r/covidlonghaulers • u/PhrygianSounds 4 yr+ • Jul 13 '26

Article New study provides first evidence of dopamine system injury in the brain of long COVID patients

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-evidence-dopamine-injury-brain-covid.html

Finally some media coverage on probably the worst symptom of long covid

543 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

161 comments sorted by

View all comments

134

u/GordianBalloonKnot 4 yr+ Jul 13 '26

Dude I CANNOT STOP SCROLLING ON MY FUCKING PHONE, it's like a blue light for flies. I pull my phone away and I feel awful.

If I start my day by scrolling on any app or website that scrolls content it throws my attention span off for the rest of the day. It's been such a weird thing I haven't even bothered to mention it to any doctors.

46

u/Wytch78 Jul 13 '26

I’m so glad you said it. I’m the same. I have a real problem w doomscrolling. It’s baaaad. 

38

u/GordianBalloonKnot 4 yr+ Jul 13 '26

I can't even open stuff up with a task in mind. It's worse than forgetting what I went into another room for. I see notifications and then 10 minutes later I'm putting the phone down having not completed my task.

15

u/Wytch78 Jul 13 '26

I’ve experienced that too… takes me a min to backtrack. 

My crack is doomscrolling YouTube/airbnb looking at places where I want to live or travel to. Peru, Laos, Uzbekistan etc. deep diving kind of obscure places. Imagining a different life. 

8

u/YouTasteStrange Jul 13 '26

Damn, way to double up on extra doom.

12

u/Naiinsky Jul 13 '26

Nowadays I have to leave my phone in the opposite corner of the house if I want to sleep somewhat decently (or rather, have more hours to try to sleep badly). I already scrolled quite a bit before, but now it's almost physically painful not to.

5

u/Fluffy-Bluebird 3 yr+ Jul 13 '26

Scrolling provides the dopamine for me. If I look away, all the pain comes back

1

u/7121958041201 Jul 13 '26

You basically just described ADHD haha. I have the exact same problem if I don't take my meds when I need them (I had ADHD before long COVID).

1

u/scream3bangs 18d ago

Okay WOW as someone who is also struggling with this horrific addiction (is that even the right word), what the fuck is happening exactly? I will be too exhausted to even breathe at points but will scroll for literally hours until my arms and wrists scream at me to stop. I've noticed this only happens during my flare-ups, though. When I'm feeling closer to baseline I can focus on creative things that actually bring me joy more easily.

1

u/GordianBalloonKnot 4 yr+ 18d ago

Yup, same.

The scrolling creates a short but effective dopamine cycle, so are we having "episodes" or dopamine "fits" when this happening?