Sarah

Hello! I cured myself from Covid Long-Haul syndrome, but the story starts 11 years ago. Let me tell you my story…

11 years ago I had debilitating migraines, and basically a constant headache all day long every day. I remember throwing up in parking lots on my way to work. I tried many techniques to heal (e.g. diet, acupuncture, chiropractor, etc.)… nothing helped. Then, I read an article by a writer named Kathryn Robinson in the Seattle Met (I’m from Seattle) about her back pain that she cured by reading Dr. John Sarno’s book called Healing Back Pain (I am forever indebted to her for writing this piece). Luckily, I saved Robinson’s 2011 article and I scanned it here. John Sarno was a professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York School of Medicine for over 50 years. Even though I had headaches, not back pain like Robinson, the words she wrote spoke to me. Come to find out, many ailments, I mean, many many unexplained ailments have been cured by Sarno's methods (more to come on recent research on this subject matter). He called it Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS). I read Sarno’s book, and then I read it over and over again. First, I had hope, and within three weeks substantial improvement. Today I have 100% no migraines, 100% of the time. I did have to work the program though, and success grew incrementally.

Since using Sarno’s methods I have cured other ailments. Chronic pelvic pain (couple of doctors and way too many antibiotics), plantar fasciitis (hospital visit), neck pain, back pain, hip pain, you name it! Also, many other people have healed from neurological problems such as fatigue, dizziness, POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), numbness, etc. (I never had any of these neurological ailments until Covid.) Basically, anything that doctors cannot find a cure for, Sarno’s work can very likely fix it if the person is willing. 11 year ago not much research was going into his mind body approaches. But now, the research on brain neuroplasticity is booming! (More information to come on that.)

Fast forward to November. My family came down with Covid and we all tested positive. It was so scary, particularly because we put the older people in our family in jeopardy (they never got it thankfully). They were our only care takers for our children, and my husband and I had to work. It was traumatic, not to mention the news and information online that I was seeing about Covid making me even more scared. Simply terrifying. I had no long haul symptoms until after Christmas, then, I noticed I started waking up throughout the night. I also had a chronic cough (which happens to me often after I heal from other viruses). As I started researching and talking with people about long-haulers, my fear rose, and so did my insomnia. It got so bad that I drove myself to the hospital at 3am in the morning because I felt irregular heartbeats and was on another night of no sleep. Here is a list of all of my post covid symptoms: weird sweating events (body temperature felt off), chronic cough, rash, weird eyesight problems (not normal eyesight vision problems), acid reflux, weird chest pain, weird heart beats, a strange clicking sound/feeling behind my eyes, POTS symptoms (dizziness, particularly in the morning, etc.), anxiety, skipped menstrual cycle (adrenaline issues?), quivering tongue (fear related?), weird pains in my arms and legs, anxiety, and insomnia. Honestly, all of it I was able to regulate and keep in check with what I learned years early with Sarno’s methods on brain neuroplasticity and the reprogramming of neural pathways, but the insomnia, the insomnia, that was horrid! And started to really freak out… and then everything (all my symptoms) started to ramp up. In all honesty and transparency, I did not have long haul symptoms for long, but I believe I would have, had not known about the mind body connection. Needless to say, it was a scary couple of weeks in January.

I believe what is happening is that long-haul syndrome (in people without tissue damage) is an overactive response by the body to foreign invaders--the inflammatory response does not shut off, and is exacerbated by fear and hopelessness, keeping the fight or flight response in a negative loop cycle (which is the same pattern of neurological circuitry for many other alignments/physical issues too). In short, fear is hijacking our nervous system and immune response, which is causing weird symptoms in many people, especially those with super sensitive nervous symptoms (like me!). In fact, here is an interesting article from a recent opinion piece from the British Medical Journal. And yet, another healing story by Rebecca Tolin. The point is that long haul symptoms are curable for Covid like other CFS/ME symptoms (and POTS). Also, here is Nicole Sachs, a TMS expert (she worked with Sarno), explaining her early thoughts on the “TMS-ness” of Covid. This came out in November of 2020. This brave message of her’s was my saving grace. Currently there is a study being done currently on Long Covid and Sarno’s Mind Body Methods at Beth Israel Medical Center! And, here is contact information for this study at Harvard University.

After the hospital called back from my 3am in the morning visit (mentioned earlier), and said absolutely everything from my blood tests checked out as normal as could possibly be, I started to dive in again, like 11 years prior to Sarno’s work. You guys… it worked! It did. Everything went away and even my menstrual cycles came back (sorry if that’s too much information, but I feel it’s really telling).  I wholeheartedly believe that if there is no tissue damage, this can be healed in the brain. 

Because I have been such an advocate of this mind-body approach for so long, I have been able to see it grow overtime with so much more research and backing by modern Western medicine (in the nick of time I might add). It is miraculous work. But it does take work. The stress from having Covid Long-Haul is so scary and enraging, so I wanted to share this information to the people who may be willing to subscribe to this understanding (and who want to). And when you pull through, you will pull through, you may even be in a better place than you were before Covid. I know not everyone will buy into this, but even if just one person can come out the other side because of this post, I am going to be brave in this space and say what worked for me.

If you’re curious about Dr. Sarno and his methods, here is a 20/20 episode with Dr. Sarno years ago that sums everything up, but remember that neural pathway research has come a long way since this video (see the “expert interviews” in the Curable app for more uptodate research and practices, their scientific advisory board is outstanding). This will give you a little information on him and his strategies for unexplainable chronic pain. Also, please note that I know it will sound outrageous to you that these resources talk so much about “emotions.” It’s because emotions are HOW we rewire our neural pathways, and how they were wired in the first place… migraines for me were anger, and Covid was fear. This “emotional work” is how I cured my debilitating migraines years ago, and what I believe is the cure for many people with Covid Long-Haul syndrome. 

I recently listened to a podcast, and the doctor from Northwestern said something like, “Neural Circuit Pain is simply NOT up for debate anymore. It’s real science.” I’ll end with that. I’m listing here the resources to check out. Many of these resources have helped me along my way. See for yourself. Thanks for reading. Good luck everyone!