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Comment by tudorw | Hacker News Reader

Please think before you write, this is extremely offensive.

I didn't say all or even a majority were exaggerating symptoms, I simply said that many were. Part of my justification was a number of studies which have found psychological distress over catching COVID as a strong predictor of long Covid:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9825049/

That isn't necessarily evidence of psychosomatic cause.

I have a genetic disorder that was diagnosed late in life but I knew well before I had a proper diagnosis that I had frail health. I'm cautious and worry about things that others don't worry about because history proves it's a real problem for me, more than average.

Thank you for your concern. When I was 17, I developed acute neuropathy after covid which was diagnosed via a biopsy. It manifested as orthostatic intolerance caused by insufficient blood flow to my brain. I have been bedridden for around two years now. I was certainly distressed when I got COVID, largely because of a burning pain emanating from my extremities. My uncle died from autoimmune scleroderma. He also developed Lymphoma, whose pathology we believe began with Epstein-Barr.

The prevailing hypothesis is a cross reactive species of auto antibodies to the Angiotensin II Type 1 receptor. I unfortunately have not been able to receive a test for this antibody; however, I did test positive for Alpha and Beta adrenergic autoantibodies along with Muscarinic M2 and M4 autoantibodies targeting the hippocampus of my brain. I managed a borderline positive titer for anti TSHDS antibodies, which are correlated with small fiber neuropathy.

Normally, I do not comment, and I specifically made an account to type this message while holding a laptop over my head, a difficult task as you can imagine. The medical community is moving too slow in response to post Covid syndromes. I and all the other people affected with neurologic complications would be most appreciative if you all helped review literature on the immune system. It is an awful lot like debugging code! Right now, I read a section about Janus Kinase and TNF alpha. I believe a medication like baracitinib would do a wonderful job mediating mthe inflammatory response. ICU covid patients typically died from TNF alpha, Interleukin 6, and Cysteinyl Leukotriene 1 mediated by 5 lipoxygenase synthesis from arachidonic acid. All of these biomarkers are elevated in long covid patients. Lastly, covid can actually cause a reactivation of Epstein-Barr and HSV1. Telemisartan is an Angiotensin receptor blocker that can downregulate ACE2 levels in the body and demonstrates a prophylactic effect against covid.

If you read this far, I am deeply appreciative. More so than monetary donations, I would be grateful if could spread the message about this disorder.

I dunno, the most people I know with psychological distress over catching covid are people who would be greatest at risk of long covid. People with a history of weak hearts or lungs, athsmatics, people who have existing post-viral infection type diseases, people who are too poor to afford to take off work...

Some has families that have suffered under people who faked.

I cannot say the ratio, but I am sure I have seen with my own eyes how it drains parents and siblings.

Be very careful in judging if someone is faking CFS. You often only see someone when they are on a (social induced) high. Not when the crash comes 24h or even days later. The added suffering from not having a support network, or worse being accused of faking is just unreal.

It was not only this.

It was more what looks to me like psychopathic tendencies:

Eventually she was caught in all kinds of lies, because she lied so much about so many other things as well that once her sisters started talking with each others they realized it quickly.

As far as I understand she had been telling different stories to each of them and to her parents.

It's not a offensive to portray objective reality. People can and often do overreact and fake symptoms. This is just how it is. Why would that offend anyone?

The alternative to this is burying your head in the sand and saying we should take everyone at their word. This would result in a WORSE outcome for people that actually have the issues you're so worried about because the data would be skewed.

Maybe you ought to do the thinking, instead of emotionally reacting?

Let's do some thinking: collectively, we don't know enough about CFS or the human brain to make definitive statements like 'a large number are faking it.' You've confused your emotions for logic.

... while accusing others of confusing their emotions for logic.

Explain. Are you trying to make an objectively false statement that there's not one person on Earth faking a disease like CFS?

You do realize there's an actual mental disorder where people fake being sick right?

The only person confused here seems to be you.

Yes please do some thinking. There's a condition called Factitious disorder and then there's also anxiety based hypochondria bud.

You're making an objectively FALSE statement. There is ZERO possibility that there's no person in the world faking CFS.

Thanks for the laugh. It's hilarious that you tried to accuse me of an emotional argument.

You can drop the strawman bullshit as well. I never gave a number on how many people are faking it or just being hypochondriacs.

Nowhere does my comment state that no one is faking. You've simply left reality in favor of a fantasy.

This is what I said:

> collectively, we don't know enough about CFS or the human brain to make definitive statements like 'a large number are faking it.'

This is what it means:

We don't know enough to quantify the ratio of fakers.

'A large number are faking it' is a type of quantification: a ratio. In this case, a descriptive ratio that uses the words "large number" instead of literal numbers.

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