Long Covid and Why It's Not "All in Your Head"
If you've had long covid, or something like it, and you've been told there's nothing wrong, or that it's anxiety, or that you should be over it by now, you're not imagining this. There is real, physical biology behind what you're feeling, and there is a lot we can do to support it.
What we're learning is that covid, for some people, doesn't behave like a virus that comes and goes. It appears to set off a longer chain of events across the nervous, immune and hormonal systems, and that chain can keep running long after the initial infection has cleared. This isn't unique to covid, we see similar patterns after other viral infections and after significant physical trauma, but covid has brought it into sharp focus for a huge number of people at once.
Some of what's thought to be involved:
Tiny changes to blood clotting, where clot-like structures form differently than usual and resist being broken down the normal way. The lining of your blood vessels, a delicate protective layer, can become depleted, which affects everything from inflammation control to how fluid moves through your tissues. And cells under chronic stress can enter a kind of standstill state where, instead of dying off normally, they linger and release inflammatory signals that keep neighbouring cells and tissues irritated.
The nervous system takes a real hit too. People often describe feeling wired and exhausted at once, and that's not a contradiction, it reflects a nervous system stuck in fight or flight mode, with reduced calming tone underneath. This shows up physically as things like a racing heart on standing, poor recovery after activity, digestive changes, and heightened sensitivity to light, sound, smell or foods that never used to bother you. Gut symptoms are common in this picture too, partly because the valve between your small and large intestine relies on good nervous system tone to work properly.
Some of the detailed mechanisms being discussed in this field are still emerging and not yet settled science, but what we do know is that this is a whole-system picture, not one broken part, and it responds best to a whole-system approach.
If you're already on supplements, particularly anything marketed for circulation or clot support, it's worth working with a practitioner rather than self-prescribing here, some can do more harm than good.
Where support helps:
Gentle, consistent nervous system regulation, humming, breathwork, cold water on the face, time outdoors
Rebuilding a steady daily rhythm, sleep, meals and light exposure at consistent times
Gut support, tailored to what's actually going on for you rather than a generic protocol
Pacing activity and recovery rather than pushing through, which tends to set people back
Working with someone who takes the whole picture seriously, not just the symptom in front of them
You are not broken, and you are not stuck like this forever. This is a system that adapted to something enormous, and systems that can adapt one way can be supported to adapt back. If this sounds like your experience, I'd like to help. Book in and let's build a plan that fits what your body's been through.