Months after COVID I still get mentally

Yes — "brain fog" (problems with memory and concentration after COVID) is one of the most commonly listed symptoms of long COVID, and it is a recognised pattern rather than something you are imagining. I am not diagnosing you, and nothing here changes any medicine.

The short version: the pattern you describe — pushing through until you crash — is the one most likely to keep you stuck. The better lever is smaller blocks of effort, spread across the day, with the "hard" thinking done in your clearest window and the childcare logistics moved to someone else or to the easiest version.

1. What you tried vs. what tends to help instead

Two things the NHS long-COVID page names directly (checked 11 Oct 2026): keep a short diary of what makes it better or worse, and go to sleep and wake at the same time every day — a steady clock does more for next-day capacity than any single hard day of rest. It also says symptoms can get worse if you are stressed or more active, which is exactly why "push until you crash" repeats for you.

Tonight, under 25 minutes, no cooking project:

1. Note three lines in a phone note: how long you focused, what it was, and what you felt an hour later. That is your diary; it takes 60 seconds and it's the thing you take to the doctor.
2. Set one fixed wake-up time for the next three days and protect it, even on the bad days.
3. Eat something with protein and carbs from what's already in the kitchen — eggs on bread, leftovers, yoghurt and fruit, soup with bread. Skipping meals while doing school-run logistics is a common way to turn a tired day into a crash.
4. Fill in water through the evening, and put the water where the caring happens, not in another room.
5. Write down your wake time and your three must-do brain tasks for tomorrow, so tomorrow-you doesn't spend the morning deciding.

Scripts you can screenshot:

• To the sibling/elder or your household: *"I'm back but I've got about two good hours a day right now. Can you take [the 4pm pickup / the shopping / the Sunday cooking] this week so my good hours go to the work? The house part I can still do, just in smaller pieces."*
• To work: *"I'm back part-time and managing my load by blocks rather than in one long stretch. Could we agree which tasks go in which block, and that a 25-minute chunk is a normal unit of work for me?"*
• To the clinic: *"COVID was months ago; I've had brain fog after short efforts since then, pushing through makes it worse, and I'm trying to get back to work."*

2. Constraints and the avoid list

• Do not push through to the crash. If you are past your block and still going, that is the moment the next day gets expensive.
• Do not start or increase exercise, and do not "test" your capacity by doing a bigger day to see how it goes. The NHS page is explicit: do not restart exercise before talking to a GP or specialist, and stop if symptoms appear while you move.
• No new medicines or supplements for this — including anything bought online without a prescription, "recovery" powders, or a stack borrowed from someone else. Nothing you take for brain fog should come from outside a pharmacist or your own prescriber.
• Don't change, start or stop any existing medicine because of the fog; note it for the appointment instead (some medicines and the interaction with sleep can contribute — that's a clinician's call, not a home one).
• Don't dose anyone else — no giving the elder or the children anything "to help them focus" or "to help them sleep" out of what's in the cupboard.
• Don't put your return-to-work date on the family's critical path. If the school week and the elder's needs both depend on your peak hours, one bad day breaks both.
• Don't aim for your old baseline in week one. Set the goal at "most days with two usable hours and a flat evening", not "back to normal".

3. Decision tree: when to stop the DIY approach

Go now — call your local emergency number if any of these appear:

• Sudden confusion: not knowing where you are, seeing or hearing things that aren't there, drifting in and out, or someone saying you seem unlike yourself
• One-sided weakness, numbness, a dropped face, slurred or nonsensical speech, or sudden vision loss — even if it eases
• Chest pain or tightness, severe breathlessness, fainting
• A fit, or not being woken
• Thoughts of harming yourself or a wish to die, or an attempt — stay with the person, do not leave them alone, and arrange help by phone rather than leaving to seek it

Same day, clinician, do not wait for a scheduled slot if:

• The fog is clearly worsening week on week rather than holding steady
• You cannot manage basic self-care or the elder's care on most days
• You get chest pain on climbing stairs, a racing or irregular heartbeat with dizziness, or new shortness of breath on ordinary effort
• You are sleeping badly and feeling hopeless most days, or your mood has dropped to the point where you are not functioning
• Anyone at home is worried about you being left alone

A booked appointment in the next week (non-urgent, and worth doing even though you feel "not sick enough"):

• Say: post-COVID, months on, cognitive fatigue after short effort, crashes with pushing through, trying to return to work. Bring your three-line diary, your full medicine list including anything bought without a prescription, and any blood-test results you already have. Ask what should bring you back, and whether a long-COVID or post-COVID service referral is available where you live.

What "success" looks like in 24 hours — nothing more than this: you hit one 25-minute block in your best window, you stop at the end of it instead of pushing on, your evening stays flat, and tomorrow you can still do the school-week logistics. That is the win. A cure is not on tonight's menu, and anybody who promises you one this week is selling something.

My limits, stated plainly: this is not a diagnosis, I cannot examine you or stand in for a clinician, and I do not name a cause here. Long COVID is one candidate and only a clinician can weigh it against sleep problems, low mood, thyroid or blood-sugar problems, medicines you are already taking, or a new chest or heart symptom. No cure is promised and no medicine is changed by this note.

One question that changes tonight's plan: is the exhaustion there *only* after you exert yourself and clear after a day or two of rest, or is it there even on a quiet day when you've done nothing? If it is effort-linked, pacing is exactly right. If it's there at rest too, say that word-for-word at the appointment — it points the clinician at a different set of checks.

Coverage: this note covers routines, pacing, food and communication only. Not covered: any diagnosis, cause, dose, medicine change, or a local clinic door for where you live.