I had covid 4 months ago now and...
OK this is gross af but since covid my shits smell different, it's like this weird gas type smell. And other stuff that shouldn't do smells the same, eggs have the same gas smell and also chips (English meaning). Its weird and gross and I feel like I can smell this weird covid gas smell all the time sometimes. Anyone else getting weird smell stuff from covid??
My nose is fine but my joints have been acting up ever since I got it. It's the memory problems that some people have been getting from long covid that really terrifies me though. Every time I can't quite remember some obscure detail about this-or-that I have a little moment of small panic.
covid-19 is the driver for the latest version of the olfactory nerve. you're experiencing the new features! :covid-cool:
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/shrooms-covid-taste-smell
I've seen a lot of anecdotal reports of psilocybin helping to restore your sense of taste/smell after COVID. It's worth trying if you haven't already.
https://www.reddit.com/r/shrooms/comments/qtqfys/psilocybin_regained_my_smell_and_taste_after/hkli421/
This commenter specifically notes the same sulphur smell you have. They microdosed, taking small sub-perceptual amounts which won't give you hallucinations, and it went away.
edit: And if you go that route, use it as a conscious meditative process. You're triggering a state of high neuroplasticity so even in microdose form a dose day should be taking full advantage of that. Really focusing on different-smelling things and trying to be a wine schmuck about it. Tasting really richly seasoned foods, going through the rose section at a nursery, smelling positive things and trying to take in the full experience of it.
well wait a second, do shrooms really trigger neuroplasticity? I could learn things better?
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.724606/full
Clinical studies suggest the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, including ayahuasca, DMT, psilocybin, and LSD, in stress-related disorders. These substances induce cognitive, antidepressant, anxiolytic, and antiaddictive effects suggested to arise from biological changes similar to conventional antidepressants or the rapid-acting substance ketamine. The proposed route is by inducing brain neuroplasticity. This review attempts to summarize the evidence that psychedelics induce neuroplasticity by focusing on psychedelics' cellular and molecular neuroplasticity effects after single and repeated administration. When behavioral parameters are encountered in the selected studies, the biological pathways will be linked to the behavioral effects. Additionally, knowledge gaps in the underlying biology of clinical outcomes of psychedelics are highlighted. The literature searched yielded 344 results. Title and abstract screening reduced the sample to 35; eight were included from other sources, and full-text screening resulted in the final selection of 16 preclinical and four clinical studies. Studies (n = 20) show that a single administration of a psychedelic produces rapid changes in plasticity mechanisms on a molecular, neuronal, synaptic, and dendritic level. The expression of plasticity-related genes and proteins, including Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), is changed after a single administration of psychedelics, resulting in changed neuroplasticity. The latter included more dendritic complexity, which outlasted the acute effects of the psychedelic. Repeated administration of a psychedelic directly stimulated neurogenesis and increased BDNF mRNA levels up to a month after treatment. Findings from the current review demonstrate that psychedelics induce molecular and cellular adaptations related to neuroplasticity and suggest those run parallel to the clinical effects of psychedelics, potentially underlying them. Future (pre)clinical research might focus on deciphering the specific cellular mechanism activated by different psychedelics and related to long-term clinical and biological effects to increase our understanding of the therapeutic potential of these compounds.
One reason psilocybin is popular with techbros is that it makes productive creative thinking really easy. You have a holistic sense of interconnectivity and an intensely curious mindset. Everything becomes a beautiful impressionist painting that only improves as you focus on it. I use it when hiking and camping, 2-3.5g as large doses or 0.2-0.4g microdoses, and suddenly the ecology of the landscape comes to life. I'm super motivated to see all the components interacting, to examine and explore, and to take in the richness of the experience. All of that translates to focused learning if you don't chase visuals. Psilocybin is good in the sense that the visuals at lower doses are just things distorting so it makes the thing you're interested in more beautiful rather than replacing it. A mossy rock is is like a swirling Faberge egg full of meaningful relationships. Apply that to painting and you're learning to paint from a different mindset than your learned personality. Apply it to a piano and you're hyper-focused on patterns and experimentation. Put it in a therapeutic setting and it's disassociating from trauma or depression or anxiety in order to explore it from different but deeply felt perspectives.
From what I understand, the reason that shrooms seem to be effective at treating PTSD is it allows people to experience traumatic memories in a clinical setting without the usual fear response, which short-circuits the way flashbacks work
I don’t know what research there is on shrooms and learning, but it does seem at the very least like perceptions occurring under the influence of psilocybin have a tendency to stick with us afterward
the reason that shrooms seem to be effective at treating PTSD is it allows people to experience traumatic memories in a clinical setting without the usual fear response, which short-circuits the way flashbacks work
That's MDMA, not shrooms. You can definitely be scared shitless on shrooms but MDMA is just a jolly good time so that's what they're using for initial trials in people with PTSD. Shrooms do work for PTSD anecdotally but not for this reason.
I've read that paxlovid can help long covid symptoms, but it was anecdotal.
I went looking for its mechanism of action and instead found this which is better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_coronavirus
That's long covid for you. I personally haven't but you hear all about people not being able to smell anything, or things smelling bad after covid.
It's about 10% of cases but you can do things in the immediate aftermath of your infection to resolve the parosmia. Most people will have their parosmia resolve within half a year or so and only 10% will have it indefinitely.
Parosmia. There's a support sub for this on reddit but I wouldn't recommend browsing it if you're high on anxiety, because it leans the same way as most subs for other poorly understood chronic conditions: My life is over, I cannot cope with this, I'm desperate for a cure, I cannot manage, how could this happen to me.
I have not experienced parosmia personally but I have read some recovery stories as I'm aware of how common it is following covid infection and wanted to be able to help my loved ones. I would second the recommendation to microdose psilocybin if possible. Psilocybin mushrooms can be cultivated at home rather easily and cheaply, but if you cannot do this, I would recommend lion's mane supplements. The non-medical intervention for parosmia is smell retraining. You sniff very strong smelling items while focusing on how they should smell. Typically essential oils are used for this. A combination of all three interventions (psilocybin, lion's mane, smell retraining) would be my personal course of action if I acquired parosmia. The sooner you take action the better your chances.
