Discover more from Long COVID: Insights from a journey back to wellness
It’s been a rough patch for many over the last few years. The COVID pandemic involved more than a virus. It involved a radical shift away from normal human interactions, the engagement opportunities that form a foundation of support for our nervous systems.
Our faces were not visible to offer cues of support and safety. And we were often absent when we may have been needed more than ever.
I’ve written previously about stress playing a role in Long COVID. Why? Stress impacts brain centers that communicate with the organs and tissues throughout the body. When stressors overwhelm the body’s sense of safety, the signals that reach immune cells tell them to prepare to defend the body against threat. Defensive signals tend to be inflammatory.
Inflammation is deeply entangled in cause and effect of Long COVID and of a myriad of other chronic diseases. So how do we address the stress responses that brings on inflammation?
My personal experience was that anti-inflammatory medications, including antihistamines were not effective in reducing the inflammation in my body. Beyond continuing my qigong practices and making changes in my diet, I found help drawing from insights and methods developed by Dr. Steven Porges, the father of the Polyvagal Theory.
Porges points to the need for humans to feel safe. That sense of safety comes from the nervous system receiving and sending out cues related to safety. From infancy throughout life, these cues include the facial expressions that we can see in others and hearing voices in tones that are perceived as safe and supportive. Additionally, music within a range of supportive tones can tell the subconscious brain that we are safe.
In his work and writings, Porges points to the role of sound and voices as important keys to establishing and maintaining a subconscious sense of safety. Access to therapists trained using sounds tailored for this purpose can found at Unyte, a group that uses Porges’ Safe and Sound Protocol.
In our case, I simply surrounded my family and myself with freely available soothing music including lullaby-like music by great composers such as Mozart and cello music played by the popular Hauser.
My aim was to curb the impulses of fear, distress and loneliness and build strength and resilience based on a foundation of safety.
The implications for many humans during the pandemic have been profound. Worldwide, precautions taken to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, including isolation from friends and family and wearing masks that largely concealed facial expressions, left many without the cues that were previously commonplace and an underlying foundation for feeling safe.
I’ve come to wonder if the recent upsurge of shootings, violence, and social aggression may be related to feelings of vulnerability and danger on the part of individuals who have become aggressors. A basic tenant of Polyvagal Theory is that humans need to feel safe. As Porges wrote in a 2022 article,
To further paraphrase Porges, by acknowledging and supporting the need to feel safe as a biological imperative, a factor “linked to survival” of our species, we recognize that society itself can modulate our nervous systems. Society can indeed lay the groundwork to promote “opportunities to experience feelings of safety and co-regulation”.
As we reflect on the ways to recover from the consequences of the COVID pandemic, and as we think forward to reduce the potential threats of future pandemics, the implications of Polyvagal Theory cannot be ignored.
Thank you for this in depth observation.