Long Covid, Dysautonomia/POTS, Post-Infectious Conditions Healing Tip

When Your Body Becomes a Battlefield No One Believes In

(*this is not medical or therapeutic advice, just lived experience)

Living with Long Covid, ME/CFS, Dysautonomia, MCAS, and other post-infectious illnesses is like waking in a body that survived a war the world keeps insisting never happened.

On the outside, you appear whole …
your face steady, your posture brave,
your smile practiced in the art of “I’m fine.”

But beneath the surface, something ancient is burning.

There’s a trembling behind your ribs,
a quiet shaking in your bones,
a whisper from your cells that says:
The danger is not gone. I’m still fighting.

People see your outer shape, the silhouette of who you used to be,
but they never feel the alarms humming beneath your skin.

They don’t hear the sirens.

They don’t see the invaders - viral debris, microbial remnants, immune signals stuck on loop -
still haunting your biology like ghosts that refuse to leave your house.

The World Sees the Body. You Live Inside the War.

It’s like owning a beautiful car with a broken soul.
The paint gleams.
The windows sparkle.
The exterior tells a comforting lie.

But under the hood?
Chaos.
Smoke.
Burned wires.
An engine that is doing the holy work of surviving
even while every test says it’s “normal.”

That discrepancy … between the seen and the unseen …
is a violence all its own.

You’re left stranded in the margins of your own life,
watching the world keep moving
while your body whispers,
Just make it to the next breath.

This silence, the kind no stethoscope can hear,
leaves a mark not on the skin,
but on the soul.

The Mitochondria: The Firekeepers of Your Survival

Here’s the truth no one told me soon enough,
the truth you may have already felt in your bones:

Your mitochondria are not confused.
They are not overreacting.
They are not defective.

They are responding to an ongoing threat.

Mitochondria are the ancient firekeepers of the body…
little embers inside every cell,
burning to keep you alive.

And when danger lingers…
a viral fragment, an immune trigger, an unresolved storm inside your tissues…
those firekeepers shift into defense.

They lower their light.
They ration energy.
They stop fueling life
in order to protect it.

And they stay there
for good reason:
the invader is still inside the gates.

This is why you can’t regulate temperature.
Why your heart races.
Why you forget words.
Why you crash for days.
Why your stomach slows to a crawl.
Why your whole body feels like a dimmed cathedral.

Your symptoms are not weakness.
They are the sound of your mitochondria keeping you alive
despite everything.

Supporting the Engines Still Fighting for You

One day, medicine will have the tools to name these invaders.
One day, your labs will match your lived reality.

But until then, we nourish the engines inside you…

the ones burning low,
the ones that still believe in your survival,
the ones that have never, not once, given up.

Here are three supports that helped my own cells remember how to rise:

Ubiquinol (CoQ10), 300–500 mg/day
A gentle ignition, a spark offered to cells that forgot how to shine.

Berberine, 500–1000 mg/day
A quiet antimicrobial ally, ancient and steady,
whispering strength into your metabolism and repair pathways.

Resveratrol, 300–600 mg/day
A protective veil against oxidative fire,
softening the inflammation that scorches your energy.

Not miracles.
Not cures.
But lifelines.

My Body’s Own Remembering

Before this support, I crashed every day by 11 a.m. …
falling into myself like a star collapsing inward.
Breathing felt like wading through molasses.
Showering was a threat.
Thinking was a luxury.

But when my mitochondria received the support they had been begging for,
the shifts began…slow, almost shy.

My heart steadied.
My brain fog thinned.
My breath found its rhythm again.
I could stand long enough to shower.
I could cook one simple meal.
I could feel the faint outline of myself returning.

Not the old me.
Not the “before” me.
But a version of me that felt possible.

You Are Not Imagining This. You Are Surviving It.

You are not weak.
You are not broken.
You are living through a storm inside your own cells.

Your mitochondria sense danger because danger is there.
Your exhaustion has a pulse.
Your crashes have a cause.
Your symptoms carry truth.

And you?
You deserve to be believed
long before science has the language to explain you.

Supporting your mitochondria won’t end the war…
but it strengthens the warriors inside you,
the tiny firekeepers doing everything they can
to keep your light from going out.

You deserve rest.
You deserve tenderness.
You deserve a world that looks beneath the surface
and sees the fire you’re carrying.

With unwavering truth and love,
~ Dr. Rachael

P.S.
If this speaks to the quiet battles you’re fighting, my upcoming book, When the World Can’t See You… Surviving the Isolation, Silence, and Dismissal of Invisible Illness, was written for you.
It’s a companion for the days you feel unseen, unheard, or misunderstood … a place to land, to breathe, and to feel your story reflected back with honesty and compassion. I hope it becomes a lantern for you, the way writing it became one for me.