What about medication and other treatments?

There are other popular and well-documented techniques that people use to help calm their nervous systems, like practices based off of Polyvagal theory, EMDR, and EFT Tapping. I didn’t do a lot with these, mainly because what little I did try wasn’t nearly as helpful for me as the techniques I’ve put together. I hope to look into these processes more though and if I learn something that I think will be helpful, I’ll add information about it to the site.

Pacing is a technique that’s been found to be highly effective for helping people with CFS/ME rebuild their capacities for physical, mental and emotional activity. I didn’t practice this with any type of specific intention, but a key aspect of using the techniques on this site was that I was better able tap into what my body can handle. I somewhat instinctively moderated my activity to match my body’s needs. If you aren’t good at responding to your body’s signals–and I suspect most of us with overactive nervous systems aren’t–then pacing is probably a useful technique to look into.

Many people also find various medications and supplements helpful. I have a few thoughts, opinions and hypotheses here. Now is a good time to remind you that I’m not a doctor, so please listen to your doctor over me.

With that disclaimer, my guess is that a few things are happening for people who find medications and supplements helpful:

First, if you still have the virus in your body or if the virus did damage, then medication and medical procedures may be necessary.

Second, if our nervous systems are overwhelmed, then it makes sense that some aspects of our bodies aren’t functioning properly, and medications and supplements can help. For example, I had developed a histamine intolerance, and I seemed to be having issues with mast cells. These were real, physical problems that occurred because my body was overwhelmed and couldn’t function properly. My doctor prescribed me a medication that helped mast cells for a while when I was sick, and during the first couple months of working through the techniques above, I took Claritin to keep the histamine in check. At some point, I weaned myself off of the Claritin, but if I find myself overwhelmed, I still sometimes take one. I also had issues keeping my electrolytes in balance, so I often took electrolyte supplements.

Third, if our nervous system is overwhelmed, then anything that helps calm it is good–as long as it doesn’t cause negative side effects. If taking a medication or supplement eases a symptom, helps your body function better, and makes you feel safer, then, to me, it seems like a good idea to keep that up for a while as you do all of this other work to calm your nervous system. Once your nervous system has calmed, then you can work on cutting back on the medications and supplements (assuming your doctor thinks it’s safe to do so).

All of the techniques on this site are intended to calm your nervous system, and they can be done simultaneously with medical treatment. I stopped going to doctors because one of my biggest issues was a fear of medication and medical treatments, and so everything I was prescribed made me worse. But my situation, like everyone else’s, is unique, so please pay attention to what your body needs.

For now, I won’t link to any medications on this site. If your body does need medications or supplements, your doctor is the one who should help you figure that out.

Everything I’ve seen so far leads me to believe that we need to address our overactive nervous systems and over-stressed bodies, and I’m currently unconvinced that Long Covid and other chronic conditions will be cured by a pill or injection. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind on this as new information comes out.