I’m young and healthy, but I can’t get rid of Covid brain fog

Even young people are complaining of brain fog lingering long after they’ve had Covid – so how long will it last?

Nearly three weeks ago, like almost everybody on my social media feeds, I tested positive to Covid-19.

While I’m fully vaccinated and the actual sickness was over in about three days, and the extreme fatigue left me last week, I’m still far from my normal energy levels, and the Covid brain fog simply won’t quit.

Typically, I’m a very productive person – both at work and in my personal life. Right now, I’m finding it hard to get going in either of those things.

During the workday, I have to try and motivate myself with promises of treats or short walks. I’m constantly trying to reset my brain because the words I usually type so easily, simply won’t come.

Long Covid is still being investigated by researchers. Picture: File image/iStock

After work, my usually impeccably tidy unit (no really, I’m usually so organised it’s almost annoying) is slowly getting messier, and I’m losing everything, which is unusual for me. Cooking, while never my favourite thing to do, has become a nightmare. I can’t even bring myself to concentrate on my cross stitch, which basically just involves me sitting on the couch with bad TV shows playing in the background.

Put simply, I can’t concentrate or focus – and it’s getting weird.

The only thing giving me some comfort (sort of) is seeing many other people my age complaining of the same thing. Then again, what’s not giving me comfort is that these people are complaining that their brain fog still hasn’t gone quite a while after they recovered from Covid – some for up to a year.

So is this what they’re calling Long Covid? And how long will the brain fog last?

According to a recent study out of New York, the average amount of time for Covid brain fog is seven months.

The study looked at 740 people with no prior history of memory problems. It also included a mix of people who were able to treat their Covid at home, and those who were hospitalised.

While the average age of people studied was 49, clinical neuropsychologist and study lead, Dr Jacqueline H. Becker, says that the results reflect on young people as well.

“Many people believe that they will survive Covid and they’ll be just fine and for the majority of the population I think that’s true,” Dr Becker says.

“But I think our paper suggests there are long-term cognitive repercussions from Covid that may impact individuals across various age groups and the spectrum of disease severity.”

I’m no scientist, but considering my real-world experience of so many 20 and 30-somethings all complaining of brain fog long after they recovered from Covid, I have to agree with her.

Speaking to Web MD, geriatric psychiatrist Dr Helen Lavretsky agreed that she was seeing similar results in her patients.

‘Normally people of this age don’t have this type of impairment … This is not unlike other viral diseases like HIV.’

“It is devastating for young people, especially, who were in their best health up until they got Covid,” she said.

“Some improve right after Covid, but then lapse and brain fog or cognitive impairment is one of the top three most common symptoms. Others include fatigue and anxiety.”

Dr Lavretsky went on to explain that this type of cognitive impairment was highly unusual to be on such a large scale in younger age groups.

“Normally people of this age don’t have this type of impairment … This is not unlike other viral diseases like HIV, for instance or Lyme disease. What is astounding is the scale – so many have it.”

Cool, great, love this for us.

Just goes to show that if you’re one of the people actually trying to get Covid, just stop it. It might not be life-threatening to most fully vaccinated people, but let me tell you that these leftover Covid symptoms are hard to deal with.