Severe anxiety or depression from COVID-19?

[wheresmymojo]

Sorry, I know there's a COVID topic but this is a fairly rare impact of COVID so I wanted to post it somewhere with more traffic.

Has anyone else had severe anxiety and/or depression as a direct result of having COVID or any other viral illness?

I'm struggling with extreme anxiety which came on suddenly the week after I had COVID which is now 7 weeks ago. That is intermittently leading to quite dark thoughts (I have no plans to do anything, I'm used to having depression so this isn't as big a problem for me as the anxiety which I don't usually have).

It's so severe that I've barely been able to leave my bedroom for seven weeks. I have to go back to work on Monday because I can't afford any more time off but I'm still very unwell and getting quite desperate.

I don't mean anxiety / depression as a result of lockdowns, or being anxious about COVID.

I mean you had covid (or another viral illness?) and then that directly caused MH issues.

Have you recovered?

If so, how long did it take? What were your MH symptoms?

What helped you recover?

P.S. I know I can't stop anyone from posting but would really like to ask nicely, given the severity of my symptoms and MH right now, for people not to derail the thread on opinions about Covid

PPS. Yes, this is a genuine impact of COVID and can also happen with other viral illnesses, there are medical research papers / studies if you Google it

I'm so sorry your going through this, op. I haven't experienced this with COVID, but I did experience exactly this with peri-menopause when I was 40. Out of the blue absolutely crippling anxiety, and I had never had any anxiety in my life up until that point. It was so severe that I could barely leave my home for two months until my husband figured out that it was peri-menopause, and he was right. I started HRT and the anxiety vanished.

Is it possible that it could be hormonal changes,and it all happening after you had COVID just a coincidence?

I was completely sideswiped by panic attacks and anxiety that didn’t respond to SSRIs.

At first I thought it was stress - it coincided with my mum getting really ill - then I thought it must be perimenopause. Eventually, I realised that it had come on shortly after I’d had Covid.

The good news is that, one year on, it’s a lot better. I don’t feel trembly all the time, as I did for months after. I had intensive 1-1 CBT to cope with my response to the physical symptoms, and that really helped. Beta blockers also helped as they suppressed the physical panic symptoms that kept me trapped in a cycle of worry.

If you haven’t already, do talk to your GP about it and don’t underplay the effect it’s having on your life. I really hope you feel much better soon. Big hugs, as I know how awful it is. 💐

In kids there’s pandas which gets misdiagnosed as mental health problems when really is an autoimmune response to a strep infection. I’ve heard of people getting misdiagnosed with psych problems which turned out to be brain inflammation that no one bothered to look for. I don’t have any useful info about covid but I just wanted to say don’t stop pushing for help and sticking to your gut that it’s the infection and your body’s response to the infection that’s caused this. All too often problems are put down to past trauma, mental health or functional issues. Keep fighting until you track down the right person to help you, this might be private or nhs. Study and read everything you can on the subject or if this triggers your anxiety, get someone you trust to do it. Good luck and I hope things are under control soon