Is this possible even if you don't actually feel anxious? There's lots of evidence that covid attacks the heart. I don't think heart symptoms should be written off as anxiety.

FWIW, not Covid related, but I had shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue- dealt with it for a while, eventually went to a Dr. Full battery of heart and lung tests, turns out heart and lungs are almost flawless for my age and general health.

At Dr’s recommendation, see a psychiatrist, dr gives me some anti-anxiety medication to try, and I feel better almost immediately. Spend a few months working on behavioral response to stress, breathing exercises, etc., then go off the medicine. Total game changer.

The mind and human body are funny things.

Similar for me, thought I was dying because of the intensity of physical symptoms. Got a lot of blood tests, turned out it was anxiety related - I was surprised at the intensity of physical symptoms that can happen from it.

While I’d guess some “long Covid” is related to serious cases that caused underlying organ damage, my suspicion is in the more general cases where vague symptoms are described it’s probably anxiety.

I had a similar situation, and definitely had anxiety, but I absolutely do not believe that explains everything. I had a temperature of 99.5-100.5 for several months after having "recovered" from covid, and none of my doctors believed "psychogenic fever" was a valid thing.

In my case, I'd been dealing with anxiety my whole life, but it never caused physical symptoms. Then I had covid, felt better for 2 weeks, then suddenly started experiencing low-grade fever, night sweats, fatigue, no appetite inability to sleep for days on end (this was the worst. would feel like I stopped breathing whenever I started drifting off, and it felt like my body would then jump-start itself and violently kick me back awake). None of my doctors knew anything about long covid, and I started to wonder if I was dying of cancer or something. The symptoms were distressing enough to make anxiety a logical response. So, yeah, at some point, anxiety probably created additional symptoms, or made me more distressed by my symptoms, but neither I nor any doctors I've met believe anxiety can cause a fever, at the very least.

There could very well be a non-anxiety effect and I'm not trying to dismiss that.

For me, I've experienced the difficulty sleeping, early morning wakefulness, heart rate, nausea, stomach issues, and sweats as physical symptoms of anxiety. A big/scary event (getting covid, death of family) can make the physical symptoms more apparent.

Not sure about low grade fever, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Again, doesn't mean it's not something else but I think people tend to dismiss anxiety as someone not taking the claims seriously - when to me anxiety symptoms are serious and miserable, they just require different treatment (unfortunately Hypervigilance makes things worse when anxious about symptoms and thinking they're not anxiety related).

I still have a hard time telling the difference between actual infection/physical illness and anxiety personally even knowing all this about myself - it's hard.

> I stopped breathing whenever I started drifting off, and it felt like my body would then jump-start itself and violently kick me back awake

That sounds a lot like sleep apnea, and will kill prematurely if left untreated. You should get a sleep study to check that.

I did an overnight oximetry test for that a few months ago, it was apparently fine.

Thanks for pointing that out and great to hear that you are OK now. I will definitely do more tests to find the root cause. I also heard of a test where you are up on a thread mill, gradually varying load and they are measuring you heart parameters at the same time. Have you done this test as well?

Anxiety feels just feels like whatever you think your imagined problem feels like. Anxiety could feel like this, or it could be real heart problems. Should get evaluated for both.

Anxiety can be hard to tell from normal once you've had it long enough.

It could be partially related to anxiety as well. However, I am a very calm person, I live in an emotionally positive environment and I am for the most part happy of my life.

Anxiety is not depression and it can struck you even if everything is fine. Even the happiest people can be anxious about something (health, career, children …), it’s just normal behavior as long as it doesn’t abnormally lasts.

Medication really helps to get over it and stop the circle when symptoms are moderate.

You are posting your symptoms on an online forum expressing concern for a medical issue you’ve either heard about from the media or anecdotal evidence from other people that have heard about it from the media.

It would seem to me, based on the above, that you are experiencing anxiety about the long COVID issue and thereby exasperating the “symptoms”.

Beware of psychologization of disease that isn't fully understood yet. There were also times when scurvy was considered another form of laziness and cholera an indication of moral failing.

I did that hoping that the information I provide (even though somewhat personal) could help others and form an interesting discussion. At least to me, discussions on HN where people share personal experiences provide a lot more value than reading articles on the topic.