Your case sounds nearly identical to mine. Ever since I've had mono, I just plain and simple have not been myself. It's a hard feeling to describe to my parents, but it's very much like a mild depression. I know that it's linked to the mono though, because last week I started to feel better and back to where I should be. Then, Monday, I decided to go to the gym and do a light workout to see how I react, and now it's back to crapsville.
These past three months have been the worst of my life, thanks to mono. Just keep pushing on man. You just have to keep telling yourself that you'll get better, because you will.

That "high" feeling that you have, I definitely have that. In fact I never really had the whole sore throat fever thing, only woozy, fatigue, dizziness, etc. Got a battery of tests and they say I'm healthy, just have an acute mono infection. Thing is, it's been 9 weeks of this... ebb flow, it kicks up when I have an allergy attack or get a sunburn, things like that. U see you guys were posting a few months ago, curious where you stand right now.

Long term illness definitely creates anxiety depression. I keep looking all over the web at these more serious illnesses, and get freaked out that I have one of them, even though my docs keep telling me otherwise.

Michael

I had a severe case of mono in 1988-1989 and was hospitalized in sept 1989 for a week. I was 38 years old at that time. I craved potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I went for help for my depression from the mono several years later, I was taking Tryptophane (sorry about the spelling). I attempted suicide. I have since then tried some of the newer drugs such as effector (sorry spelling again) with better results but the first couple of days was very dizzy. I did not stay on them but I'm fine now.

I just wanted you to know that 1) yes it can cause depression. 2) Nutrition can help alot. do your research. Maybe, brocolli and potatoes. 3) be very careful taking antidepresants. 4) it can last a long time if you do not rest 5) and you may get relapses of symptoms later. 6) They can do a simple blood test to diagnose it.

They did mine a month ofter the hospital and it still was alarmingly high. I had all your symptom but I also was having Gall Bladder attacks daily by eating basicly nothing. I guess the inflmation had spead to ....... well everywhere.

good luck and hope this helped.

Yes I had nothing more than mono. I still have had no sugery or cancer.

I just had a mamagram and the doctor noticed my lymph nodes (in arm pits) were still abnormal in 2007. She didn't give me more details but she specifically asked about the mono.

hi, im a 19 year old female, and yes, ive had these same symptoms. ive had "mono" (or so my doctor says. i got the test done but she said they dont always come back accurate because it came back negative.)i was feeling sore in my arms and shoulders for two weeks, along with my lymphs being sore in my chest. i was feeling very tired then too. i was at the movies one night with my bf, and BOOM. panic attack. at the time i felt i was seriously dying and it lasted LONGER than an hour. it was horrendous. ive never had them before and its strange because im not a nervous type person ever, im always chill. anyway, i had panic attacks everyday after that for 3 days. i wasnt able to have a bowel movment either whatsoever. i couldnt sleep. i had adreniline 24/7. i didnt sleep for 2 days straight and had hallucinations it was so bad. i felt people were talking to me. i went to the doctor and as soon as i said "anxiety" she slapped anxiety disorder on my forhead, gave me pills and sent me home. i was pissed. the next week i was tired, sore, weak, and had insomnia. the anxiety went away. i was left with feeling not like myself, i felt my whole being or self was floating up into the air. i felt high, like flying above my own body, and i still feel this way and this was 2 months ago. i had weird twitches too in my leg, it wouldnt stop twitching. i had extremely low blood sugar and went to the hospital. i had no desire to eat and lost 14 pounds in 2 weeks. it was horrid. i had prolems breathing as well. the only thing i didnt have was sore throat. i did one day where i couldnt speak the whole day but it left after a day. its been 2 months since this all happened. i started to feel better, but now its coming back with a vengence. i have no appitite again, im completely sad, have cabin fever, but worst of all, since a week ago ive had horrible headaches. at first it started with neck weakness. i felt like a baby first learning to hold their head up. then it progressed to pressure in the back of my head, like someone took a rubberband and cut off the circulation causing a pressure/throbbing feeling. it was hot to the touch. after 3 days it left, and now i have neck pain. it hurts to move my neck up and down. its sore, and hot to the touch. ive had the worst headaches ever, feeling like someone is literally taking a knife and is stabbing my veins in my head. my veins throb too. its random and is extremely painful, and goes away after a minute or two. im still tired, my vision has been some what blurry as well. me as well as others feel that this is viral menangitis....something you can get from having mono. its horrible. i dont think its severe menangitis cause then i would be able to move my neck around at all. i can move it, it just hurts . anyway, if any of you are feeling these too, which it sounds like you are, im so sorry! whats helped me is taking b-complex pills which helped me get some of my energy back. this as a whole has been the worst experience of my life, especially since i just got a job and started full time school at the same time -_-. i hope everyone here gets help, heals faster and hopefully doesnt get too sad...i try not to even though it really is hard. (plus having my period at the same time really doesnt help hahahaha). ANYWAY sorry if i talked too much >< but if anyone wants to talk (because i know what it feels like to be told its just anxiety when its not, and my family doesnt give me much support either with things) pm me.

Wow, quite a story
The reason i looked into Mono, is because I am 3 months postpartum, and as soon as the baby came out I have not been myself. The first thing I noticed was how I felt like I was in another world. It was almost like I had vertigo. My balance was off. I felt like I was in a fog. I also noticed that I had no appetite. I was nauseated all the time. I force myself to eat. I can't get my appetitte back for nothing. If I do feel like eating, I eat things that I normally would never eat. I've been to a ENT for my dizziness, my OB to ultrasound my stomach, and I'v been to my regular doctor as well. I was tested for anemai, RA, lyme, and my blood counts. They told me that i have lyme, so i went to a infectious diesease doctor who wanted to retest me. The test came back the same, but it showed that at some time in my life I had lyme, the lyme I have now is not active. All the docs say it is postpartum, and anxiety, but I do not feel right at all. The fatigue is the worst. I can sleep all day. Having a 3 month old doesn't allow me to rest. I guess thats a good thing. Keep moving might be the best thing. Tommorow my OB will call me to let me know if I have a UTI, b/c my lower right side back has been killing me, and my pee smells like ammonia. A uti could make me feel like crap. I am on anibotics now, but won't know the results till tommorow. Once i know the results, i will ask the doc, which step i should take next. I think I should get tested for mono.

I am soo happy i found people that are going through what i am! well, not happy you are going through it, but happy i am not alone. i felt exactally the way you do. i thought i was going crazy for a while ha ha. my panic attacks come and i feel so horrible. its really tough because i have had to miss two months of high school (well, that part is pretty good) but tough because i cant keep up with my workload and i have been inside for two months except for trips to the grocery store and once went out to the movies with friends. i know how you feel hopeless and not act like yourself. i felt like for a while i was acting like the compleate oppisite of myself, and kept having to remind myself that thats not you. i have never ending nervous energy, when all i want to do is sleep, and also had problems with bowl movements. my pain is in my lower back, so i take tubs and it helps to cure the pain and anxiety. and a BIG HELP IS TYLENOL!!!! i woke up one morning after three hours of sleep feeling anxious and my mother gave me tylenol and i didnt even know how much pain i was in untill i took it. its hard when your sick, because everything seems so much heavier, and i know i watch the news and start having obsessive thoughts when i am sick like "what if that happened to me?" even though it wouldnt. it is tough but the best advice i could give you is do things you like to do that make you happy, and try to avoid negative things like upsetting stories in the news or stress. feel better soon

I am 26 years old, I found out that I had mono at the beginning of February. I believe that the sypmtoms actually started around Christmas time, I was suffering from horrible headaches, dizzy spells and fatigue. At the end of January, I went through a stage where I had severe chills and fever, for about 3 nights, and then a rash broke out over my entire body. I went to the doctor and was tested for mono, the result was negative. I was okay for a few days, then the rash came back and I woke up one morning and could not move my hands at all. All my joints felt as if I were 100 years old. I went to the hospital that morning, they tested for mono and it was positive.

I took 3 weeks off of work, to rest and whatnot. I started to feel like I was getting back to normal but now I have been terribly depressed. I have never felt like this in my entire life, I seem to not care about anything or anyone. It's really starting to worry me, all that I want to do is sleep all the time. I also suffered throughout this entire ordeal with anxiety.... the whole experience has been awful. I just hope that it will eventually go away

I'm not depressed just frustrated, angry and bored. I pretty much lied around the house all day for 4 months. In the begining all I could eat was oatmeal water and bread. Then I would lay around the house and watch tv all day or sleep. In the beginning I would leave the house once every 9 days someone would drive me around and then Id feel like crap for another 9 days. I stopped working, stopped hanging out with my friends (matter of fact I didn't tell anyone what happened and pretty much vanished). Pretty much the bad news just keeps piling up. I feel great right now I am working out 4 days a week, looking for a job, and watching tv. I was a huge binge drinker before and now Im bored and sober and minus my family Im pretty much alone. Doctor still wont let me have more then 2 beers (what is the point of that). I know you guys got it worse then me but you know all you can really do is hang in there and do the best you can with what you got and know that one day you guys will be back to normal 100%. Good luck people.

Im a 27 year old Mono victim. Writing this message is slightly dizzie for me, but i c im not alone so here i go. First off i would like to say that im a drinker. i still drink just so that i can have and excuse to feeling this way. I do crave beer alot lately and its possible that my yeast level is off the chain. I do remember having muscle spasums( excuse my spelling) and my anxiety was unbareable. I went to the hospital like so many times, they did lots of test like cat scans, blood test, sudar, blood pressure ets, NOTHING> Yes i feel cloudy spaced out my heart beat fast then slow. Im not interested in much, but the key is continue to do you PLEASE. Regardless I get up do whatever i feel needs to be done. Its scrary. Sometime the way i feel the vision and eveything come back slightly fine. Then when you look up u dizzie worried and just wonder why. Best medicine is to go thru your day like nothings wrong. Tell your brian that your fine and it can and will b just that. my eating habits was off but now i eat like a horse for some reason. Drink alot of water and b thankful that you were allowed to this day. Praise YAHWEH.

I became ill with mono in July 2008 and went undiagnosed for nearly 3 months. My clinic tested me with several monospots, all of which came back negative. Finally after several months of worsening symptoms my doctor gave me an epstein-barr antibody test, which came back majorly positive. The physical symptoms went away after about 5 months but I'm still dealing with serious anxiety and depression issues almost a year later. The anxiety has lessened recently but the depression has gotten worse. I've never had mental health problems like these in my life before I got mono. My doctor recently put me on low-dose ritalin as a form of "bridge therapy." Apparently, a lot of people who contract mono have mental symptoms that don't subside, even after years. Drugs like ritalin are supposed to "reset" your brain chemicals so that you can feel normal again. I've been on the ritalin for a week now and it seems to be helping, although if I miss a dose I start to feel anxious and depressed again. My life has definitely been turned upside-down since I first contracted mono, and most healthcare professionals dismiss my concerns or call me a hypochondriac. I sympathize for all of you, and it's good to know that I'm not alone in my experience. To anyone still having problems with anxiety and depression I would highly recommend consulting your doctor about ritalin therapy. I hope my experience helps with your recovery from this terrible illness.

Yes, I have had brain fog/not myself kind of feeling ever since February. I had gotten acutely ill with fever/sore throat at the end of January but nobody told me what it was. Only months later did they test for EBV and given that the IgM antibody was not undetectable but still present (though not elevated) along with the others being elevated, it gave a good indication that I had a recent infection.

There were months when I felt I was getting better and then pushed myself too hard to have everything come back with a vengeance. I developed panic attacks/anxiety as well and shortness of breath. I have never had panic attacks before in my life!

Knowing what I have has helped me somewhat. Now I know I need to rest and take it easy. When I rest, everything gets better. Do not push yourself. There is hope. It can take many months--even over a year to get better.

Mono made me feel very depressed, I started taking st john's wort capsules per some advice I read in an herbal book and it has helped a lot.

The last four months of my life have been hell. Eleven weeks ago I began having this strange feeling in my head that was incredibly difficult to describe to other people. I suppose the best way to describe it is feeling like your really stoned or having the flu but only in your head. I didn't really have any other major symptoms, though I was perhaps a little weak/lethargic. Anyways, this feeling in my head would come in waves, usually the worst occuring an hour after I got out of bed. The waves would typically last 2-3 hours. I began having terrible panic attacks and anxiety, I literally thought I was going mad. I went to the ER several times, and to a doctor at the health center at my college. I was diagnosed with an anxiety/panic disorder and given xanax and put on prozac.It might be worth noting that I had been incredibly healthy, athletic, social, and panic/anxiety free my whole life up until this point. For the next several months I lived a terrified existence. The continued to go the doctor every couple of days, and every time they would just suggest I up my antidepressent dose. I felt misunderstood and all alone in all my fear and panic. I became grew very hopeless and became a sort of agoraphobic and began to think a lot about suicide. The only thing that helped was the xanax, which I began taking regularly. I began noticing that when my panic subsided I still felt sick...like something was wrong with me. Finally, a three weeks ago I went to an ER in another city and I lied about my symptoms. I told the doctors that I had been feeling really sick and did not mention my anxiety/panic/depression (I've realized after countless trips to the ER and medical clinics that as soon as you mention the words panic or anxiety the doctors tend dismiss all of your medical problems). Well, they ran a blood test on me and it came up positive for MONO! What a relief I felt at knowing what was wrong with me, and what a relief to read all of these posts, particularly narusayshi's. I still have a bit of anxiety (it became such a part of my life that now its hard to get rid of) but I am no longer taking 2 mg of xanax a day, though I'm still taking 20 mg of celexa daily. I think it is important for people to realize that if you get Mono in your twenties (I'm 24) you can experience none of the regular symptoms--fever, cough, sore throat, etc. The only real symptoms I had were in my head, like only my brain got sick. Also, in retrospect I think my lymph nodes are and were swollen. Anyways, I'm doing a lot better now at least mentally, though I still feel like i'm stoned all the time and I pretty much waste away the days sitting on my butt watching horrible TV shows (I'm supposed to start grad school in the fall but in my current state I can't concentrate enough to read). Lately the anxiety is coming back though as I am starting to tell myself I have HIV (of course I probably don't, but I am to nervous to get tested). Anyways, if anybody has been having a similar experience and wants to talk let me know. I'll check this forum often, maybe we could meet up on AIM and chat or something. Best to everyone dealing with this horrible virus. I'm throwing a big middle finger up to the Epstein-Barr virus.

Grolsch15,
I know exactly what you are talking about. I've been wondering lately if the high feeling is from the panic and anxiety brought on by the mono. It is one of the symptoms of a panic attack.

lnx,
I've thought a lot about this high feeling or "brain fog" that many of us with mono are experiencing and I think it is "malaise," which can be medically defined as "a feeling of general discomfort or uneasiness, an 'out of sorts' feeling, often the first indication of an infection or other disease." At least for me, I think Mono has brought on this feeling of malaise, and that it causes my panic and anxiety, and not the other way around. I haven't been having nearly as much panic/anxiety as I did before I found out I had Mono, however, it's been months now since I was diagnosed and the malaise and general tiredness and feeling of unwell has yet to improve at all (depsite the fact that I have done EVERYTHING in my power to be as healthy as possible). Every now and then I'll have a couple of days where I feel like I'm starting to turn a corner, but I never do. Anyways, I'm in bed right now playing the waiting game. I'm thinking about going back to the doctor this week, I haven't been back since I found out I had mono (about 4 weeks ago). This is just so frustrating...I'd do anything to feel like myself again. I'm a patient person, but this is getting ridiculous and I'm starting to take my frustration out on those I love (who in turn, are starting to doubt the validity of my sickness, like I'm am manifesting it). I'd like to hear more about your "brain fog" though lnx, and everybody else's as well. Best.

Grolsch15,
Are you still on medication for the anxiety?
The funny thing is that I did not have fatigue or malaise at the start--I just had fog. Extreme fatigue came on about three weeks ago and I wonder if it is the result of being so worn out by the fog and being generally unwell and experiencing anxiety because of it
p.s. I've sent you a PM.

lnx,
I didn't have any fatigue at the start either, and yes, i'm still taking medication for anxiety. I've sent you a PM describing everything.

Gosh, I don't feel like I'm all alone after reading all of these posts. I'm a 34 year old female and for the past 2 1/2 months have felt like I stayed up all night in college studying for an exam-extremely exhausted, and a feeling of dizziness of just off-balance. I have been to 3 doctors after I started having severe anxiety attacks (not like me at all). Finally, this week my doc did a blood test and called me last night to tell me I had mono. I haven't had a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, or anything other than the 2 symptoms of extreme fatigue and dizziness. I'm going to keep up with this site and report back as time goes on to report as to how I'm feeling and when these symptoms will start to alleviate. A side note, the anxiety has been so bad the doc prescribed Zoloft and Xanax which has truly helped me to relax at night (when the anxiety is at it's worse).

Wow, this is an indescribable relief to find this forum. I've looked high and low in utter frustration over this damn virus and yet to find posts with other people suffering this way. Like Pilmont said, I finally don't feel alone. I'm 22 ... I was diagnosed with mono and strep throat 3 months ago. Besides having a really sore throat (from the strep), I had no other symptoms. About a week after I was diagnosed with mono I found myself unable to sleep at all. I went 3 nights laying awake trying to figure out why. Finally I went to the doctor and basically begged him for sleeping pills. He prescribed me Zopiclone which worked wonders. This went on for about a month until I finally felt I was able to sleep on my own. Now, every morning, even after sleeping 10-12 hours, I wake up feeling completely exhausted like I had barely slept 1 hour. I'm generally a very upbeat person who loves interacting with people but I have turned into this irritable, grumpy, unfriendly person who wants to do nothing but be alone because it's too much energy to hold conversations with people. This virus has turned my life upside down and I just want it to be over. I have lost all interest in the things I used to love - friends, family, work, school, hobbies, and sadly girls. The fogginess/feeling stoned is such a great way to describe this. Everyone that I try explain this to seems to think that mono lasts for 3 weeks and is over and done with. People think I am being dramatic when I try and explain that 3 months later I still feel like absolute crap. Anyways, depression seems to be setting in now so I'm thinking about asking my doctor for anti-depressants. I never thought I would be at this point in my life where I would resort to taking pills to make me feel normal ... but here it is. I will keep checking this forum ... I would love to hear how the rest of you guys are doing so far.