COVID long-haulers

Hi folks,

We're all here cause we're trying to get off benzodiazepines.  But what precipitated their use varies between us.  Reading about Covid "long-haulers", I've recently been amazed to find how much I seem to have in common with them.....

 

I had prescriptions for Clonazepam around the house for decades for my panic disorder w/agoraphobia.  But I only used it irregularly, at an extremely low dose.  After 30 years I had mostly surmounted agoraphobia and felt reasonably happy and normal for decades. 

 

An avid outdoorsperson, I spent Christmas Day 2019 on an all-day hike.  It was great!  At my January annual physical I described my health as "excellent."  Just a couple weeks later, the wheels started falling off....... 

 

In February I started having chest pains, shortness of breath and numbness that crept up the left side of my body, up my face, to my brow.  A brain MRI revealed nothing wrong, neither did EKGs and a cardiac stress test.  The "mild" COPD I had had for years worsened suddenly and extremely.  By March 2020 I could hardly walk a 100 feet without unbearable heart pounding and breathlessness.

 

As spring went on I was having reactions to caffeine, nicotine and wine.  I could no longer tolerate TV, movies, music, reading books, political conflicts, competition, drama......anything that might work me up caused heartbeat irregularities and breathlessness.  I started having panic attacks on a regular basis.  Worst of all, Covid lockdown brought back the agoraphobia I had worked so hard for years to surmount.  I started taking Klonopin every day, though it only seemed to make my conditions worse.  I quit smoking in early July, and spent July and August in a delirium of excrutiating daily headaches, back and torso pain, anxiety, hyper-activity, insomnia, disorganized thinking and depression.  I feel like a train wreck. 

 

I'm wondering..........WHAT the &%^*@+& HAPPENED???

 

Cause my symptoms did not start with Klonopin.  I started taking Klonopin to address them.

 

Recently I was reading Reddit posts from Covid "long-haulers" and was surprised by the similarities between their cardio/pulmonary/neurological conditions and my own.  I've wondered if it is possible I had covid early in the year without knowing it.

 

There could be other explanations.  Possible tick disease (I've had 22 of them in the last 3 years), averse reactions to vaccines or antibiotics.  I've even wondered about 5G.   

 

But I'm especially wondering about Covid long-haulers.  So I've wanted to ask......have any of you been baffled by unexplained health conditions that led you to use benzos?  Have you read about Covid long-haulers and found them similar?

 

Just wondering!

 

thanks,

 

clearbluesky

I was struck also, reading about COVID long-haul, how similar the symptoms are to benzo withdrawal. Also similar to CFS and to quinolone antibiotic damage (floxing). I guess various forms of nerve-damage have a similar signature.

 

Have you had a COVID antibody test? It's possible you had a mild case early on and your later symptoms are COVID long-haul symptoms. We now know COVID was here well before Trump started saying "it'll never get here" and that many cases (especially the early ones) were undetected at the time in part because everyone was in denial about it. The antibody test might give an answer; then again it might not (antibodies fade over time so a negative test now is not conclusive).

 

I also wonder if I had a mild early case of COVID after some international travel about a year ago. I had a flu-like illness for a couple of days shortly after my return, recovered, then later experienced a lot of weird symptoms over the spring/summer which almost felt like a benzo-withdrawal relapse (although at ~4 years off that is unlikely). I later realized my symptoms *might* have been COVID-related. Fortunately they have abated by now and I am fine.

 

In some sense finding the true cause of your (or my) symptoms doesn't really matter, since there is no treatment for nerve-damage sorts of things except time. The good news is time usually heals.

 

 

I think this COVID research will be very helpful to us. I was just reading about it in the NYT and it's so similar it's startling.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/magazine/covid-aftereffects.html

 

Disregard the alarmist headline. The article itself is very interesting and hopeful.

 

I got Covid and am struggling severely  :'( :'( I hope it passes very soon. It is very similar to wd, but different. I need some uplifting. Anyone up for it I will take it. I'm completely heartbroken.

How are you doing now with your Covid symptoms?  I hope some improvement.

Hi, I got covid mar 2020. It was a mild case, no lung involvement but ran a fever for three months. I was in the last 20% of my taper. The symptoms were so similar to wd that I hadn't realized I was having prolonged symptoms. I became bedridden and had to slow my taper. I didn't realized I might be a long hauler until I couldn't life my arms above my shoulders. I read in an article where someone else had this symptom and then it all made sense. Until then my taper was pretty easy.

 

I'm now on the last 5% and I can't say it's gotten easier. Though it usually gets harder toward the end. But I have to say it hasn't gotten harder either.

 

The symptoms that I think are result of the covid infection are finally, I think, starting to resolve. So there is some hope there.

 

I am bed ridden but I have a lot of windows during the day so I don't label myself as have severe wd. I'n not in agony I just can't do anything right now. I was going to plant a vegetable garden this year but I think I'll have to drop those plans.

Clearbluesky,

 

oh you could have had covid at that time. The first week in March I had a fever and a cough. COVID has supposedly not gotten to the US (They now think it arrived in the previous DEC) but I just knew. At that time they had suspended most dr. appointments so I emailed my doctor and told her that I think I had it. She concurred.

 

I took an antibody test 4 months later but it came up neg.

 

It sounds like you did have covid. I'm finding it interesting that every article I read or someone who had covid very early in the year last year have had a lot of problems. Perhaps that particular strain???

 

Hi Clearbluesky, sorry you are going through this.  I feel that because both withdrawal and Covid attack the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the symptoms of both would be similar.  I have been on several psychotropics and the WD from all were so similar - same reason: ANS was involved.  You've heard it before  - time is the greatest healer.  Try to hang in there.  Best.

I hope this is ok to post.  I too feel that I may have been experiencing Covid long-haulers symptoms for the past 6 months.  I am finally getting an antibody test and have gone here, link below, to get the protocol I will be taking.  My symptoms are similar to the first two years but so much worse at this time. I'll let you know how I do.  I know there are a few things that would totally be inappropriate, like the steroid short term use, and that would throw me back into benzo WD in short order, so those I will avoid. 

 

Covidlonghaulers.com

 

Klonkar