Scared of long covid - loss of taste with omicron

[cattia]

Thanks Pulisa. That is exactly it. Today was a bit better, I tested negative so went out for a little bit. But this evening has been awful. My son has a really bad cold (definitely not covid as he had it in Feb and is testing negative) and I think I accidentally drank out of his glass which he left on the side. So I’m now thinking I’m going to get his cold and that will overload my immune system then I’ll definitely get long covid. Even before that I was packing as I felt like my cough was getting worse. My anxiety is now off the scale bad. My husband is super annoyed with me as he thinks I’m being ridiculous. I’m struggling to even interact with the kids. I just feel like curling up in a corner somewhere and disappearing. My anxiety is so, so bad.

[Scass]

In the nicest possible way, again it’s done now, there’s nothing you can do. It’s highly unlikely, but it’s done.

Distract yourself with other things until they relax you. Then remember that feeling of being calm. You don’t need to be like this, you are making yourself iller by the constant anxiety, the accidental drink is nothing compared to it.

What has worked for you in the past? What do you think would help?

[cattia]

I don't know scass, I'm so mad at myself for increasing my risk like that just through not being careful. I can't even think straight. I just feel like I'm waiting to get this diagnosis. My heart palpitations are non stop. I'm just going to go to bed and try to shut myself off from it all.

[cattia]

Didn't have a great night and woken up this morning feeling stiff and achy in my back which has added to my worries.

[pulisa]

I don't know scass, I'm so mad at myself for increasing my risk like that just through not being careful. I can't even think straight. I just feel like I'm waiting to get this diagnosis. My heart palpitations are non stop. I'm just going to go to bed and try to shut myself off from it all.

You've convinced yourself that you are going to get long covid but this is just you following the same pattern as you do with other health concerns. If this were not the holidays would you be going into work today as you are now testing negative? Would you prefer to have a distraction and structure to your day?

[cattia]

Hi Pulisa. I was thinking about this this morning. I thought it would be a good thing to have the two week break to properly recover, but I’m now realising that actually I’m likely to spend it getting worked up about whether I’ll be well enough to go back to work, and in many ways it would have been better for me to just go back. I would have gone back today I expect, and it probably would have provided a distraction. One thing I’ve always done every day as well is exercise which I find really helpful as it makes me feel that I’m healthy to be able to manage sustained cardiovascular exercise. Because my heart palpitations are so bad I’m scared to get back into it, even to build up slowly. I’ve requested a call from my Dr surgery today so I can ask them about that. I’m hoping that they’ll do some tests to make sure my heart is OK and not just chalk it all up to anxiety. I know when I get like this I find it hard to distract myself, because I don’t want to even leave the house or see anyone. I know I need to find things to do to pass the time because otherwise I end up researching online. And I kid myself that I’m only looking at positive sites then before I know where I am, I’m reading about all the symptoms of long covid and thinking I have them all. Yesterday when I was feeling a little better I started worrying about leukaemia which I was worried about before I got covid. That lasted about half an hour before I started back on long coivd.
I’ve tried a few times to get back on meds, thinking they might help, but the side effects are so awful. I’m not fully committed to taking them, as if I was I’d push through the side effects I know. I did almost three years of counselling and I learnt so much about myself, but my health anxiety didn’t really improve much.

[pulisa]

The destructive behaviour is the "researching" online as you know. What would make you stop doing it?

[cattia]

I think the only thing that will stop me doing it at the moment is doing something else. I went out for a walk with my two youngest children earlier and that helped. Only when I started thinking about it did I start to feel anxious and worn out. I think I have to just try to keep distracting myself. I've read loads if posts on here about palpitations and ectopics which also helps a bit as it helps to know how many people experience this. It's something I've never worried about before until I associated it with long covid.

[pulisa]

Ectopics are so common with anxiety though. I had a holter monitor test done a few years back and had hundreds of them in a day. Completely benign though. Why do you associate them with LC?

[cattia]

I think because I've seen them on the lust of symptoms and since getting covid I've had them worse than ever before. I do suffer with them anyway but now they are all day long and I get runs of them even when I'm lying in bed. I feel really lacking in energy, especially first thing in the morning and last thing at night so I'm adding it all up together to fit the fear that I have in my mind of long covid I guess.