u/Living_Catch1010

hello all,

i‘m having trouble with one of my most annoying symptoms — when im nice and calm and shifting into rest and digest my body shocks me awake every time. I have to take heavy sedatives to go to sleep and while i usually wake up refreshed if i try to drift off again i can‘t and feel like crap later. I’ve tried yoga nidra, somatic tracking and progressive muscle relaxation but it feels like my body has a mind of its own. any tips?

what it says in the title. (sorry mods if this is too negative — I’m genuinely looking for advice and don’t want to discourage anyone.) I was recovered for several months thanks to mind body work only to crash again after extreme stress. I can’t get rid of the stress entirely because I have no choice but to move house next month. the thought of having so little energy again, of basically being couchbound (which I am as of yesterday) and having to go through all this again is unbearable to me. i know this is the only way out and yet I feel almost angry towards it because I relapsed. my confidence is shaky now. does anyone have any advice for how to deal with this? It’s almost worse than it was the first time. I can barely use my phone for half an hour and am trying not to panic. I can calm myself down but then the emotions are repressed. are there any videos or recovery stories that deal with relapse? what should I do?

what it says in the title. I considered myself recovered through mind body work for about four months. then I had some extreme stress (having to find a new place — I’m moving next month) and came down with the flu which was extremely mild (borderline asymptomatic) bc I took Tamiflu. during the flu I felt mostly sleepy. I should have taken it as a sign that when I went out and came back I felt so pleasantly sleepy and in need of a nap. But at night the fear of being sick often kept me awake bc I’m so traumatized from being ill from long covid for eight months.

I haven’t had flu symptoms for almost a week but woke up with that familiar soreness yesterday and today with fatigue that leaves me winded going to the bathroom or letting the dogs out. I’ve slept for four hours this morning alone and can barely make it through a breezy article without feeling like I need to sleep some more. It even feels slightly different from long covid fatigue which wasn’t at all cognitively driven. I know in my body that it’s true PEM.

I know that I should just believe that this may be temporary and that I will get better again and restart mind body work but I’m so devastated and afraid that I’ll be ill for so long again (especially with the move which is the main stressor and something I cannot change) that when I even try to relax I just spiral again even though I know it doesn’t do me any good. In my trauma I almost feel hatred towards what helped me before because the help wasn’t permanent. what should I do now? Has anyone come back from a relapse? I’m so terrified!!!