Severe brainfog/emotional emptiness from mono/ EBV?

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5 years ago a came down with a massive case of mono. i had severe brain fog for monthsss and it was easily the worst part of the sickness. fast forward 5 years later, i just graduated college and started a new job. the last 3 months i have had the exact same level of brainfog. i dont socialize or do anything anymore becasue of how disconnected/out of it i feel. i am having spleen and liver pains too. got tested for mono and it came back negative so im guessing i had a huge ebv flare up due to stress. i ecperienced brainfog and organ pain occasionally throughout those 5 years but nothing like this. can anyone relate? i need my life back. ive gotten an mri, eeg, tested for lyme, had all my bloodwork done, am seeing a chiropractor, taking a ton of supplements, and am having no relief whatsoever. please share stories if youve had anything similar i greatly appreciate it.

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8 Replies

  • Edited

    Hi!

    I contracted mono in early Nov. 2021. Since then (more than 14 months) I have been struggling with various symptoms of mono, mainly fatigue and brain fog. $ months after I first developed mono, I also developed Covid-19 (Omicron), which made my symptoms much worse. UNfirtunately I have developed Covid on top of mono several times since then, and currently I ad struggling with worst flare-up of symptoms. But I am not sure which part is due to covid and which one is due to mono, because chronic mono and long covid share many similarities, like brain for and fatigue (but I am also experiencing new symptoms-since 3 months ago- which were not part of mono, like pain in forehead, chills).

    I have heard from many people that if you have mono, and other infection like flu or covid can cause your symptoms to flare up, and this can happen even several years after mono. But most people say that this probably will pass faster than the first onset.

    Have you tested for covid in the first days of this recent flare up? did you experience other symptoms that suggested a covid infection? Do you feel fatigue, chills, headache, runny nose, tingling and numbness, shivers, sore throat, spleen pain, mouth/tongue scars, ... recently?

    • Edited

      amino,

      im sorry you are going through this, its truly terrible. i also got mono since march 2022. First six months was consistently bad with so many symptoms. i just never had the chills up until i caught a cold last month. the cold only lasted a week but the chills is still here. i never had chills that lasted this long prior to getting mono.

    • Edited

      Thank you very much!

      I believe that during the first 4 months I had some good progress, but then covid exacerbated my symptoms.

      And also, I wasn't aware that physical exhaustion and exercise can worsen mono, so I resumed my exercise routine as soon as I felt a little better, which was the worst idea.

  • Edited

    Also had mono six years ago and recovered relapsed after a bout of covid, Starting to feel better again 11 months later.

    • Posted

      Were the symptoms of your last relapse similar to mono, or (long) covid? Did you experienced any new symptom?

      How was its severity compared to the first one?

    • Edited

      Yes, the exhaustion, heart palpitations, body aches, tremor and anxiety. I do think it's easier this time around as I know what to expect and how to pace myself.

    • Posted

      unfortunately i dont get "sick" just liver and spleen pain and severe brainfog/memory loss/ feeling like im in a dream. its miserable

  • Edited

    I experience something very similar. ever since dealing with mono in 2020/2021 I felt like i haven't recovered fully. I have also done my bloodwork (several times) - liver tests, thyroid hormones, allergies, as well as a comprehensive blood panel and it all came back great leaving me wondering what it is.

    It very much depends on the day, but I can relate to the disconnectedness and emotional emptiness you describe. On some days I my experience is very shallow, as if life became 2 dimensional, its very obscure to try and name it but I feel like I lose awareness of the extension of my existence into the future, as if Im experiencing life frame by frame. I also have slight liver/spleen aches, i feel that the muscles around my stomach and ribcage are more tense on the right side. Some days, however, I feel almost completely normal, my subjective experience of life is what it used to be.

    I suspect this might be exacerbated by certain foods (carbohydrates maybe), and by my level of stress. My job in the past 2 years has been quite stressful and I think this might be a factor. I plan on mapping out a correlation between my feeling like this and the type of foods i eat to see if there is perhaps a connection. I will let you know of the results.

    It's good to know I am not the only one with a similar experience, I could not get any info on the web pertaining to my state. I also thought that maybe this is a form of depression and I went to a psychologist, but it's been ruled out

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