this is golden wisdom. As a doctor i can tell you, 99% doctors have no idea on what advise to give. I am learning how to recover from experience (long covid dysautonomia) AND most importantly from this community. This is deeply experiential science and wisdom. I refused to acknowledge that I had long covid and ended up cycling through multiple crashes and trying new supplements and got so much sicker and ended bedbound. Finally, it hit me. I had no choice but to stop. But even through phase 1, I didn't understand that as Erik said "the body will heal you not the other way round". I'm in early phase 2 now and am just about grasping this concept at an emotional level. And I'm so glad I found this channel and this video. Cause per my cardiology colleagues - I should be "pushing myself" lol doing "cardio". Im like nah bruh, I can barely walk. Western medicine doesn't understand this illness cause 1. the medical establishment refuses to acknowledge and or study most post viral complex illnesses largely because it lacks the conceptual framework to understand health through its narrow disease focused framework and cause curing isn't profitable 2. you haven't been through it. So I trust and listen to people like Erik and other so called patients. Thanks for creating such spaces and sharing such knowledge.
Phase 2 is so important!! My recovery stagnated for years because I didn't understand its importance, as soon as I could do more I started doing too much. The rule per day is: you need to give out less energy than you have, you shouldn't be exhausted at the end of the day (but naturally sleepy) and you should wake up refreshed the next day. You're building up reserves so you won't crash as hard. Only when you've stabilised and built up those reserves, can you start to push your limits bit by bit and have your body catch up to it. I'm currently between phase 1 and 2, but I'm so happy I'm finally getting it!
So true about the graded exercise routine..if started too soon it will only be harmful..the hardest part is to follow the "less is more " concept until the body is truly ready for more exertion. Great interview!
This is the first time someone has verbalised what I could not about my long covid recovery. Cutting basically everything out to figure out what your nervous system can handle...THEN maintaining that. Only now after five months I am starting to be able to add new levels of 'living' in, now I can comfortably step back and observe what gets triggered (if anything!). I'm living with a level of symptoms that I lived with for a LONG time leading up to my massive massive crash post covid (where I couldn't get off the bed or couch and was in and out of hospital with insomnia, panic attacks, nerve pain, muscle pain etc)...but I think having two small kids makes a 100% recovery impossible for me, I'm happy to be at about 90% right now! Finally getting to add back in foods etc! xx
Erik is so sensible and thoughtful! This is a must watch. I love what he says about how the body heals itself (we don't heal it), and we just need to get out of its way. Love what he says about supplements and googling. And yes to honoring these 3 phases, and the importance of acceptance of where you are now to get to where you want to go.
Agreed. I think the important thing is to let the body rest and recover. Slow Breathing and meditation with music helps. And of course some supplements. I find the hardest part is to come to terms with it and letting people understand ones situation.
Through lots of trials and errors, I've finally made it to phase 3! I can push myself to do more things that I haven't done in years and I recover so much faster. I feel like I can trust my body more now to do what it's supposed to do. Great interview
@@djVania08 Watching a lot of recovery videos! Started doing weight lifting & calisthenics very slowly. Changed my attitude about recovery, for example, knowing that pushing my boundaries will cause symptoms and that's ok, it's part of the recovery process. Hope that helps.
Biggest takeaway from Erik: there are different phases of recovery that require different strategies for energy management and healing. In the last phase, it's not just elapsed time, but graded exercise. Thank you Raelan for such a great interview, and to Erik for your sharing experience and insights!
Total lightbulbs! Congratulations Eric on your recovery, I’ve followed parts of your journey the last year or so. I love your breakdown of it all. Excellent advice, I’m in phase 3 too and I can see how you have to be gentle with yourself and to let go of all expectations to move forward and eventually progress further to a more or less full recovery. I really enjoyed this. Thank you clarification 🙏
@@Mark1Mach2 I’ve not fully recovered yet but almost there. Unfortunately I pushed it too far like Erik talks about so currently trying to get back after a relapse two weeks ago, this was after over two months more or less symptom free. Main thing was resting being mindful of how I do things and trying to limit stress. Hope you’re doing ok.
I like that he emphasizes that you have to spend a long time in phase two. I fully recovered from CFS 25 years ago and I spent an extremely long time at the same level of functioning. Then I rapidly start to feel better and was fully recovered in two months. I have long covid now and doctors tell me that your threshold slowly rises but in my experience it's been more stagnant. Based on his definition I think I'm in phase 2 but I would argue that for me pushing the envelope a little bit has actually been beneficial in particular with cognitive activity. But I will emphasize this has been after hitting rock bottom and slowly adding things in based on how my body felt ie avoiding screens for months and then starting with 5 minutes which takes a hell of a lot of self-control LOL
Very helpful! I realize how one needs understand that healing takes time, lots of time! Patience is the key! We cannot push the healing process. The body knows how to heal! It is a healing machine--but not necessarily as fast a moving machine as we would like! Raelan, Thank you for another very helpful video. It gets another bookmark from me!
thank you Erik. Very impressed you have understood your symptoms are caused by your troubled nervous system. Something I only have come to understand after 5 years living with burn out (or in words CFS/ME) Hope many people will listen to your experience. Like the clarity and roundedness with which you speak. So true: your body heals itself, you can only provide the right circumstances to support the process.
Thanks Erik and Raelan - I got a lot out of this episode. The concept of 3 stages resonates with me now you mention it. I am definitely in stage 2 at the moment. I am glad I listened to this though as I am trying to gradually increase my baseline. But, perhaps I need to maintain my baseline for a period like Erik suggests.
Great and hopeful video. Thank you! I’m on my second round of long covid 😕. I mostly recovered in about 14 months from LC after my first infection. I got covid again April of this year and now I’m in the thick of this condition again although I “feel” like I’m coming out of the worst part. So now it’s my time to not mess it up and be careful not to start pushing my body and brain too much to avoid these deflating relapses. One thing that I think it’s super important in getting better is not doubt that you will get better. Maybe not tomorrow, or next week or month but you will heal.
😊 This was a really great interview. Erik has a lot of subtle yet vital strategies and tips, and that was especially helpful for me. I really came away from the video feeling reempowered to continue moving forward with my healing/recovery journey from me/cfs. I officially began on 2/27/23 and already feel like I want to jump to phase 3. I needed the reminder to slow down and be patient. Thanks so much, Erik and Raelan!! ❤
Hi, this is one of the best, just easiest explanations you’ve shared. It’s so appropriate for ME/CFS too and is exactly what everyone says about both conditions (which I believe are the same anyway, having had ME for 20 yrs that’s gone away and come back 3 times, the third after covid). Thanks so much for sharing and to Erik and his story. I’m in phase 3 too but I do push too hard sometimes and you can feel you’ve gone back a year!! What I do notice though is that later on, recovery is so much quicker and easier as you just drop back to baseline and feel better in a day or two so totally agree with him about phases ❤
Thank you. I’ve had long covid 2x. It went away with rest the first time after 4 months on its own. 😊 But this 2nd time I’m on month 10 with sooo many more symptoms. I love to watch these videos of recovery. Also, relapse is a real thing I’ve been through it many times when you try to do a lot more because you feel better and than boom you are hit back down to feeling like it’s the first month of long covid. All of us who have this are very strong whether we realize it or not. My autonomic system went haywire from hearing a big dog bark for 3.5 hrs 2 months ago and I got hyperacusis. Has anyone else gotten hyperacusis while on this journey? It makes noises sound 20x louder than they should be and the nervous system is going haywire. Trying to do cognitive behavior therapy for that while recovering from long covid now.
Thank you. The concept of stages is really helpful, as is the reminder to accept wherever it is you are in those stages. I’ve just come to this realisation this week, (after 10 months of trying all the things to fix myself) so hearing this is timely.
During phase 3 crashes are not so bad and you recover faster from them (if you stop and rest of course) and that makes it easier to take on new small challenges without being so afraid of overdoing it.
The phase statement is right on the mark for me. Got COVID in April 2020 one week after first vaccine. Severe allergic reaction to vaccine. I’m diagnosed with chronic hives from the vaccine. Allergy free before COVID vaccine, now allergic to half the items on six pages of allergy test. Was feeling almost well and working on allergy items by December 2020 and got a different strain of COVID. Everything tasted spoiled for 2 weeks. The COVID symptoms were migraines, fevers, sinus infection feeling, strep throat feeling, body pain, my legs below my knees black and blue, unable to be out of bed for 10 minutes and all existing health issues heightened ( neuropathy, fiber myalgia, sight and sound sensitivity). I am a survivor of HIV/AIDS since 1986. I really thought COVID was going to kill me. I feel I have started phase 2 from long COVID. Just turned 62. Looking forward to working my way through phase 2 and starting phase 3 by next year. Was wondering if physical therapy would be a good place to start on regaining some body and activity strengthening? Thank you so much for the 3 phase information. This will give me a verbal tool to use when speaking with my doctors. No doctors so far on my list really acknowledging long COVID. I hope this changes since all this information is being put out there by people figuring it out the best they can on their own. Take good care, Twyla
OMG he is telling my story, over two years of this crap now and a couple of weeks ago I had the best week I have ever had since trying to recover so I added back in some socialization with friends just sacrificed resting maybe two hours less on Sundays, then the next day I had to do some hard work beyond what I am used to and am currently in a 10 day flare up.
I find it confusing when people say they had good day where maybe half of it they had no symptoms. Does that happen to many people? For me it's like a volume, on bad days, it's waay up, on better days it's a bit lower, but I still have many symptoms.
I think it varies a lot how many symptoms people have and how bad they are and how often they have them. I think it’s partly cause what people call long covid are really multiple disorders, of which some people have one, others have two, and yet others have a few on top of each other. So do you have autoimmunity on top of a reactivated herpes virus while still struggling with viral persistence of the sars-2 virus in your tooth or your bowels or in some other organ? Good luck with that. For others it may just be that they have blood clots which limit the amount of oxygen that can go into the capillaries. That is just a totally different medical condition. On top of that: some people had access to all sorts of medicines and supplements from early on with GPs by their side who were willing to try out new things, while others have none of those things (cause they live in countries where a lot of that isn’t available or cause they can’t afford it or cause they were naive and thought their body was gonna defeat the virus on its own) Just my two cents
I'm a lot less tired in the evenings, so I sometimes have no symptoms then. As long as I do literally nothing in that time I'll feel pretty good. But as soon as I try to read a bit the brain fog and tiredness comes. Maybe it's weird to say no symptoms when I still can't walk and have food intolerances. But I mean no pain, headaches, heaviness, and brain fog kind of symptoms, as long as I do nothing in the evening.
Is anyone experience also like the system has forgotten how to breathe? This is my biggest problem but if i try to meditate it seems to help at that time am so scared please help me if someone try’s something and help for that? Thanks and thank you guys for helping us.
Search for information on the “Physiological Sigh”. It is a form of Breathwork that can help to lower your heart rate and relieve Anxiety. It can be something to focus on to help with your Meditation. Breathwork is one of the gentlest physical activities that you can use to start your recovery when exercise tends to cause a relapse.
Yes, it's autonomic dysfunction. Part of your nervous system is damaged.. happened to me. Had it for 6 months. What helped was breathwork, heart coherence breathing, CBD oil to calm me down, omega3 to repair
The diagnosis is Vagal Nerve Damage. The virus persists and the vagus nerve burns out. The reason it takes years to recover is because the nerves needs time to recover.
Thank you. It’s good to be validated. I have had Covid off an on since 2020. So I go in and out of different phases, but at least I know what I need to do. Like you said, acceptance helps tremendously.
@@AlbaLynxQueen yes, most people with long covid recover within 16 months, and it doesnt look like it has to do with supplements, rest, diet, ect. It just goes away on its own. Long covid and severe long covid is two completely different things.
SOOO grateful for the LC OGs making these videos to give us, who have just started this journey, HOPE. Our bodies are very sensitive and anything can flare us up. I can't eat bananas, and I think tomato sauce from what I've felt when eating it. It's a hit or miss with other things, sometimes they hurt, other times they don't. Sometimes I can handle social interactions, other days I absolutely can't. The baseline talk is very practical and helpful to us all, so we can help our bodies and not prolongue our recoveries further.
I can’t eat any nightshades at all now after my first Covid experience. So no tomatoes, potatoes, paprika, eggplant, peppers including green or chilis.
Where I’m lost is I’m still not sure if it’s Dysautonomia or not. They can’t find anything, but this just straight up feels like inflammation everywhere. Can the nervous system do this?
With me taste and smell has not returned. I’ve been able to cook full meals again, can’t smell or taste but I can follow recipes, and see people enjoy it.
It's so difficult to actually be reclusive for stage 1 due to work and family issues. I work a physical job and my dad is battling cancer. I also have other health issues that are popping up like having to be sedated to get a tooth removed and eventually a dental implant. I also struggle with controlling my emotions and get overwhelmed by all this shit!
In phase 3 now. I am eating normally primarily though I still can't eat red meat or any animal products. I am back in the gym and lifting heavy, though high-intensity cardio is still iffy. My 'flares' are brief..maybe a couple days vs in phase two when a flare could set off 4-8 weeks of fatigue and muscle weakness. Off all my MCAS meds and supplements. Still taking Monolaurin daily as an anti-virals still feel helpful.
You don't need to maintain the baseline for that long before you start building up your activity...you can bring it in very carefully and slowly as soon as you have a stable baseline established.
is there someone who is in the phase 3 but almost everytime when gets up from bed or stand up from sitting on the chair fells dizzy, maybe brain fog (like me) i am trying running and sport stuff its okey but i can not really enjoy it i don t feel like i can try hard ..... that sucks, no progress like 7 months and its worse in winter (the symptoms) do u have the same problem someone ?
I was finally making progress around Thanksgiving. Then I over did it and now am worse then I was 15 months after reinfection. Im completely house and couch bound
Anyone else find it hard to figure out which paradigm to follow. Some of the brain training programs seem almost to advise against too much pacing/activity avoidance..
I just want to know if Erik was ever vaccinated after he had contracted Covid? Do you think you could answer that for me? Or was he never vaccinated ever? Thank you
Hi Jeff, when I got COVID in November 2020 Vaccines were not available. I did get the vaccines later on. I have my journey and reaction to those vaccine shots on my channel if you are interested in my results.
I had to cut off my engagement and end the relationship due to LC. I want us to get back together but the stress and other factors will likely play into the relationship again and she may no longer want to try and make it work. The war is in the mind. Scriptues, prayer and fellowship has been crucial
Got Covid June 2022. The first maybe 6 months I had no baseline. I felt horrible 24/7 around the clock. I never understood how people could say when you find your baseline. My baseline was just feeling like I was dead all the time. After the 6 months, I felt like I was beginning to do more things that I was unable to do before. I had finally reached my baseline. Today at 10 months, my baseline is even better than it was before. So, my baseline every month is changing- For the better. I’m doing more and more. Feeling better but still not 100%. I do about 3200 steps a day sometimes much more. I hope this kind of answered your question.
I have increased mucus - chest irritation and a cough. Ive had it for 19 months - I can't find any similar people or some evidence of people getting over these symptoms
I have had this or am having it and currently its gotten better. First time around september 2023 I had only a tingling sensation in the bronchial area. Then this year around April I felt very recovered but relapsed in June 2024. The tingling and coughing appeared. After a month or so The tingling turned into a productive cough and runny nose. 2 weeks ago I had another crass flare up where my body went into another bout of hard coughing and congested nose. Whats interesting is that when the last flare up occured I felt how the layer of low energy and no motivation/creativity started to lift. Right now I'm feeling overall better than 6 months back. There is still some snot and a slight cough (especially when I lean my head back into my neck I can still provoke a cough reaction which would indicated to me an irritated airway). I would assume that the productive cough is a sign that the body is working on removing the pathogen which is causing the long covid issue. Cant say for sure of course. What I did was allowing as much rest as possible or low activity like doing stuff on the computer. Very hot showers helped a bit with coughing. Supplementing with a multivitamin just to be sure. Going into the forest and trying to breath some oxygenated air once in a while. I was testing my boundaries with resistance exercise since a month and I would say if you have been an enjoyer of sports before I would do some of it once in a blue moon just feel better psychologically. But flare ups can result from this of course. However, it's not necessarily bad. Why am I mentioning this? Because Before my last flare up with strong cough and congested nose again I did some resistance training. And although it set a crass reaction into effect I also feel notiecably better right now than I did all the time 2 weeks prior. Also: Had Covid first early 2020 and it bled into the summer with noticeable lung difficulty. Would say my first long covid symptoms actually came 2023 Before "long covid/ post acute infection syndrome" (cant be 100% sure) I was an avid runner, gym goer. I never smoked, never drank alcohol, healthy diet as most would say, and I still got hit like that. Maybe this info helps a bit?
Baseline is sleeping, food, shower or baths, and the odd times you go out to appointments. Home life is fine. At least with technology you can communicate with other people not in your household.
I’m am sorry! Such a worthless interview! Nothing specific! Talk about your specific symptoms! If you know how to help your body heal it does not require years to get through! I think I’m on the backend of all neurological symptoms now! Keep googling! Keep testing! Keep trying! It’s been 4 months for me…
Did you even listen to what they said? Obviously not. They did an interview before where he talked about his symptoms. This was a follow up about his progression towards healing. Listen to understand before you open your mouth to make noise.
I encourage people to stick to sources of info like Raelan’s Channel. It’s important to guard your mental health especially during this time in recovery and recovery stories are so important. 😊
I think it was Because sometimes too much research can make a person frightened and overwhelmed. Too much negative information can make a person lose hope and feel like nothing is working. Its a long journey... We must accept it.
Did you even watch the video? They did exactly that. Erik covers has a video on this topic on his channel too. I’d encourage you to watch it if you need more clarification.
@@tylerjohnson9957 I watched the whole thing - they just talked about phase one - but not defining it .... same with the other phases - at least not defining it as my mind calls definitions .... no I did not watch the other - a 2-3 second quick definition was all that was needed here - so these guys are not the ones to help me - they may communicate fine for others Every one needs a slightly different path ....
@@TwistedRootsVanVelzerPress Phase 1: Being overwhelmed by the symptoms and accepting that your body needs time for itself. Figure out what your baseline can be. Phase 2: Symtpoms have gotten less intense as you manage to find what activities you can do or not (baseline). You are able to perform some normal activities while the body has enough ressources to keep healing itself. Phase 3: The majority of your days is symptom free. You start pushing your prevously set boundaries a bit to reclaim the capacity of your body.
I'm in the same situation like Erik, now I feel better after 2 years , the first important thing is to cut STRESS out of your life + get good sleep( Melatonin suppliments)+ daily physical activity (start small and build your health back 🥰)+ find the right Diet for you because my diet is very restrictive but still anything that is producing inflamation in your body has to be cut off. Some supplements that helped me recover are those who help mitocondria repair becouse this long covid condition is really affecting all the body at the cellular level : Take a good amout of antioxydents, CoQ10 Ubiquinol( MitoQ10 is better), L-carnitine , Vitamin D, C(Acerola), E (+ get a lot of sunlight) , Magnesium, Vitamine B group, Alpha lypoic acid, NAC - N-Acetyl L-Cysteine ( for the blood clots) . I'm not a Doctor so check with one to see if you can take them. Good luck to everybody!
this is golden wisdom. As a doctor i can tell you, 99% doctors have no idea on what advise to give. I am learning how to recover from experience (long covid dysautonomia) AND most importantly from this community. This is deeply experiential science and wisdom. I refused to acknowledge that I had long covid and ended up cycling through multiple crashes and trying new supplements and got so much sicker and ended bedbound. Finally, it hit me. I had no choice but to stop. But even through phase 1, I didn't understand that as Erik said "the body will heal you not the other way round". I'm in early phase 2 now and am just about grasping this concept at an emotional level. And I'm so glad I found this channel and this video. Cause per my cardiology colleagues - I should be "pushing myself" lol doing "cardio". Im like nah bruh, I can barely walk. Western medicine doesn't understand this illness cause 1. the medical establishment refuses to acknowledge and or study most post viral complex illnesses largely because it lacks the conceptual framework to understand health through its narrow disease focused framework and cause curing isn't profitable 2. you haven't been through it. So I trust and listen to people like Erik and other so called patients. Thanks for creating such spaces and sharing such knowledge.
Zuurzak tea and tulsi helps a lot dr!
😂
what can i do about the brain fog and gut symptoms doc
Phase 2 is so important!! My recovery stagnated for years because I didn't understand its importance, as soon as I could do more I started doing too much. The rule per day is: you need to give out less energy than you have, you shouldn't be exhausted at the end of the day (but naturally sleepy) and you should wake up refreshed the next day. You're building up reserves so you won't crash as hard. Only when you've stabilised and built up those reserves, can you start to push your limits bit by bit and have your body catch up to it. I'm currently between phase 1 and 2, but I'm so happy I'm finally getting it!
So true about the graded exercise routine..if started too soon it will only be harmful..the hardest part is to follow the "less is more " concept until the body is truly ready for more exertion. Great interview!
This is the first time someone has verbalised what I could not about my long covid recovery. Cutting basically everything out to figure out what your nervous system can handle...THEN maintaining that. Only now after five months I am starting to be able to add new levels of 'living' in, now I can comfortably step back and observe what gets triggered (if anything!). I'm living with a level of symptoms that I lived with for a LONG time leading up to my massive massive crash post covid (where I couldn't get off the bed or couch and was in and out of hospital with insomnia, panic attacks, nerve pain, muscle pain etc)...but I think having two small kids makes a 100% recovery impossible for me, I'm happy to be at about 90% right now! Finally getting to add back in foods etc! xx
It's such a challenging journey! 🧡 Great to hear that you're getting better, 90% is incredible 🧡🧡
Erik is so sensible and thoughtful! This is a must watch. I love what he says about how the body heals itself (we don't heal it), and we just need to get out of its way. Love what he says about supplements and googling. And yes to honoring these 3 phases, and the importance of acceptance of where you are now to get to where you want to go.
Agreed. I think the important thing is to let the body rest and recover. Slow Breathing and meditation with music helps. And of course some supplements. I find the hardest part is to come to terms with it and letting people understand ones situation.
Through lots of trials and errors, I've finally made it to phase 3!
I can push myself to do more things that I haven't done in years and I recover so much faster.
I feel like I can trust my body more now to do what it's supposed to do.
Great interview
What were your main approaches? :)
@@djVania08 Watching a lot of recovery videos! Started doing weight lifting & calisthenics very slowly. Changed my attitude about recovery, for example, knowing that pushing my boundaries will cause symptoms and that's ok, it's part of the recovery process. Hope that helps.
@@gingerztube what do you do when you feel symptoms?
I don't think it's a good idea to push yourself.
Me too ! Good luck to your healing !🥰
Biggest takeaway from Erik: there are different phases of recovery that require different strategies for energy management and healing. In the last phase, it's not just elapsed time, but graded exercise. Thank you Raelan for such a great interview, and to Erik for your sharing experience and insights!
I have had LC since Sept. 2021. So many things I can relate to in this video. So glad you made it and I found it. ♥
Total lightbulbs! Congratulations Eric on your recovery, I’ve followed parts of your journey the last year or so. I love your breakdown of it all. Excellent advice, I’m in phase 3 too and I can see how you have to be gentle with yourself and to let go of all expectations to move forward and eventually progress further to a more or less full recovery.
I really enjoyed this. Thank you clarification 🙏
Hey, would love to know what you did to recover. Any thing different?
@@Mark1Mach2 I’ve not fully recovered yet but almost there. Unfortunately I pushed it too far like Erik talks about so currently trying to get back after a relapse two weeks ago, this was after over two months more or less symptom free. Main thing was resting being mindful of how I do things and trying to limit stress. Hope you’re doing ok.
I like that he emphasizes that you have to spend a long time in phase two. I fully recovered from CFS 25 years ago and I spent an extremely long time at the same level of functioning. Then I rapidly start to feel better and was fully recovered in two months. I have long covid now and doctors tell me that your threshold slowly rises but in my experience it's been more stagnant. Based on his definition I think I'm in phase 2 but I would argue that for me pushing the envelope a little bit has actually been beneficial in particular with cognitive activity. But I will emphasize this has been after hitting rock bottom and slowly adding things in based on how my body felt ie avoiding screens for months and then starting with 5 minutes which takes a hell of a lot of self-control LOL
Very helpful! I realize how one needs understand that healing takes time, lots of time! Patience is the key! We cannot push the healing process. The body knows how to heal! It is a healing machine--but not necessarily as fast a moving machine as we would like!
Raelan, Thank you for another very helpful video. It gets another bookmark from me!
thank you Erik. Very impressed you have understood your symptoms are caused by your troubled nervous system. Something I only have come to understand after 5 years living with burn out (or in words CFS/ME) Hope many people will listen to your experience. Like the clarity and roundedness with which you speak. So true: your body heals itself, you can only provide the right circumstances to support the process.
Thanks Erik and Raelan - I got a lot out of this episode. The concept of 3 stages resonates with me now you mention it. I am definitely in stage 2 at the moment. I am glad I listened to this though as I am trying to gradually increase my baseline. But, perhaps I need to maintain my baseline for a period like Erik suggests.
Great and hopeful video. Thank you! I’m on my second round of long covid 😕. I mostly recovered in about 14 months from LC after my first infection. I got covid again April of this year and now I’m in the thick of this condition again although I “feel” like I’m coming out of the worst part. So now it’s my time to not mess it up and be careful not to start pushing my body and brain too much to avoid these deflating relapses. One thing that I think it’s super important in getting better is not doubt that you will get better. Maybe not tomorrow, or next week or month but you will heal.
What a great attitude, Alex ❤️ Much love to you!
😊 This was a really great interview. Erik has a lot of subtle yet vital strategies and tips, and that was especially helpful for me. I really came away from the video feeling reempowered to continue moving forward with my healing/recovery journey from me/cfs. I officially began on 2/27/23 and already feel like I want to jump to phase 3. I needed the reminder to slow down and be patient. Thanks so much, Erik and Raelan!! ❤
Hi, this is one of the best, just easiest explanations you’ve shared. It’s so appropriate for ME/CFS too and is exactly what everyone says about both conditions (which I believe are the same anyway, having had ME for 20 yrs that’s gone away and come back 3 times, the third after covid).
Thanks so much for sharing and to Erik and his story. I’m in phase 3 too but I do push too hard sometimes and you can feel you’ve gone back a year!! What I do notice though is that later on, recovery is so much quicker and easier as you just drop back to baseline and feel better in a day or two so totally agree with him about phases ❤
I remember seeing the first video with Erik! Congratulations on your progress!!
This is so helpful for me. Thank you.
Thank you. I’ve had long covid 2x. It went away with rest the first time after 4 months on its own. 😊
But this 2nd time I’m on month 10 with sooo many more symptoms. I love to watch these videos of recovery.
Also, relapse is a real thing I’ve been through it many times when you try to do a lot more because you feel better and than boom you are hit back down to feeling like it’s the first month of long covid. All of us who have this are very strong whether we realize it or not.
My autonomic system went haywire from hearing a big dog bark for 3.5 hrs 2 months ago and I got hyperacusis. Has anyone else gotten hyperacusis while on this journey? It makes noises sound 20x louder than they should be and the nervous system is going haywire.
Trying to do cognitive behavior therapy for that while recovering from long covid now.
Very good interview, thank you!
Thank you. The concept of stages is really helpful, as is the reminder to accept wherever it is you are in those stages. I’ve just come to this realisation this week, (after 10 months of trying all the things to fix myself) so hearing this is timely.
During phase 3 crashes are not so bad and you recover faster from them (if you stop and rest of course) and that makes it easier to take on new small challenges without being so afraid of overdoing it.
The phase statement is right on the mark for me. Got COVID in April 2020 one week after first vaccine. Severe allergic reaction to vaccine. I’m diagnosed with chronic hives from the vaccine. Allergy free before COVID vaccine, now allergic to half the items on six pages of allergy test. Was feeling almost well and working on allergy items by December 2020 and got a different strain of COVID. Everything tasted spoiled for 2 weeks. The COVID symptoms were migraines, fevers, sinus infection feeling, strep throat feeling, body pain, my legs below my knees black and blue, unable to be out of bed for 10 minutes and all existing health issues heightened ( neuropathy, fiber myalgia, sight and sound sensitivity). I am a survivor of HIV/AIDS since 1986. I really thought COVID was going to kill me. I feel I have started phase 2 from long COVID. Just turned 62. Looking forward to working my way through phase 2 and starting phase 3 by next year. Was wondering if physical therapy would be a good place to start on regaining some body and activity strengthening? Thank you so much for the 3 phase information. This will give me a verbal tool to use when speaking with my doctors. No doctors so far on my list really acknowledging long COVID. I hope this changes since all this information is being put out there by people figuring it out the best they can on their own. Take good care, Twyla
OMG he is telling my story, over two years of this crap now and a couple of weeks ago I had the best week I have ever had since trying to recover so I added back in some socialization with friends just sacrificed resting maybe two hours less on Sundays, then the next day I had to do some hard work beyond what I am used to and am currently in a 10 day flare up.
I find it confusing when people say they had good day where maybe half of it they had no symptoms. Does that happen to many people? For me it's like a volume, on bad days, it's waay up, on better days it's a bit lower, but I still have many symptoms.
Go Low Oxalate Car ni vore...
I think it varies a lot how many symptoms people have and how bad they are and how often they have them. I think it’s partly cause what people call long covid are really multiple disorders, of which some people have one, others have two, and yet others have a few on top of each other. So do you have autoimmunity on top of a reactivated herpes virus while still struggling with viral persistence of the sars-2 virus in your tooth or your bowels or in some other organ? Good luck with that. For others it may just be that they have blood clots which limit the amount of oxygen that can go into the capillaries. That is just a totally different medical condition.
On top of that: some people had access to all sorts of medicines and supplements from early on with GPs by their side who were willing to try out new things, while others have none of those things (cause they live in countries where a lot of that isn’t available or cause they can’t afford it or cause they were naive and thought their body was gonna defeat the virus on its own)
Just my two cents
Exactly! Symptoms are always there, just less severe on some days.
I'm a lot less tired in the evenings, so I sometimes have no symptoms then. As long as I do literally nothing in that time I'll feel pretty good.
But as soon as I try to read a bit the brain fog and tiredness comes. Maybe it's weird to say no symptoms when I still can't walk and have food intolerances. But I mean no pain, headaches, heaviness, and brain fog kind of symptoms, as long as I do nothing in the evening.
Totally agree. Maybe that changes some as we start to recover? Not sure bc I'm not there just yet. I guess we'll see.
Is anyone experience also like the system has forgotten how to breathe? This is my biggest problem but if i try to meditate it seems to help at that time am so scared please help me if someone try’s something and help for that?
Thanks and thank you guys for helping us.
The body has forgotten how to relax
Search for information on the “Physiological Sigh”. It is a form of Breathwork that can help to lower your heart rate and relieve Anxiety. It can be something to focus on to help with your Meditation.
Breathwork is one of the gentlest physical activities that you can use to start your recovery when exercise tends to cause a relapse.
Yes, it's autonomic dysfunction. Part of your nervous system is damaged.. happened to me. Had it for 6 months. What helped was breathwork, heart coherence breathing, CBD oil to calm me down, omega3 to repair
@@timmyschannel5 you mean your long covid lasted for 6 months? Are you fully back to normal now?
I've just come out of 15mths, learning to relax and go with it has definitely helped me heal x
Very encouraging
Great points!
The diagnosis is Vagal Nerve Damage. The virus persists and the vagus nerve burns out. The reason it takes years to recover is because the nerves needs time to recover.
Do you have any proof?
Thank you. It’s good to be validated. I have had Covid off an on since 2020. So I go in and out of different phases, but at least I know what I need to do. Like you said, acceptance helps tremendously.
No symptom free day for 36 months now. Horror at best.
same, if he had "good days", maybe he wasn't so sick in the first place and was just recovering naturally.
@@AlbaLynxQueen yes, most people with long covid recover within 16 months, and it doesnt look like it has to do with supplements, rest, diet, ect. It just goes away on its own. Long covid and severe long covid is two completely different things.
SOOO grateful for the LC OGs making these videos to give us, who have just started this journey, HOPE. Our bodies are very sensitive and anything can flare us up. I can't eat bananas, and I think tomato sauce from what I've felt when eating it. It's a hit or miss with other things, sometimes they hurt, other times they don't. Sometimes I can handle social interactions, other days I absolutely can't. The baseline talk is very practical and helpful to us all, so we can help our bodies and not prolongue our recoveries further.
I can’t eat any nightshades at all now after my first Covid experience. So no tomatoes, potatoes, paprika, eggplant, peppers including green or chilis.
Where I’m lost is I’m still not sure if it’s Dysautonomia or not. They can’t find anything, but this just straight up feels like inflammation everywhere. Can the nervous system do this?
Yep
Many people after Covid have nervous system issues! See a nerurologist
Sounds like CFS to me. I get the same inflamed feeling after Covid
How do you start with a baseline when you have chronic insomnia ?
With me taste and smell has not returned. I’ve been able to cook full meals again, can’t smell or taste but I can follow recipes, and see people enjoy it.
It's so difficult to actually be reclusive for stage 1 due to work and family issues. I work a physical job and my dad is battling cancer. I also have other health issues that are popping up like having to be sedated to get a tooth removed and eventually a dental implant. I also struggle with controlling my emotions and get overwhelmed by all this shit!
Zuurzak tea will help. Calms the nerves and give you a good sleep
Excellent interview. Is there a program or a person who can individually guide us? Raelen?
I was considered healthy aswell, but they’ve detected 3 gut infections.
In phase 3 now. I am eating normally primarily though I still can't eat red meat or any animal products. I am back in the gym and lifting heavy, though high-intensity cardio is still iffy. My 'flares' are brief..maybe a couple days vs in phase two when a flare could set off 4-8 weeks of fatigue and muscle weakness. Off all my MCAS meds and supplements. Still taking Monolaurin daily as an anti-virals still feel helpful.
Can you please explain the red meat issue to me? Thank-you
I would also like some info on the animal product issue. Is it because of the taste, or does your body react in a certain bad way?
You don't need to maintain the baseline for that long before you start building up your activity...you can bring it in very carefully and slowly as soon as you have a stable baseline established.
The recluse is me stripping away everything that hurt my senses 😮 has hit me suddenly Lord help us 🙏
is there someone who is in the phase 3 but almost everytime when gets up from bed or stand up from sitting on the chair fells dizzy, maybe brain fog (like me) i am trying running and sport stuff its okey but i can not really enjoy it i don t feel like i can try hard ..... that sucks, no progress like 7 months and its worse in winter (the symptoms) do u have the same problem someone ?
I was finally making progress around Thanksgiving. Then I over did it and now am worse then I was 15 months after reinfection. Im completely house and couch bound
@@kylechavez7961 hope u will get better soon
This whole process with little children is going to take 10 years 😫
After ten years the children are big.
The Link for Eric's RUclips channel is not working for me ..anyone?
Amen 🙏
Anyone else find it hard to figure out which paradigm to follow. Some of the brain training programs seem almost to advise against too much pacing/activity avoidance..
A combination of gradual exercise therapy and brain retraining for me has helped me the most 😀
It all depends on what stage you’re at when starting a program and what is appropriate for you personally
Hi Danielle, what phase you are in matters. What works in one will be detrimental in another. Hope that helps.
I just want to know if Erik was ever vaccinated after he had contracted Covid? Do you think you could answer that for me?
Or was he never vaccinated ever?
Thank you
Hi Jeff, when I got COVID in November 2020 Vaccines were not available. I did get the vaccines later on. I have my journey and reaction to those vaccine shots on my channel if you are interested in my results.
I had to cut off my engagement and end the relationship due to LC. I want us to get back together but the stress and other factors will likely play into the relationship again and she may no longer want to try and make it work. The war is in the mind. Scriptues, prayer and fellowship has been crucial
Praying for you 🙏🏾
I've not had a good day since March 17th 2020. I'm not sure what a good day is anymore.
How are u doing now buddy
Can someone give me a example of there baseline everyday?
Housebound/couchbound is my baseline.
I could only do about 2500-3000 steps for a long time
Got Covid June 2022. The first maybe 6 months I had no baseline. I felt horrible 24/7 around the clock. I never understood how people could say when you find your baseline. My baseline was just feeling like I was dead all the time. After the 6 months, I felt like I was beginning to do more things that I was unable to do before. I had finally reached my baseline. Today at 10 months, my baseline is even better than it was before. So, my baseline every month is changing- For the better. I’m doing more and more. Feeling better but still not 100%. I do about 3200 steps a day sometimes much more. I hope this kind of answered your question.
@@LowmanGames same . How long are you into this journey?
@@kylechavez7961 Jan 2022 infection.
Im having long covid for 2 years now.
How are u doing now
I have increased mucus - chest irritation and a cough. Ive had it for 19 months - I can't find any similar people or some evidence of people getting over these symptoms
Tulsi,
Quecertine.
I have had this or am having it and currently its gotten better.
First time around september 2023 I had only a tingling sensation in the bronchial area. Then this year around April I felt very recovered but relapsed in June 2024. The tingling and coughing appeared. After a month or so The tingling turned into a productive cough and runny nose. 2 weeks ago I had another crass flare up where my body went into another bout of hard coughing and congested nose. Whats interesting is that when the last flare up occured I felt how the layer of low energy and no motivation/creativity started to lift.
Right now I'm feeling overall better than 6 months back. There is still some snot and a slight cough (especially when I lean my head back into my neck I can still provoke a cough reaction which would indicated to me an irritated airway).
I would assume that the productive cough is a sign that the body is working on removing the pathogen which is causing the long covid issue. Cant say for sure of course.
What I did was allowing as much rest as possible or low activity like doing stuff on the computer. Very hot showers helped a bit with coughing. Supplementing with a multivitamin just to be sure. Going into the forest and trying to breath some oxygenated air once in a while. I was testing my boundaries with resistance exercise since a month and I would say if you have been an enjoyer of sports before I would do some of it once in a blue moon just feel better psychologically. But flare ups can result from this of course. However, it's not necessarily bad. Why am I mentioning this? Because Before my last flare up with strong cough and congested nose again I did some resistance training. And although it set a crass reaction into effect I also feel notiecably better right now than I did all the time 2 weeks prior.
Also: Had Covid first early 2020 and it bled into the summer with noticeable lung difficulty. Would say my first long covid symptoms actually came 2023 Before "long covid/ post acute infection syndrome" (cant be 100% sure) I was an avid runner, gym goer. I never smoked, never drank alcohol, healthy diet as most would say, and I still got hit like that.
Maybe this info helps a bit?
Is it advisable to work part time while in stage 2?
I would say, no work, if possible. But do small chores and stay in touch with people... But avoid drama and stress.
Baseline is sleeping, food, shower or baths, and the odd times you go out to appointments. Home life is fine. At least with technology you can communicate with other people not in your household.
I got covid in Nov 2019 and again in march 2022. Im a mess
🤗🤗🤗🤗
Is this price we pay for rejecting the MRNA ?
infinity of phases :( ?
I’m am sorry! Such a worthless interview! Nothing specific! Talk about your specific symptoms! If you know how to help your body heal it does not require years to get through! I think I’m on the backend of all neurological symptoms now! Keep googling! Keep testing! Keep trying! It’s been 4 months for me…
Did you even listen to what they said? Obviously not. They did an interview before where he talked about his symptoms. This was a follow up about his progression towards healing. Listen to understand before you open your mouth to make noise.
🎉🎉🎉
I’m also sick from Covid-19’s vaccination, very sick after 2 years
Don’t tell people to stop googling!!! That’s a terrible piece of advice. Google is where they would find this interview.
I encourage people to stick to sources of info like Raelan’s Channel. It’s important to guard your mental health especially during this time in recovery and recovery stories are so important. 😊
@@erikhodge2298 Not everyone is the same. For one googling may have been a source of stress. For others it’s a source of comfort.
I think it was Because sometimes too much research can make a person frightened and overwhelmed. Too much negative information can make a person lose hope and feel like nothing is working. Its a long journey... We must accept it.
@@GloryDaze73 that’s for each person to decide for themselves…
Im' so sick from vaccine this is awesome. Love this so much.
It's about 3 phases, so come on with it
you guys are not defining what you consider each stage OR how you worked out of each stage :(
Did you even watch the video? They did exactly that. Erik covers has a video on this topic on his channel too. I’d encourage you to watch it if you need more clarification.
@@tylerjohnson9957 I watched the whole thing - they just talked about phase one - but not defining it .... same with the other phases - at least not defining it as my mind calls definitions .... no I did not watch the other - a 2-3 second quick definition was all that was needed here - so these guys are not the ones to help me - they may communicate fine for others Every one needs a slightly different path ....
@@TwistedRootsVanVelzerPress here the time stamps to help. This is exactly where Erik defines each phase.
5:09 Phase 1
10:20 Phase 2
15:40 Phase 3
@@TwistedRootsVanVelzerPress
Phase 1: Being overwhelmed by the symptoms and accepting that your body needs time for itself. Figure out what your baseline can be.
Phase 2: Symtpoms have gotten less intense as you manage to find what activities you can do or not (baseline). You are able to perform some normal activities while the body has enough ressources to keep healing itself.
Phase 3: The majority of your days is symptom free. You start pushing your prevously set boundaries a bit to reclaim the capacity of your body.
Only people i know who have Long coNv1 d have taken the russian roulette toxic armpokes
Haven't heard of anyone recovering from this. 4 year's and counting.
You are probably an old boomer Benny, I think generally younger people recover faster due to their immunology
@@rajuvaripetpatelkumon36 There are kids that are in the same situation.
@@rajuvaripetpatelkumon36 Old boomer? So nice.
Lies.
@@benney7520 A lot of people recover, don't spread doom and gloom news it does not do any good for anyone
Long Fiction recovery... 🤣
You don’t believe Erik recovered?
I'm in the same situation like Erik, now I feel better after 2 years , the first important thing is to cut STRESS out of your life + get good sleep( Melatonin suppliments)+ daily physical activity (start small and build your health back 🥰)+ find the right Diet for you because my diet is very restrictive but still anything that is producing inflamation in your body has to be cut off. Some supplements that helped me recover are those who help mitocondria repair becouse this long covid condition is really affecting all the body at the cellular level : Take a good amout of antioxydents, CoQ10 Ubiquinol( MitoQ10 is better), L-carnitine , Vitamin D, C(Acerola), E (+ get a lot of sunlight) , Magnesium, Vitamine B group, Alpha lypoic acid, NAC - N-Acetyl L-Cysteine ( for the blood clots) . I'm not a Doctor so check with one to see if you can take them. Good luck to everybody!