Is long-COVID all in the mind?
Absolutely NOT!
Long-COVID is a very real, physical condition. It shares a lot of the same symptoms as ME/CFS (brain fog, fatigue, post-exertional malaise, muscle weakness etc, which are also real and physical) and has the added symptoms of breathlessness, a racing and erratic heart, lung damage that is visible on scans, and additional neurological damage. This is obviously a real physical illness and is not all in the mind.
Mind-body techniques for a physical issue?
Here is where some of the confusion lies. If I am teaching mind-body techniques, does that imply it’s all in the mind? Not at all! The effects of a severe stress response in the body have been documented since the 1930s and include symptoms such as immune malfunction, inflammation, hormone imbalance, over-stimulation of the heart and lungs, restless leg syndrome, digestive problems, cognitive functioning issues, reproductive issues and neurological malfunctions. This is not just about ‘being stressed’. It is a physical state in the body with massive overload in the sympathetic nervous system and the HPA axis that can lead to a huge range of health problems. When the body is guided out of the stress response, it allows the body to reactivate its innate healing properties and a myriad of health benefits can occur with healing happening at a physical level.
Find out more with our FREE 40 minute webinar!
First Steps To Recovery Includes:
- My own and others’ recovery stories to get your hope for recovery back
- Introducing the five main illness traps so you understand why this happened to you
- The role of the stress response in chronic illness to deepen your understanding
- Q&A answering important questions about recovery
- An action plan for moving forwards into your own recovery – it’s time to get started!
- A FREE info pack about the five illness traps
- Special discount on the “Next Steps to Recovery” webinar package
Long-COVID recovery rates at Empower Therapies
16 – full recovery!
3 – at least 90% improvement
3 – 70-80% improvement
3 – 40% improvement
1 – no improvement
0 – got worse
1 – unknown, though reported improvements at the course
Note: People were deemed as having a full recovery from their own self-reports stating that they no longer had any symptoms and were able to do all the activities of their normal, healthy life. Percentage improvements are also based on clients’ perceptions of how close they are to their full, healthy life.
Five of these clients had long-COVID so severely that they were hospitalised many times, were wheelchair bound and could not think clearly enough to do simple tasks like tie their shoelaces. Another was housebound and required assistance to walk from her bed to the toilet. No matter how serious their illness, significant improvements, or full resolution of symptoms, have been experienced by almost all these clients.
Recovery times of the 16 people who are 100% better.
1 – Next Steps webinar
4 – within the four days of The Switch course
3 – 1 week after The Switch
1 – 2 weeks after The Switch
6 – 1 month after The Switch
1 – 3 months after The Switch
I realise this is a very small sample size without formal research, so no big conclusions can be drawn, but it is looking highly promising as a fast and effective treatment for many who experience long-COVID, and I hope that a formal study will happen soon.
What does the research show us about how mind-body relates to long-COVID?
An article published by the Oxford Immunology Group states,
“Psychosocial factors are also very important in regulating our immune activation and the response to SARS-CoV-2. Two of the main biological systems involved in the stress response, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis or the autonomic nervous system, are also key in the regulation of our immune response. Therefore, strategies tackling our levels of stress and/or the stress response, including psychosocial intervention, physical exercise or potentially dietary interventions, could be also useful in counteracting some of the negative effects of chronic inflammation.”
What causes Long-COVID?
Here is an infographic from the Clinical Immunology Journal showing the role of stress in long-COVID. My work is very much in alignment with this principle that a severe stress response in the body (at a physical level) is responsible for why people stay sick after an initial illness experience such as a virus.
Among the clients that I have seen so far for long-COVID, there was a significant stressful event, or long-term background stress, prior to catching COVID so it is likely that their stress response was already quite activated. Catching COVID was the final tipping point where their stress response became so strong that it was causing severe depletion of body systems such as the immune, digestive, neurological and hormonal systems, over-stimulating organs such as heart and lungs, and causing inflammation, palpitations, POTS and neurological disturbances.
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