I wanted to share this thing someone sent on to me - written by someone who has been suffering with post covid health problems.
I really relate to this and think there is very likely a huge amount of truth to it. Some people may have experienced some more severe physical damage from their infection which may have had a more profound effect, but for me and my expereinces this rings very true.
Whether it really is the ANS and the counteraction by stimulating the vagus nerve or some other part of the body, the overall dynamics sounds right. I'm not vouching for the books mentioned or whats in the links, more the relationship between "stress" and countering with positive experiences, including particular (non stressful!) physical activities. Would be interested to hear peoples thoughts
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Here is an edit of the info I've pulled together for various people interested in my treatment strategy.
I have been doing Chronic Fatigue School,
Chronic Fatigue School → Heal CFS With Experts Who've Been There which treats long covid as a disorder of the autonomic nervous system: there is starting to be some research to support the theory that the c19 virus gets into the ANS, and this contributes to the many and weird symptoms. One of the CFS school people, Karden Rabin, has good further resources via his 'stress school'.
Karden Rabin's Homepage 2021
This explains the autonomic nervous system, and once I understood a bit about this, it helped me to see why calming the stress response was a good idea, hence doing meditation and such – as a way to enhance the vagus nerve that stimulates rest and digest
Relaxed and Content, Part 1
Relaxed and Content, Part 2
Most of the practitioners offering somatic practices to cope with life are influenced by Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score, which draws on his neurological studes of veterans with PTSD. Other resources from him are here
https://www.besselvanderkolk.com
Other good books are Robert Sapolsky – Why Zebras don't get ulcers, which is irritatingly folksy to read but interesting, and Gabor Mate, when the body says no – this is very readable. I haven't read Peter Levine, but he is also well regarded.
The assumption is that when the ANS is dysregulated, the window of tolerance we have for stressful events gets smaller, and so we activate stress responses more readily – these include lots of chronic conditions as well as fatigue. So the solution is to regulate the ANS in order to manage better with every events.
Stephen Porges's polyvagal theory is also influential., This considers the parasympathetic nervous system to have two elements, dorsal (fatigue, depressions) and ventral (well regulated, calm, at peace). This, on what trauma responses do to it, draws a bit on polyvagal theory:
Trauma and the Body Basics - Rewriting The Rules
CFS school follows three principles -
Activate the vagus nerve. There are often lists of things to try to activate the vagus nerve (sing! Gargle! Massage face!). For me the more I see a list of bullet point suggestions the less I feel able to do anything. Just doing one thing really was the start. Although now I do quite a range of different vagus activities and I feel the difference when I don't keep up with them. I really like humming, and I cold shower and cold bath regularly.
'brain training' has been a challenge to get my head around. It is close to NLP and positive psychology and that doesn't suit me. I've had to switch off my dislike of that as actually trying some of the retraining ideas has been really beneficial. The main thing is about not trying to manage symptoms, but to think about symptoms as signs of dysregulation rather than specific pathologies that need to be addressed. The idea being that the more you think about yourself as a sick person, the harder it is to break the cycle of illness. I think there is something in brain retraining, but only in tandem with the vagus nerve exercises and maybe some thinking and reflecting on why you might be in a dysregulated state.
A lot of what I am recommending discusses trauma, and often emerged from the treatment of PTSD. It's not always discussed in the resources you might read, but trauma might not mean dramatic events that others would recognise as trauma, but things which were traumatic for you, or the cumulative build up of a life of 'little-t' trauma ("These might be described as the events which exceed our capacity to cope, ie neglect, bullying, abuse, divorce, job loss or abrupt changes in our environment." )
As I have also seen a worsening of asthma – and have been doing some breathwork, especially the Buteyko method as a way to reduce my reliance on inhalers – it also helps with anxiety and fight/flight.
I have a counsellor who has done training that includes training in somatic relationship and, trauma, and who specialises in this kind of 'little t-trauma' (I quote her in the previous par). I was already seeing her, and it has been good to continue with the therapy during the illness as a way to understand the trauma of illness, as well as the other things I was working on with her. For me the nervous system work has been essential to finding some peace away from the 'freeze' state of fatigue, and the talking is what is going to keep me in this healthier way now. I don't want to recover temporarily!
