It may be that that ultimately proves to be the most likely explanation, but I strongly disagree with the level of certainty you're attaching to that claim in this case.
> “We were surprised by how strongly psychological distress before a COVID-19 infection was associated with an increased risk of long COVID,” said Siwen Wang, a researcher in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School who led the study. “Distress was more strongly associated with developing long COVID than physical health risk factors such as obesity, asthma, and hypertension.”
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/09/depression-an...