I don’t know how helpful this will be, but as one of the many people who were ill with Covid but not serious enough to go to hospital, yet are still feeling the long-tail after effects, what has struck me is how huge an impact the recovery has on your mental health. (Thread)

First is that not much is known or was known about milder recovery so not knowing what post-viral fatigue was, the cycle of feeling fine and then knackered etc. I found this made recovery seem endless, felt a lack of control and dispirited at whether recovery would ever happen.

When my husband passed away 5 yrs ago I had to get very pro-active about my mental health and recognise how important structure and most important expectations of recovery. I applied some of this to help me with Covid and still use them as recovery isn’t over.

A friend advised treating this like an athlete returning from injury so what I learned was that if I pushed myself too hard physical, fatigue may return. So I started building myself back up slowly and making the expectations smaller.

That included workouts, how much housework I was doing, how long a walk. If I felt energetic, just still increasing slowly rather than bouncing back. Sleep took a priority and also eating properly - which is hard when everyone is banging on about lockdown weight gain.

Social media cleanses were necessary, so people whose accounts for whatever reason - you don’t have to justify it - make your day mentally harder. Also real life cleanses so people who want to comment on your recovery but who aren’t going through what you did.

An example is I found it massively triggering when people started drawing comparisons with chronic fatigue as a loved one had this, and it terrifies me- so if you don’t find something helpful and it doesn’t serve you, mentally protect that and mute.

We are still in the early stages of not knowing the impact of Covid but what helped my mental health was slow and steady progression (realistic expectations), not over-committing to things (social plans) and knowing that a slow or fatigue day doesn’t mean you’re going backwards.

And that the same is true of most illness. Physical illness will always have a mental impact, so don’t soldier through, but listen to what you need, routine and structure, things that make you feel good, people who support you, and the understanding that this won’t last forever.

This is not exhaustive, just what helped me. If you are commenting on this thread my request is that you don’t post anything to scare people or draw comparisons with non-Covid illnesses as personally speaking, it doesn’t help. Any helpful links to studies however most welcome.

But also any helpful stories of recovery or things that helped you with this, also hugely welcome. Also, my sense of smell is still off five months later and eggs smell like the devil’s bottom.

Last one to add to this. I couldn’t walk for longer than 15 mins in June and because I took my recovery slowly, I managed to lift weights again. But it has to be slow or trigger a fatigue response. From not knowing if I’d be able to lift again, I pulled 65kg this week.

Recovery can and does happen