by Richard Taylor : 2024-09-07
I have had COVID-19 at least 4 times. On each of those occasions I suffered from chronic fatigue afterwards: firstly for about 8 weeks and then the next time about 12 weeks. The second bout was longer because I tried to do "too much too soon" on the exercise front and set myself back in the middle of it.
At the end of 2023 I got COVID again. But this time the fatigue lasted longer. I also noticed that I was suffering from "brain fog". The previous bouts had something similar on the odd day, but this time it was more severe and very much more frequent - pretty much every day and sometimes all day.
After the previous mistake with the physical fatigue I was more careful to manage my exercise cautiously. I bought a direct drive trainer so I could measure my power output and heart rate, making it easier to not push myself too hard. It took a long time, about 4 months, but I did steadily build back my physical fitness. Not to 100% of where I was in 2023, but good enough for me to exercise outdoors socially with friends again.
However, the mental fatigue, the "brain fog", did not improve. At all. As a result I eventually reduced my work hours by taking on a part-time role, because I didn't feel I could continue working full-time. Each week was leaving me mentally exhausted and I didn't even recover over the weekend... so the next week started off worse than the one before.
This article is an attempt to record my efforts to devise a "mental training" regime to build me back up mentally in the same way I have been able to do physically.
Brain Fog is not a scientific term and probably means different things to different people. The key aspect to it for me is "lack of focus" - I find that I am unable to focus on concentration-intensive tasks for long without my mind wandering off elsewhere. This may feel particularly bad for me because I used to think of myself as a very focused person.
There are other aspects, such as memory issues, but I find that they present as part of the focus problem rather than in isolation. For example, if I am talking to someone about software testing then at some point I may find it hard to concentrate and then struggle to find the word "regression"; not the concept, the actual word, resorting to something like "repeating old errors" instead.
As a competitive speed-cuber I think I've uncovered some insights into exactly what I mean by not being able to concentrate "for long".
For example, in the 2x2x2 cube event I was able to practise as normal this year and even got close to my official PR at the European Championship in Spain with a 9.20 second average. In that event you have 15 seconds of inspection time and then for me about 10 seconds solving time. So each solve is about 25 seconds of full concentration. That was fine. I usually managed to do 30-50 solves in a row most days without any problems, unless I was feeling particularly tired beforehand. And when I say "in a row" I mean doing one solve, then scrambling the next, which takes very little concentration and about 15 seconds at most, then doing the next one.
In contrast I really struggled to practise the 3x3x3 cube. In that event you have the same 15 seconds inspection time, but then for me it is another 25-30 seconds of solving time. So each solve is 40-45 seconds of full concentration. Here I found that after only 4 or 5 solves my mind would start to wander during solves. I was getting to the end and thinking "why did I do it like that?" or almost stopping in the middle and thinking "what do I do next?"
It was quite frightening. I almost stopped practising for weeks at a time because it felt like the practise was making me worse not better. At the Euros I got a 30.08 average which was about 4 seconds slower than my PR and included two "bad" solves where my mind just went off somewhere else (in the worst one I stumbled through it and then blanked for about 2 seconds on an algorithm I have done thousands of times, before suddenly remembering it and carrying on).
So am I saying that I can concentrate for up to 30 seconds but anything more than that and I need time to recover before the next effort? Not quite. Some days I just struggle to concentrate at all, so those are pretty much wiped out. But on most days I can concentrate if the focus is for a limited time.
And recovery seems key. I also do the fewest moves event, in which you have one hour to complete your solution. I mostly compete online at times that suit me best, but I did get a PR of 34 moves in an official "live" competition this year. At first glance that event is 60 minutes of continuous concentration, but in practice you try a few moves out, evaluate, pause for inspiration and try something else, so it is lots of short periods of focus with gaps in between.
With the physical fatigue it seems that the worst thing I could do was try to "push through" by forcing myself to do exercise and hoping that my fitness would just improve over time. That didn't work. It made things worse. I needed to make sure I never went "into the red" and just built up slowly over time.
So can I do the same with brain fog?
I have already stopped forcing myself to practise 3x3x3 beyond a few solves a day. In addition I only do fewest moves attempts on days when I feel very fresh i.e. mostly the mornings on non-working days.
Next I plan to consciously quantise other forms of concentration into small chunks whenever possible. Instead of trying to read a whole article in one go, pause briefly after each paragraph and reflect before refocusing. Avoid long meetings as much as possible and try to find strategies for breaking discussions down into smaller topics.
Fortunately I work at home and have a high degree of autonomy, so I should have the flexibility to try out a few different options.
How will I know if my plan is working? Sticking with the cubing as a measure feels like an obvious way to try and get some data. On days that I feel up to it I have started recording an average of 5 solves straight from cold (n1) and then another average of 5 after a short interval (n2). Let's see if there are any trends that emerge. Let's also see if I start feeling like I can do more averages (n3, n4 etc.) some days.
A common symptom of Long COVID is "brain fog". It can be quite debilitating and I have been struggling with it for the last 9 months or so. I have a plan for trying to alleviate the effects in a similar way to how gradual physical exercise helped me reduce the effects of constant physical fatigue.
I will post a follow-up article with whatever results I find (positive or negative).