If You Are Struggling

The holidays can intensify grief, anxiety, and isolation—especially with Long COVID.

This week, I heard from community members who are struggling—really struggling—and I’m concerned they are not alone. It feels important to talk openly (and gently) about mental health and long COVID.

Navigating this illness is hard work. At times, many of us feel worn down, discouraged, or tempted to give up—and the holidays can intensify those feelings.

Fortunately, there is help and hope. Let’s talk about it.

Winter Holidays Can Impact Mental Health

Emotional dips in the winter are well-documented, even for the healthiest individuals. Two in five Americans report increased stress, feelings of depression, anxiety, and loneliness when the season changes.

This is likely driven by:

• social isolation

• disrupted routines

• financial strain

• reduced daylight

• intensified grief

For people living with chronic illness, these effects are amplified. Illness limits our participation in holiday gatherings, deepens our isolation, and sharpens our sense of loss.

If you’re grieving more right now, that makes sense.
If you feel lonelier or more worried, that is understandable.

But depression is different.

Expected Grief vs Treatable Illness

Grief is a normal response to changes in health. Depression, severe anxiety, and unrelenting obsessive thinking are not. These are clinical conditions—not character flaws, not personal failures, and not something you can will your way out of.

Prolonged illness can lead to prolonged grief, which increases the risk of developing depression. And depression is not simply sadness. It is more persistent and far more disruptive, with real consequences for daily functioning and physical recovery.

Depression can also be insidious, so it’s helpful to have an objective assessment. I often recommend a simple screening tool from Psychology Today because it’s easy to use. One important caveat: if you score highly, I recommend starting with a physician first, rather than a therapist, so you can be properly evaluated and supported.

Depression impairs concentration, decision-making, working memory, and problem-solving—the very cognitive skills we need to navigate a disease like long COVID. Because there is no single algorithmic treatment for LC, our progress depends on our judgment and adaptability.

Your head has to be in the game, and depression takes it out.

Your Life Depends On It

Mental health is not separate from physical health. When depression goes untreated, it worsens over time, increases disability, and shortens your lifespan.

Please read that again.

Depression is a life-threatening disease, and as a physician, it’s the only one I routinely see left untreated because of stigma, fear of treatment, or the belief that people should simply push through.

The truth is, medications are not dangerous by default. Therapy is not a sign of weakness. And waiting for mental health symptoms to resolve on their own often allows them to entrench further.

Long COVID is not a psychological disease, but it absolutely impacts our psyche. Ignoring that does not protect us.

Act Now

If you are experiencing persistent sadness, hopelessness, anxiety, obsessive thinking, or thoughts of self-harm, please talk to your doctor. Ask directly. Mental health deserves the same seriousness as heart disease, asthma, or diabetes, because it is just as real, and just as consequential.

If you are in immediate crisis in the U.S., you can call or text Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential, 24/7 support. If you are in danger, call 911.

You deserve care—for your body and your mind.
And you do not have to carry this alone.

—
Dr. Zeest Khan