Long-term Depression or brain changes after COVID?

Hi everyone,

I’m curious if anyone else has experienced something similar after COVID.

I got COVID once in 2021. At the time it wasn’t extremely severe, but about a month later I started noticing some strange changes that I never had before.

At first it was small things like mild memory lapses and brain fog. Then gradually I started experiencing emotional swings that felt very unusual for me. My appetite dropped a lot as well, which actually caused me to lose weight at the time.

But the bigger issue was emotional instability. I would have sudden mood changes and periods that felt like depression for no clear reason.

Fast forward to now - 2026 - and after years of observing my own patterns I feel like something in my brain chemistry changed after COVID. It’s almost as if my brain stopped regulating things the same way as before.

Right now I’m actually on antidepressants for the second time, because without them the emotional swings become very intense and I start having serious sleep problems as well.

The reason I’m asking is that before COVID I never had anything like this. No depression, no major emotional instability and no sleep issues.

So I’m really curious if anyone else experienced something similar after COVID?
Did it affect your mood, memory, sleep, or emotional regulation long-term and eventually lead you to taking antidepressants?

I would really appreciate hearing real experiences from people who went through something similar ♡