My 80y old mother was diagnosed with Covid in November 2020. She did very well with mild symptoms. The after effects have been awful. She is full of anxiety, mental fog, not herself at all. She worries constantly, agitated, stresses over the littlest things, no longer wants to eat or has no desire for food. She was admitted to a rehab in hope of gaining strength and went complete opposite, we had to pull her out after 2 weeks. She now needs 24-7 care. Physically she is good. Labs are great for her age. Mentally she is a mess. She knows she is like this. She tells us she feels crazy but doesn't know how to stop it. She is talking to a counselor. She worries about worrying.
Understandable about the food, too. The loss or damage to taste makes many foods taste very nasty. If anyone has had chemo and went through that period of time where certain foods seem to taste rancid - that's the same thing I had with covid. Meat, especially, tasted nasty. Cold items seemed to work better for me - punch drink versus any kind of soda, ice cream, mashed potatoes ok. Probably the reason so many people lose weight with covid. - btw, I never lost sense of smell but it changed how things smelled. Bacon, especially, smelled rotten.
The constant worrying, agitiation, hypervigilance and so on - I'm beginning to think it's a rare and/or unmedicated person who isn't experiencing these to some degree; and for elders, who are told a dozen times a day that they're at risk of imminent, horrible and irresponsible death which they must strive to avoid by isolating themselves from everyone they care about, it's a wonder there isn't a pandemic of suicides going on too.
There is discussion of long Covid, but I don't know how it's to be diagnosed let alone treated. I have a family member who is quite sure she is experiencing it. Nothing anyone can say will convince her otherwise, and this despite no symptoms, no antibodies and no positive PCR or lateral flow test. She feels terrible. She has no energy, no concentration. She is sure she has long Covid. Personally my diagnosis is that she's been confined to a house with one other person for months on end and it's enough to drive anyone potty.
So, if your poor mother feels she is losing her mind a) she is so far from alone that it's just not funny and b) she has every right. All I can offer is that it is not so very long since she had an extremely nasty virus, her mental state could be part of the recovery, she too is living through desperately difficult times, and she must be patient and kind - to herself.
And take a bog-standard multivitamin, just in case, if she's not eating well. It can't possibly hurt.
Elders are fraught with fear to begin with they know they cannot do things physically like when they were younger. Covid just adds onto that. You wrote that she’s ok physically. If so, I’d try to find an outdoor exercise or movement program and you & her go to it twice a week or more if u can. And take her out on long drives twice a week. See if doing these make her less fearful and fixated. If she sees the same things every day it, keeps her on the continuous loop of fear & fret. Do what you can to break the loop. Good luck too,
Last May my 85-yr old MIL got covid in her LTC facility. Was so sick and weak for 4 weeks, then put on hospice. Unbelievably she made a super fast and total recovery. She had short-term memory impairment prior to covid. She basically reset back to her pre-covid self in every way. I have friends who had covid. One in his 70s and had the "fog". Turns out he was just diagnosed with Parkinsons. His wife had GI issues, as did another friend. The symptoms eventually and slowly disappeared. In your mom's case the only thing left to do is treat her symptoms. There's just no way to know for certain if covid caused any of it, and even if you could know it, this information may not change anything about how you address her symptoms going forward. Maybe as in the case of my friends, she will slowly return to "normal" with time. May you receive peace in your heart and find helpful answers for your mom.
All my kids and grands had covid. DH and I have not been able to get vaccinated yet!
One daughter says she will have the occasional 'super tired' day--but she also has 3 small kids, more likely it's her lifestyle than leftover covid.
SIL is a dr and has a lot of geriatric patients. He said he's prescribed low doses of Antidepressants and seen good results.
Covid's just too new to know what the end game will look like.