On December 1st I fell sick with what I thought was just a weekend virus, but it led to a ton of other symptoms like swollen upper eyelids, fevers, sore muscles, exhaustion and the worst sore throat I ever had. I went to 2 urgent cares and tested negative for strep throat. Finally after 3 weeks I went to the er and tested positive for strep. I took 10 days of antibiotics but still had some pain in my throat so I went back and they tried to just put me on more but I said no. 2 days later I went to another urgent care and explained my whole story to a new dr and he said "it sounds like youve had mono" did the rapid test and it was positive. Explained why I'd felt so awful for 5 weeks. Mono is so much more complex than I realized, more than being tired. I joined a group for people recovering from it and realized how many months it drags on and how debilitating it is and how it causes horrible anxiety and insomnia which I am now facing. It stemmed from the phase of it that brings on horrible night sweats which are a huge trigger for me. I went thru anxiety night sweats as a teen and thanks to Google became so paranoid of them meaning serious illness. I was 19 and I went thru weeks of awful health anxiety similar to this. So now I am not waking up drenched anymore like I was 3 weeks ago when the mono was in its very active phase but it led to this awful anxiety where I am having nightmares and I am afraid to go to bed. Looking at my bedroom is giving me anxiety. I wake an hour after I fall asleep every night and I am so hot I feel like I'm on fire. Not too sweaty maybe just my chest. Then I get super anxious and I lay awake having horrible anxiety with my stomach gurgling and in knots and I physically shiver and feel nauseas. I fully believe all this has stemmed from not knowing why I was so sick and then I found out I had mono but by then I was convinced it was something else more serious and I am stuck in this rut of awful thoughts and I constantly feel dread. I'm nervous driving to work. I'm scared to be home alone. I'm scared of going to sleep. I found a therapist and start on Tues and my doc just called me in some ativan I have to go pick up tomorrow. I'm just feeling so sick and scared and I need to know it's going to get better