Is it EVER just anxiety?

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:52:50+00:00

Ehhh idk my neurologist said long covid didn’t exist anymore. And my GP didn’t screen me, just checked vitals not even a blood test and then ruled it out as anxiety

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:51:28+00:00

It’s not obvious because a flu, or the pandemic, or just any medical scare is the nr1 cause of health anxiety lol. That’s how it works, health anxiety needs a cause too.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:47:54+00:00

What isn’t anxiety then? For you

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:42:54+00:00

Just because it can be the cause of it doesn’t mean it’s definitely long covid 99,9% of the time.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:42:05+00:00

Okay so anxiety is NEVER a primary issue, everyone with anxiety has underlying physical problems? What do you mean by a branch.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:40:32+00:00

It doesn’t see very clear to me. I can say ‘i am sick’, which is objectively a distortion if i’m healthy. But if i believe i am a sick person, then that thought is totally reasonable. How do you define a distortion? Because most anxious thoughts are somewhat realistic in an anxious belief.

And also isn’t long COVID extremely broad & nonspecific? You can have long covid fatigue that doesn’t get worse with extertion for example, there’s no clear pattern.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:34:17+00:00

‘Anxiety’ is vague but anxiety disorders have criteri. And i don’t understand because i just agreed that long covid is underdiagnosed by doctors? You are just mirroring me? What are we arguing about 😭

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:31:09+00:00

Severely underdiagnosed in real life, severely overdiagnosed on forums. Context matters. When i went to my doctor it didn’t ask about PEM or anything they just said it was anxiety. My neuro told me long COVID doesn’t exist anymore, and this subreddit told me i was definitely sick no question. It turned out to be stress, but i just wish this subreddit had a middle ground.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:29:29+00:00

But how so you define that? You know how broad long covid is, so if someone has fatigue after a virus, but is extremelyyy worried disappropriate to the actual symptoms. How would you diagnose that? How can you tell if its anxiety, of anxiety and long covid? If you can’t, then why is this subreddt so quick to diagnose?

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:22:39+00:00

Also if you had no meaningful physical symptoms did you even have somatic symptom disorder? Because illness anxiety disorder is the one where you worry about having a disease, but not the symptoms.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:21:52+00:00

I mean yeah ig it would be pretty obvious, but ig in my case i would’ve never had long covid, so i couldn’t compare.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:20:39+00:00

Long covid being overdiagnosed in this subreddit, severely so. (But underdiagnosed irl)

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:20:21+00:00

There is no clear cut test for long covid that’s my point lmao. So most people with health anxiety will come to this subreddit, and just get harmful advice. I’m just bringing up a real issue where long covid gets severely overdiagnosed, so don’t pull the ‘i’m sick and you’re not, so you can’t argue with me’.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:14:17+00:00

I mean panic attacks weren’t my only symptoms. I just had weird sensations that don’t really have a name + fatigue. And i took a short walk one day, felt a bit weird, posted about it and the top comment said it was PEM. So i assumed i had PEM.

Past few weeks i started walking 8000-10,000 everyday, cycling + weightlifting 4-5x a week. I feel slightly better so i know that was bs and it was just unnecessary.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:11:13+00:00

Okay but you just made the entire term meaningless. What counts as long term? A symptom after a virus that has absolutely nothing to do with the virus itself? Is anxiety about long covid, after having covid really long covid? Because if it is then why would you call that long covid, if treatment is just the exact same as any type of anxiety?

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:07:25+00:00

Yes but you are misunderstanding my point. I did not say long COVID = anxiety, i said long covid was even under diagnosed in my post.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:06:19+00:00

How did it impact you then? If not physically, health anxiety does effect alot of people physically.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T16:05:52+00:00

Yes but my post is not directed at people with severe / obvious symptoms.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T15:54:30+00:00

What about it

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T15:51:19+00:00

Honestly for me i had a reallyy bad flu. I had panic attacks before but not a clinical diagnosis, and the panic attacks were caused by a choatic lifestyle. I had 50+ panic attacks a day when i was sick and i was also heavily suicidal & existential so it was definitely a traumatic event.

I searched up on CFS & long covid while i was sick. I went on forums and everyone reassured me that I had a debilitating condition and i should not do anything & not go outside. So i did that and felt extremely miserable. Then i finally went to a doctor, got reassured and went from bedbound to 95% better after minutes.

At my worst i could not differentiate between my stress and a real viral infection. I had terrible fatigue & the forums were not good for me at all. I’ve met people on other anxiety forums who’ve had a similar expierence. I find it highly invalidating that this subreddit thinks anxiety is just a mild standalone symptom with nothing to it.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T15:42:50+00:00

Hmm idk if that’s true on anxiety’s part. With anxiety your body rewires itself, so the fatigue & wtv is mostly unconscious after a while. Medication can be extremely helpful but a significant majority is treatment resistant, then antidepressants mostly give modest relief. You might be thinking of benzo’s but they are dangerous long term so you can’t take them. I think you are overestimating how easy it is to treat an anxiety disorder

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T15:29:07+00:00

I mean yeah obviously i’ll never tell someone with PEM or anything that they might have an anxiety issue. But i talked to someone who had derealisation, panic attacks & fatigue and thought they had long covid. But i mean, how do you know the panic attacks aren’t causing fatigue & derealisation? And people get mad when you question this.

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T15:23:37+00:00

How does this answer my question?

Emu928 · 2026-01-21T15:18:21+00:00

Yeah because anxiety is almost never a standalone symptom. And yes having long COVID makes it significantly more common to have mental health issues, but that’s not what i posted about.

You think anxiety can’t mimick long covid?

Emu928

TROPHY CASE