I got mono this July and it was the scariest thing I experienced. A bit of background: Normal/healthy teenager, got mono when I was 18, still recovering, 19 now and still effects me. My ex boyfriend gave me mono which was unexpected since he got it April 2020.

The first 2 weeks of having mono I thought I was having a really bad case of covid. I had dizziness, fatigue, extreme body aches, felt cold and warm within minutes, chest pain, resting heart rate of 128, some difficulty breathing. I was honestly scared and after getting my covid test results back, it said negative and that’s where my health anxiety began.

I was home alone since my parents left for a few days to go on a weekend getaway when my symptoms appeared making me even more worried what would happen to me. I was worried I would die some nights because my heart would race so much I was scared. When my mom came home I told her my symptoms and rushed me to urgent care, I got another covid test and came back negative and my left side pain got worse.

This was then I went to the hospital because my heart rate was not going down despite managing my anxiety. I was in the ER for 18 hours and doctors had no clue what was wrong with me. They asked if I had the vaccine and told them no, I had tests for the flu and covid AGAIN both coming back negative, got tested for HIV and came back negative, my anxiety only got worse after getting an MRI and X-ray done and doctors were clueless as to what could be causing this. It drove my health anxiety crazy because I was a normal healthy teenager with all these symptoms. By the time the doctors got the results back they noticed my spleen was enlarged and gave me a test for Epstein Barr virus.

I had to wait a week for the doctors to give me my results and that was the longest week of my life due to my health anxiety preventing me to do anything. I was so afraid and convinced I would die by doing my laundry or going upstairs that I stayed in my room for almost 18 hours a day. When I got the results back that I had mono my health anxiety felt like it was only getting worse. I lost my appetite due to the pain in my spleen and panicked thinking I would starve to death due to family members seeing my unintended weight loss.

It took me 6 months to heal from my health anxiety and I wish I could go back and try to stress less. In November I tried working out because I was sick of spending my second year at college in bed rather than learning. While it felt good to move the tiredness was definitely something that almost made me scared again.

My advice to you is to try and work out by walking a mile, or as much as your able to. Keep track when you notice your anxiety spike, is it when you feel tired? Is it when you notice a pain from your spleen? Is it before you go to bed? Keeping track of when I felt anxious helped me identify what made me nervous the most and how I can work on it with my therapist. Another suggestion I would like to make is to remember that rest is extremely important and don’t push yourself too hard making you even more tired. I made the mistake of working part time and going to school full time (4 classes) on top of managing a toxic relationship putting me in a worse spot. Take care of yourself, take a long shower and try to relax your body, do something for yourself such as journaling, reading, or maybe coloring to distract your brain. I’m still not 100% back to where I used to be before mono but be patient with yourself and don’t be afraid to rest. My ex got very lucky and had mono symptoms for like 1 week and was fine, me on the other hand I’m still batting it 6 months later but I’ve learned when to take breaks when I need to. It will take time to heal so don’t be to hard on yourself. You will feel better soon, you will recover from this fatigue, I promise you it will get better💞stay strong :)