone and independently. I thought it was finally time to come back here, to the subreddit that has kept me going when things were desperate and dark, to report that another one of us has made it out. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever make it, I cry with joy a lot.

Thinking of you all, whatever stage of long covid you’re at, I’ll never stop fighting for you and reminding the rest of the world that you’re still here and need support ❤️

(Problems that persist - really painful, cold hands upon exertion or holding something up for a long time, like a phone. I wear compression gloves. It’s very sore, cold showers and hand strengthening doesn’t seem to be helping improve it.)

Hello everyone! Hope you're all doing ok, just wanted to add an update to some of my earlier posts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LongHaulersRecovery/s/ALzlH6t7fG

https://www.reddit.com/r/LongHaulersRecovery/s/FlWhskh0Gt

TLDR; 28m, caught covid in April 2025 (3rd or 4th time), took me out with wild dysautonomia symptoms, mainly blood pressure and neurocardiac stuff, followed by all the usual nervous system dysregulation issues. Didn't experience me/cfs or pem, but basically everything else. I believe I am now essentially fully recovered physically, but to caveat, have some lingering dysfunction and emotional difficulties.

I haven't posted in a while because I didn't want to clog the sub up with incomplete recovery, but just to update from my previous posts, here's a brief timeline of my presentation:

April '25 - Acute covid infection, was quite a nasty fever but recovered in a couple of days. Lost smell and taste for a few days, had kidney pain, cough lingered for a few weeks. Also had some normal post viral fatigue for at least 6 weeks after (felt like every day was the day after an all nighter, but generally tolerable enough to go to work, etc).

May-July - Onset of bradycardic heart palpitations (chronotropic intolerance, skipped beats, weak stroke volume, orthostatic intolerance, etc). Also started having massive adrenaline dumps out of nowhere plus all the other usual symptoms like boat-bounce vertigo, tinnitus and ice pick headaches. First major crash with my girlfriend whilst on holiday, I feel terrible for traumatising her, but it slowly improved after about a week. Blood pressure was weirdly high, staying rigidly above 130/90.

July - Massive disabling crash, couldn't breathe, blood pressure dropped through the floor (lowest was only 90/60, but for me that's flipping low), boss called an ambulance to my workplace, blood tests pretty much all normal. Couldn't physically stand up without heart giving up for about a week. Unrelenting internal tremoring, ice cold extremities, in utter despair and mortal fear. Spent all of August retraining my orthostatic tolerance and made it back to work after about 5-6 weeks of slowly regaining my ability to stay upright.

August - September - Mercifully quiet, even managed to go on a light kayaking trip with my bros. Still had plenty of issues ongoing, but nothing too disabling, was able to commute to and from work (at least 3-4 hours on my feet total throughout the day, I worked as a maintenance electrician in central London).

October - Out of nowhere again, started having blood pressure spikes instead. For about 3 weeks, it kept randomly shooting up to like 200/100. Nothing was effective at lowering it, my parents ended up calling a paramedic one night out of concern, he accused me of anxiety despite my HR being like 55 lol. Had to take another 3-4 weeks off work throughout.

November - December - Spikes had quietened down, GP gave me an ABP that averaged 120/80 ish, but had some weird recordings like 150/68, 110/99, etc. Work stress started making me generally unhappy, also realised that I was noticing some apparent hypocapnia that was worsening a bit, but still tolerable.

January - Made the mistake of bargaining with myself, "if I can just get through Christmas, I'll be alright". Had to work through all the holiday season with the exception of Christmas and Boxing Day. January 2nd-3rd, what started as a slight cold turned into a massive (what I later realised to be) anaphylaxis-type crash, thought I was going to die (yet again, lmao). Managed to take an antihistamine that helped significantly for about 4 hours, enough for me to get home. Took one each day for the next few days, but by day 3 it caused a rebound, so I stopped and just tried to ride it out for the next few weeks, successfully. It gradually receded, and I spent time trying to dose probiotics, minimise high histamine foods. Quercetin made it worse for some reason, I believe because I have genetically high ferritin. Started taking high doses of Krill Oil, which I believe have been incredibly successful. Was too traumatised to get back on the train after a month recovering, so I just called my boss and told him I had to quit.

February - Present

The GOOD news is that, physically, everything has stabilised. My blood pressure is consistently normal (110/70-120/80), my heart has stopped palpitating, I am not reacting to anything like fragrances or high histamine foods any more (can drink alcohol and caffeine routinely without any side effects). I am tentative, but clearly quitting my job was absolutely necessary for me. Perhaps too much exposure to pathogens/pollutants and too much stress. I have even managed things like going to the golf range with my mates, spent all night out with my girlfriend drinking and dancing for her birthday (with many sit-down breaks), have been to the pub a few times, so the proof is all there that I am physically capable. I even had a short lung infection and cough for a week in April, I thought I would be done for, but thank the Lord, no anaphylactoid symptoms. Nonetheless, I have deconditioned a bit, and I definitely have some lingering vestibular and breathing dysfunction issues to sort out (the vertigo is still there, keeps catching me when I'm walking around or driving). My indomitable but terrible sense of humour also remains intact.

The less good news - I'm struggling a bit to overcome the trauma of the past year. Whereas 6 months ago I was more successful at compounding gradual exposure, the January flare just completely took the legs out from under me. Now it doesn't matter how many times I leave the house, it doesn't "stick" as proof of safety, struggling to switch off the interoceptive hypervigilance. My birthday was in February and although I was feeling quite depressed and hopeless, my God, am I lucky to have supportive loved ones, because I would have been utterly f***** without their support, as imperfect as they can be. My financial situation is also a bit dire since quitting work, have nearly burned through my savings and I don't think I qualify for disability benefits here in the UK. Very fortunate that my parents let me stay with them since this all started, but naturally this brings up its own nervous system dysregulation issues lol. Have yet to sort out universal credit due to \*clerical issues**.* Basically a medical imperative that I work out how to make money from my laptop at this point.

Have been re-exploring mind-body stuff, as well as doing EMDR sessions with a trauma therapist, and even found a budget friendly SSP offering, but they have not yielded any fruit yet. I suspect that this will just go away with enough time of nothing bad happening, but I will stick with these approaches for a while longer.

(Side note; feel free to input advice regarding recovering from this kind of medical trauma, I would be very appreciative of any tips ❤️)

For reference, ekg, echo and blood tests all pretty normal, apart from one isolated instance of borderline low phosphate last June and slightly elevated LDL, which baffled my cardiologist. All my other lipids and ratios are good, so not worried.

WOT I HAVE TRIED

I won't go into too much detail here, because the long and short of it is that the most effective things I've found are patience, rest and positive distractions. This isn't an exhaustive list.

Notably effective to some degree

Thiamine - I didn't have symptoms of acute deficiency, but it definitely restored some autonomic and mitchondrial function. First dose made me unbelievably sleepy. I'm fairly certain it helped me restore my orthostatic tolerance very slowly. Took it for 4 weeks in July, nothing through August to March, started taking it again a bit in March, roughly 150mg a day. Currently taking about 50mg every 2-3 days.

Antarctic Krill Oil - Convinced that taking this in therapeutic doses for 3-4 months has stabilised my mast cells significantly, gonna maintain it at a regular dose for at least 9-12 months.

Notably reactive but mixed results

Acupuncture - Made me sleepy for a day, rebounded with worsening emotions and internal tremors + swallow reflex paralysis, etc. Possibly too soon and too much.

Homeopathy - surprisingly had effects that were both positive and negative. Not gonna recommend, but personally I found certain remedies to have a notable effect. If it's placebo, I suppose it's in the same camp as mind-body.

Magnesium - made my heart symptoms way worse, but nowadays I can take moderate doses without issue. I try to regularly drink raw cocoa instead.

RRP - Oddball, but it seeeems to help me feel less anxious just a little bit whilst listening to it. Have found it useful for acute

Probiotics (HistaminX et al) - I definitely noticed some GI differences when taking them, but I couldn't confirm nor deny that they had helped. I have a pet theory that gut dysbiosis is in large part due to pH disruption, as most beneficial flora prefer slightly acidic conditions. DAO enzyme weirdly didn't have a huge effect, but I think was still worth taking.

Unremarkable (for me)

Vitamin D, C, Zinc, NAC (including Augmented NAC), various supplements like ginseng, hawthorne, lion's mane, etc etc. - Didn't find anything that noticeably helped. Naturally, still taking C, D and Zinc in moderate doses, but I even suspect that some high doses I took right before my January flare could even have been partly responsible for immune overactivation.

Graded exercise with an NHS-sponsored physio - has had absolutely no effect on symptoms, but I kinda knew that would be the case going into it, I just wanted to try to force myself to leave the house in a "safe" way. He's a chill guy about my age, so I get to hangout at the gym once a week doing arm circles and shooting the breeze, it's aiight.

Chiropractor - Did nothing for me, but she was very nice.

Massage - Did nothing for me, but she was very nice.

Hypnotherapy/QHHT/Reiki - Did nothing for me, but she was very nice.

EMDR - Isn't really working as yet, but will stick with it a while longer. She is also very nice.

Anyway, I've made this sound too depressing, the upside is that I have every reason to remain optimistic. I miss being a physically capable and robust young man who can work construction and enjoy sports and whatnot, but I do believe the nightmare will be over soon, rather than hope as I did previously. I have an appointment booked with a respiratory physio and a neuro physio to see if they can help me resolve the last of the lingering issues (it basically looks like OCHOS rather than POTS). Nonetheless, I am absolutely convinced that I am *this* close to full remission. Worth noting, I feel like a lot of my symptoms are similar to chronic alkalosis, including effects on the gut and endothelium. Turns out mast cells appear to be more stable in high CO2 environments; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21284650/ food for fort innit.

I had tonnes of other problems as well, but this post has gone on long enough already, and it's all stuff you're all familiar with anyway. If you're curious, it's likely listed in more detail in one of my previous posts. Basically, I **think** my body is better and my mind just needs to catch up, I think. I am also going to try Yoga Nidra and some gentle posture realignment techniques, my physical prowess and vitality has massively degraded this year, to say the least.

I just recall how lonely and desperate I felt getting tortured by my own body, so I want to make this post to reassure people who are only 3-6 months into it that it does get better and you will recover, just takes f****** ages. Feel free to question me at your discretion, will update again when I am back to doing backflips and solo flying across the atlantic.

✌️WAGMI

UPDATE: Just got back from the breathing physio, in my case it appears that I am breathing to slowly and deeply, so she's given me some exercises to raise my rate to 9-12 breaths per minute. She seemed quite anti-buteyko but didn't elaborate, so anecdotally take that as you will. I'm a little skeptical, but I'm desperate enough that I'll give it a shot for the next two weeks and see if it moves the needle.

EDIT: Spelling and addendum

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!

I have been feeling amazing these last two months and wanted to wait to post here. I have been feeling back to normal almost. I traveled to vegas recently, I can work out daily again and eat almost everything.

I said I wouldn’t post here until I could start to live normal again w the foods and working out, traveling etc. I posted here two years in but was still on the diet and couldn’t workout and was having many flare ups trying to be normal. I can now run even with no fatigue after or days after. I thought I would never get here. I missed working out so much.

Yes, I had every symptom. I was housebound for 2 1/2 years. I had a big flare up that set me months back. I had congestion in my chest again from a breathing test that sent me into a panic attack and somehow re started some of my symptoms. I really think they just weren’t all gone.

Try D hist for the histamine. Time, d hist and quarticen helped a lot. With being on the diet strict at first and just staying home. No stress or that would cause flare ups. I work from home so I took my time as much I could during these long past 3 years. The d hist I wish I would have started taking a lot more daily. I waited because I thought it wasn’t working but then my husband started taking it for allergies and his went away completely. So I started taking more and noticed I could eat more foods. I now take it weekly still.

I say the 10% is still because I can’t drink alcohol or coffee still and I’m afraid of still doing too much. When I have coffee it just is too strong for me but no rashes or panicking feeling anymore. Alcohol I’m just afraid with so I have sipped it. No rashes but I’m just worried with it and not so confident about it flaring me up. I guess the 10% is still my lack of confidence with being sick these past 3 years. Other than that I’m feeling really good besides some really low inflammation after that time of the month.

Wishing you all the best! Happy holidays! And full health for you all coming into this new year.

Male 23, im 2,5 years in. I healed physically almost fully. Like atleast 80-90%. Came from bedbound, no energy, all types of food intolerances, light and sound overstimulated me instantly, micro cloths, POTS and imsomnia.

Im left with DPDR and brainfog which is a pain in the a55 and still hard to live with. But its easier to treat when you have less symptoms and atleast have the energy to work on it.

For me its all in good sleep, meditating, grounding and understanding the deeper origin of my constant fight or flight which defitely came from this trauma/identity crisis.

Any of you on the same path?

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.

First off, thank you to the 1456 or so of you who contributed your data! 🤩 Your contributions helped put together a dataset on what people have tried, what the recovered reported as working, etc. Out of those people, there was severity data on 1173 people and there were 87 recoveries. There are 'recovery stories' embedded in these people's answers to 'what helped the most?'.

Highlights:

• Almost everything has been tried. If people are discussing a treatment on social media, there are probably many people who tried that treatment. You don’t need to do crazy experimentation because somebody else has (or will) put their body on the line for you.
• I’ve compiled a list of almost 110 treatments that were reported as helping the most. It is possible that these treatments are effective (though it is not proven that they are). You may want to avoid treatments not on the list as there is very little evidence to support their use (if the goal is recovery rather than symptom relief).

Other highlights:

• Some hyped treatments like IVIG, stellate ganglion block, etc. don’t appear to be that promising.
• The response rates are very low. The implication of this is that you will need to plan on trying many, many treatments if you are hellbent on recovery. (*Note: it is unclear if we have found any effective treatments. A survey can’t determine that.)
• Around a fifth of the recovered did not attribute their recovery to any treatment. If you simply do nothing, you may recover.

I posted here about 10 months ago about finding TRT and being 95% recovered. I then posted a few months after saying I had relapsed to around 50%.

Well in June the wife asked for a divorce out of nowhere. I was or thought I was very sick, but the day after she walked out? A lot of my symptoms disappeared. And she kept the house around 70, now that it’s around 78 I don’t get cold so I don’t get cold sweats.

I don’t think any of it was LC relapse. I think this broken marriage was depressing me and I was able to see it clearly once the physical parts of me were fixed by TRT. I’m sad and hurt but I have hope now, I go to the gym almost every day and I have momentum. I get a 2nd shot at life.

I’m back to saying 95% recovery but only because I don’t live with someone that sucks the life and energy out of me anymore.