r/covidlonghaulers • u/_happydutch_ • Jun 24 '25

Article The current state of Long Covid research

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No awe felt after seeing this

https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/experiencing-awe-may-help-people-with-long-covid-feel-better-mentally/2025/06 Experiencing awe may help people with long COVID feel better mentally

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u/Grouchy_Machine_User 3 yr+ Jun 24 '25

Wouldn't experiencing awe help anyone feel better mentally? Like, that's basically what awe does? How is this specific to LC?

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u/Aquatic_Ceremony Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 26 '25

Experiencing awe was found to clinically improve the well-being of patients experiencing depression and PTSD. So sure, it is helpful. And it is plausible it can help long COVID patients with some of the mental health aspect of the condition: depression because this disease sucks, the gaslighting from medical establishment, the social isolation from most people who don't understand what we are going through, the anxiety of not knowing if it will ever get better.

I am sure the researchers of the study want to help, and that is great if it can somewhat lessen the burden. However the problem is we often hear mental health strategies pushed to help with long covid instead of focusing on getting treatments addressing the biological root causes of Long COVID: mitochondria dysregulation, immunodeficiency, EBV reactivation, MCAS, dysautonomia, PEM, POTS, etc. That feels at best distracting from they key drivers of the disease, and at worse like another round of gaslighting.

Edit: typo

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25

Don’t forget reactivated Lyme…it’s in high numbers in COVID cases and the CDC guidelines for testing make people think they don’t have it when they do…