If you’ve felt “not quite yourself” over the past few years — more tired, more reactive, less resilient, more inflamed, or simply unable to bounce back the way you used to — you’re not imagining it.
Maybe you were sick with covid and have long covid symptoms, maybe you had symptoms after vaccination, or maybe you never had either, but still don’t feel like you’re at your best.
And it’s not a personal failure, a lack of motivation, or you “getting older.”
What we’ve collectively lived through since 2020 has put an unprecedented stress load on our bodies, our minerals, and our nervous systems.
This blog is here to help you understand why you’re feeling the way you’re feeling — and why so many others feel exactly the same.
The stress of the covid era didn’t end when lockdowns did
When people talk about “Covid stress,” most think only of catching the virus or something to do with the vaccination. The thing is, the health impact wasn’t limited to either of those. It was the entire environment we lived in:
- Constant uncertainty
- Personal isolation – whether from loved ones, community or day to day services
- Disruption to our normal routine and freedoms
- Fear of a never ending list of things
- Division between friends, family, neighbours, communities, businesses, governmental services and beyond
- Rapid-change including even more uncertainty in what ‘the rules’ were, what ‘the rules’ were based on, etc
- Reduced support – many services were impacted – people couldn’t access full health care options, community resources for domestic violence, mental health support, physical services and many more
- Reduced access to good food and normal routines
Those weren’t short-term stressors — they lasted years. For many people, the ripple effect of these is still being felt.
And the human body isn’t built for chronic, unrelenting stress. We are built to deal with a stressful situation or series of events, then to replenish nutrients and to ‘rest and recover’. Not back to back stresses for many years.
Our minerals weren’t built for this either.
Stress isn’t just emotional – it’s physical, metabolic, financial and more
When people say, “I’m stressed,” they often are focused on emotional stress, but the type of stress that affects health goes far beyond that.
Covid and the years that followed increased stress across almost every category:
1. Physical Stress
- The virus itself (even if “mild”)
- The immune activation that followed
- Vaccination reactions for some people
- Sleep disruption
- Reduced movement
- Long periods indoors
- Nervous system overload from constant news, health ‘recommendations’, etc
Your body uses huge amounts of magnesium, sodium, potassium and vitamin C under physical stress — and most people were already low before 2020.
2. Metabolic Stress
We saw major shifts in:
- Thyroid function
- Digestion
- Circadian rhythm
- Inflammation levels (as a result of the others often)
Why?
Because minerals drive metabolism — and chronic stress depletes minerals at record speed.
3. Emotional Stress
- Fear of getting sick
- Fear of passing illness to others
- Fear of judgement from either “side”
- Grief from forced government mandated measures that felt awful
- Grief from loss of routines, connection, or people
Emotional stress may be invisible, but it’s one of the biggest drains on our adrenals (which contains a lot of our vitamin c!) and minerals in general.
4. Mental Stress
- Constant information overload
- Conflicting health messages
- Decision fatigue
- Loss of predictability
- Ongoing “what ifs”
Your brain uses enormous energy — especially when it’s trying to operate in uncertainty for months or years. Your nervous system is in overdrive when it’s trying to keep monitoring to make sure it keeps you safe from “imminent danger”.
5. Financial Stress
- Reduced income
- Job insecurity
- Increased living costs
- Rising food prices
- Pressure to “catch up” financially afterward
Financial stress is a major risk factor for chronic health issues — and we’ve seen the impacts ripple through families ever since.
6. Work and Job Security Stress
- Sudden shifts to remote work
- Changes in expectations
- Increased workloads
- Burnout
- Layoffs and restructures
- Business closure
- Caring for kids while working
- Distance education during lockdowns
- The loss of boundaries and choice
Most people ran on adrenalin for far too long.
7. Community & Belonging Stress
This one is rarely talked about — but powerful.
- Friendships strained
- Disconnection
- Feeling judged
- Losing your “place”
- Community groups dissolving
- A sense of not fitting in anymore
Humans are wired for belonging. When community is disrupted, the brain reads it as danger.
Why do these show up as fatigue, brain fog, gut issues, and “not myself”?
When your stress load climbs — from any direction — magnesium and potassium are lost as your body does it’s best to keep you going, to keep you safe and functioning as you release adrenalin and become more and more alert – ready to fight, flee or freeze.
When this continues to become a chronic stress, not just ‘one off’s’, your bioavailable copper drops; and when that happens in an even longer term, your:
- Energy
- hormones
- gut function
- immune health
- sleep
- mood
- resilience
…all take a hit.
You may be told it’s “just low iron”.
You may be told your blood tests are either all normal, or a focus has been on how things are ‘mostly ok’, yet you KNOW that things aren’t right, and that it’s been accelerated over recent years compared to your years before then.
This is why so many people are saying:
- “I’m always tired.”
- “My brain just doesn’t work the same.”
- “My gut hasn’t recovered.”
- “My mood is all over the place.”
- “I can’t tolerate as much as I used to.”
- “Everything feels harder than it should.”
It’s not your imagination.
It’s not that you’re “just stressed.”
Your body has been under layers of stress for years — and it needs help to come out of survival mode
Quality food & resource access changed too
Another factor that gets overlooked:
The food system changed.
During and after Covid, we saw:
- Reduced access to fresh food
- Rising prices
- Poorer soil quality
- Supply chain issues
- More reliance on convenience foods due to fatigue and overwhelm
All of these contribute to declining mineral levels, more imbalances and declining resilience. It also builds upon many decades of problems in our food system from food additives and not eating in an ancestral way.
No wonder your minerals took a hit
Most people don’t realise this, but your minerals tell the story of your last few years. Magnesium, potassium and copper all shift in response to:
- Infection
- Inflammation
- Fear
- Emotional stress
- Poor sleep
- Irregular eating
- Isolation
- Metabolic changes
- Medication
- Vaccination
- Chronic uncertainty
You’ve just lived through a period where almost every factor worked against mineral balance.
No wonder your body doesn’t feel the same.
You’re not imagining it – and you’re not alone
I’ve created a Post-Covid healing course for people who want to:
- undo the dramatic changes to their health
- support their body to bounce back
- address what’s actually going on beneath the symptoms
- rebuild energy, top up their minerals
- increase their resilience in a practical, realistic way
- …and manage stress!
It’s not a “cleanse.”
It’s not extreme.
It’s not fear-based.
It’s an invitation to reverse layers and years of stress. If you’re ready to help your body come out of survival mode, this online course is for you.
You can absolutely feel supported in the process.
If you’d like to explore my online healing course, I’d love to guide you through it.
You can learn more about the course here.
Finally someone has written a blog which sums up what has happened and how the last few years have affected our health. Great info, thank you Kristan!!!