Why do I get post viral fatigue when I get a virus?

Jan Rothney Rothney Author

The body brain feedback loop is getting stuck in survival mode; the brain has learnt that viruses are dangerous events so it stops us recovering.

What to do with Viruses.

Why does my body get stuck after viruses?

1. The body is running in survival mode, so the Healing Cycle can’t complete.

So many of us today are struggling to recover from viruses, whether it is a cold, flu or throat infection. Current research shows that most chronic conditions are because the neurological feedback loop between the brain and the body is stuck in the sickness behaviours and then sending out inappropriate signals, experienced in the body as unpleasant sensations or symptoms. Naviaux, cellular biologist ( 2016) explains how the normal “sickness” behaviours associated with fighting an infection or virus continue, even though the virus has gone because the body is stuck in survival mode. Energy continues to be diverted to “fighting the virus”, leaving us fatigued.

The body needs to be living in the healthy vagal system, attached to the calm parasympathetic system, for the healing process to complete its cycle. However, when we are stuck in the stress response, surviving not thriving, the healing cycle cannot complete and we get stuck in an endless sickness cycle, creating post viral fatigue syndrome, long covid or chronic fatigue syndrome. The same thing happens with chronic pain where there is no evidence of physical damage.

2. Overload of demands, whether physical, social, emotional, mental means you have to live in survival mode.

Overload from the modern world and being programmed to “just keep going and push on through” gets us stuck. When demands outweigh supply the body is designed to turn on our survival system, to help us meet demands. We get a burst of rocket fuel to keep us going but it is a short term strategy. Eventually the body, including the gut and immune system becomes depleted and exhausted. Inflammation increases, so symptoms get worse; anti inflammatories are produced from the healthy normal thrive mode not from the protective survival systems.

3. Salivating to the Bell- a Pavlovian Response.

Recent research by eminent scientists, including Professor Silje Reme, Health Psychologist and Head of the Mind-Body Laboratory, University of Oslo, shows that the brain has learned that viruses are dangerous from previous experiences. It associates viruses with threat, and it will fire off everything it knows about viruses- exhaustion, post exertion malaise, inability to deal with events, worry and stress about not getting better and losing our jobs, roles and responsibilities.

Professor Silje, an expert in chronic conditions, especially pain and fatigue, cites cases of food poisoning to explain this Pavlovian response, this new way of reacting to any stimuli. People who have experienced food poisoning, such as seafood, can be physically sick the next time they eat it, even though the fish is perfectly healthy. It is a real physical response caused by the body and our neurological pathways reacting inappropriately to situations. The actual event or stimuli are NOT causing the problem.

4. The Brain is Making Mistakes based on limited information:

The brain then develops ‘predictive error”; this means your unconscious brain is wrongly predicting that the fish, activity or virus is a threat and so it prepares the body for action, activating the sickness behaviours (symptoms) that Naviaux refers to. Unfortunately, once the formula has been rewritten it will produce this outcome thereafter unless we retrain it that events are neutral (not an issue) again.

A simple analogy would be predictive texting where the device is predicting what you are going to type next; so often you realise that the sentence you have just written is nonsense because it predicted wrongly. Likewise, the brain is forever predicting, anticipating and making sense of situations but it can make mistakes, just like our devices. The unconscious brain is brilliant but it is incredibly complex and can make errors.

In my book “ Breaking Free” I explain how the brain has learnt that viruses are dangerous and so it makes negative neural connections any time you are exposed to a virus, (classical conditioning or a Pavlovian Response). Any bad experience will inadvertently rewire the connections in the brain.

Put simply, this just means that the brain has learnt something different about this event ( eg. a virus) and so every time you are exposed in future it causes you to have a powerful reaction and symptoms. We know that associations ( called neural connections in neuroscience) account for the vast majority of how the brain instructs the body to react. None of this is done consciously- the brain is working for you, doing its best to make sense of situations and it automatically makes the body respond. Of course, we then do become consciously worried, cautious and distressed about being stuck because we didn’t understand what was happening. BUT now you do understand, so you can retrain the “body brain” system to learn that viruses are okay again, just as we retrain it that a horse or bicycle is safe after having an accident on one.

A True Story:

Here is a typical reaction from clients to viruses or infections returning:

Meg regularly phoned when she had a sore throat, in a panic and feeling fatigued. "My chronic fatigue syndrome started with a sore throat from an infection; it's coming back!” Clearly, the unconscious brain had made the association that “a virus means CFS” so, being the vigilant brain that it is, it alerts her to danger and protects her, either by putting her into high arousal for fight and flight or by immobilising her, causing the body to shut down. In survival mode, the healthy anti-inflammatory system couldn’t function, so the pain got worse, fatigue set in, the glands swelled up and in the end, she became trapped in the perpetuating cycle, getting stuck.

You are probably aware by now that it was not the sore throat that caused her body to pack in so dramatically with CFS. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. In Meg's case, she had been overloaded, completing a master’s degree whilst working as an orthoptist, which led her to burn the candle at both ends. She was also anxious about her exams and had been dealing with a difficult boss.

As symptoms returned now, she needed to remind herself that the sore throat she is experiencing is just a sore throat, and it wasn't the thing that created her downfall.

Bizarrely, when I speak with Meg, I get a sore throat, even though I don’t suffer from sore throats - that's the power of the brain as it has erroneously learnt to predict pain whenever it is mentioned. That’s inappropriate empathy!

How can I get better from viruses? 

a. Retrain the brain to associate viruses as safe, normal and temporary.

Meg and I laugh about my sore throat, and I ask her, what would she advise me to do to get rid of it?

She replies: “It will pass, focus on something else, rest, take paracetamol and see the GP if it doesn't settle. You won’t get CFS back, it is just a sore throat.”

Suddenly her belief has changed, her perception of reality shifted to being safe, then her body settles back into the calm parasympathetic mode, and she is laughing. She has retrained the brain that a virus does not mean CFS, pain, danger and chronic illness; she has made the brain recreate the healthy associations with a virus that she had always had before the horrid experience of having chronic fatigue syndrome. She took her own advice and of course recovered. Over time the brain made correct predictive texted and enabled her to have a virus with no long term consequences.

Beliefs and perception develop as a consequence of the body getting stuck and it exaggerates the problem, getting us more stuck. If you believe you can't recover and believe symptoms are scary, then you will turn off all the systems needed to heal the body and recover from viruses. If you believe you will not get over the virus this time, symptoms will be prolonged because you are maintaining the stress response system that stops the natural healing process. Even now, 20 years on, I have to walk the talk every time I get a virus.

It is your job to retrain the brain that you are safe and take it for granted you will recover. You do not need the protective brain kicking in. Check out whether you are running healthy beliefs or not as they will affect the feedback information the brain is using to predict and respond to the event.

b.Rest, Rest, Rest

I was recently so ecstatic that I had a cold virus and could keep going. Then, after a few days when I started to struggle with energy levels and symptoms, I just pushed on through. I had gotten into the old mind set that “ I have to help x,y,z and I will just get these chores finished before I lie down”. My husband who has never had an issue with looking after himself (and therefore never had chronic fatigue syndrome, or post viral fatigue) had the virus at the same time. As soon as he felt ill, he STOPPED and rested.

Check out whether old patterns are running- are you worried about letting people down, are you worried you will be judged as not being committed to your job or scared about losing income? What is stopping you resting? Role model people who are sensible and rest ,because your health has to be Number 1. Everything else will resolve once you know that rest is the best medicine and you put your health first.

c. Be completely at ease as you rest.

Tell the amygdala, the emotional brain and your seat of learning 9 hippocampus):

"I know how to deal with viruses now; I am going to rest, and rest assured I will get over this virus. I am going to treat myself as I would another person, with care and compassion, and I will be fine. I don't need protecting because I’ve got this. I can do this, and I do not need the protective brain taking over, thank you."

d. Take necessary medicines to ease the symptoms, regularly.

e. Eat healthy foods if you can and drink lots of water.

f. Turn the time out period into a treat; pamper yourself with your favourite recovery drink, get magazines, grapes, whatever you associate with pampering yourself as you recover. You need to be making healthy associations to having a virus!

g. It is good to do a reset to develop healthy associations again; take yourself back to when you took it for granted you would get over a virus. I step into feeling like the child who was off school with measles and took it for granted I would be okay and loved having time off school to read comics and get treated to fizzy Lucazade glucose drinks ( other brands are available.)

Very soon, the brain will be predicting that viruses are okay and recalibrate them as “ not a big deal, no need to turn on survival systems ”.

LONG TERM.

a. VIT D3. As mentioned in my book “Breaking Free” there is a lot of research showing that regular use of Vitamin D3 with K2 will boost the immune system, especially for upper respiratory conditions. It is recommended to take 4000 units October to April in the Northern hemisphere and at least 1000 in the summer months.

b. Eat non processed food such as fruit, nuts, seeds, vegetables, spices, herbs, cereals and pulses to boost the immune system. It is important to have a wide and varied diet with optimum of 30 different fruit and vegetables, including spices/ herbs. 80 % of the immune system is in your gut and organs involved in processing nutrients so what you put in really matters. Check out Tim Spectre and the Zoe app for more information. This is also great for regulating weight as non processed foods trigger the enzyme to let the brain know the gut is full and so it stops appetite and feelings of hunger.

c. Make a conscious decision to review your lifestyle and load/ demands. Does life feel relaxed and nurturing? Part 2 of the Reset to Thrive programme and my book “ Breaking Free” goes into detail about the impact of our environment and conditions on our body.

d. Learn to moderate your personality traits and patterns. Getting post viral fatigue is a wake up call to let us know that we can’t go on as we have been doing. As well as changing lifestyle and environmental factors, you will need to review and reset habits of a lifetime, patterns that are so ingrained that it is “ just who you are”, conscientious, hard working, anxious, kind, caring, self loathing and putting others first. We may have a predisposition but all the evidence shows that it is our experiences and responses that reinforce these patterns so we can learn to moderate how we do life and become healthier in the process. Part 2 of the Reset to Thrive programme and my book “ Breaking Free” identify typical patterns of people who get post viral fatigue syndrome, long covid or chronic fatigue syndrome but it is different for each of us.

e. Get support for trauma. Trauma can be chronic, such as repetitive adverse childhood experiences, bullying or criticism, which then impacted on how we do adult life. Or trauma can be acute incidences, such as rape or becoming disabled through illness or events.

Many of my clients with CFS, Long Covid, Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia and pain, had not realised that the body was reacting to traumatic events and lifelong experiences until they joined webinars and community chats on the Reset to Thrive programme. The body keeps the score and whilst you may be stoically carrying on, it will be exhausting as you try to keep going “on a broken leg”. Please do access support because it has a huge impact on well being, relationships and overload. There are therapists affiliated to the Reset to Thrive programme so reach out for help.

f. Be fascinated and curious about whether some of the difficulties and overload you have experienced could be related to undiagnosed neurodiversity such as ADHD, hypersensitivity, autism or dyslexia. Many of the participants on the Reset to Thrive programme have learned to get the support they need once they have recognised, through webinars, why life was such a struggle. There is help out there so do reach out and help yourself to have a healthier life.

Our live interactive webinars explore how to become healthier and how to make our load more reasonable and nurturing, as well as recognising how neurodiversity impacts on how well we do life.

I hope you join us on the Reset to Thrive programme and access all the free support available to enable you to Reset to Thrive mode.

EXERCISE. Sit in a quiet spot or lie down, whatever is comfortable for you. Take yourself back to a time when you were a child, and you recovered from any illness, a cold, tummy bug, sore throat, anything. You can feel what it feels like being that child, milking it for all it's worth, getting days off school and treats and attention. You took it for granted you would recover. Take in what you are seeing, hearing, and doing as you know this, and notice how everyone around you knows that you will soon recover. With this in mind, feel what it feels like again to relax.

When you remember what it was like to take it for granted again, open your eyes, and laugh at yourself for having a wobble and for sorting it. With your healthy, normal belief, do the work to recover. You can use the Traffic Lights procedure to stop any panic or concern, to engage the rational brain and then step into you as a child, taking it for granted you will recover. Walk the Talk.

Go back through your recovery programme, doing FEARLESS resources, and using TL to access these resources if you are having any wobbles, during recovery from viruses in the future. As you lie in bed, letting the body use its energy reserves for dealing with the virus, use your BETTER vagal exercises to stay in the healthy vagal system: breathing, meditations, chanting, humming, singing, and gargling. Focus on getting better and not on all the jobs you “have to do”. Better to fully recover than to go back on a low threshold, then suffer again. Most people will have setbacks when recovering from any virus and say, “I overdid it a bit today, I’m going to take it easy”, then they give it another go, but this time being more sensible, taking it slower. They assume they will get better. There is an exercise online, used by respiratory physiotherapists, at www.resettothrive.co.uk, which shows you how to breathe, if you are struggling with a respiratory infection; it is crucial to stay calm, as shallow breathing will activate the sympathetic system, and you want to counterbalance this reflex reaction, not exacerbate it.

Categories: : Healing