'Exhaustion can be a symptom of many things,' says Cyrus. In the meantime, Bufka and other experts say that there are things we can do now to fight the mental fog and exhaustion. 'They may have struggled during the time of the challenges but generally come out OK on the other end.'

'We know that the majority of people tend to be resilient,' says Lynn Bufka, a psychologist with the American Psychological Association. It's a normal reaction to a very abnormal year.Īnd while many people will likely continue to struggle with mental health symptoms in the long run, research on past mass traumas suggests that most people will recover once the coronavirus pandemic ends.

But at the root of it are the stress and trauma of the past year, say Cyrus and other mental health experts. This kind of mental fog is real and can have a few different causes. Shots - Health News Pandemic's Emotional Hammer Hits Hard And many providers, like Cyrus, are feeling it themselves. are hearing similar complaints from people who weren't infected by the virus. While some people who have had COVID-19 report brain fog and fatigue as lingering symptoms of their infection - what's known as long COVID - mental health care providers around the U.S. 'All I want to do is stare at the ceiling.' ' Others say they are more irritable. Some tell her they can 'barely turn on the TV. Some patients tell Cyrus they've been making mistakes at work. They also found that trouble with memory a feature. They say things like, 'It's just so hard to get out of bed' or 'I've been misplacing things more often,' she says. mental fatigue confusion Researchers estimate that worldwide, 43 percent of people who have had COVID-19 experience some form of long COVID. I don't feel like being active again.'Įxhaustion is also one of the top complaints she hears from her patients these days. 'I am taking a nap in between patients,' says Cyrus, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University. Kali Cyrus has struggled with periods of exhaustion. Feelings of exhaustion, irritability and mental fogginess are our bodies' normal response to an abnormal year of pandemic life.

Symptoms of covid brain fog