“An essential guide” (Mark Hyman, author of Young Forever) to navigating life with the cognitive and mental health impairments that often accompany Long Covid.
Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the shocking mortality figures obscured the fact that death is not the only adverse outcome of the virus. Today, as many as 30 percent of Covid-19 survivors still experience symptoms long after their acute illness has passed, with cognitive and mental health problems especially prominent. For long haulers, this struggle with Long Covid has irrevocably changed their lives. Many have lost their ability to work, attend school, and look after their children. They often feel misunderstood and dismissed by others. Their once-full lives are now filled only with doctors' appointments that seem more and more futile.
In Clearing the Fog, neuropsychologist Dr. James C. Jackson offers people suffering from Long Covid and their families a roadmap to help them manage their “new normal.” Focusing on cognitive impairment and mental health issues, he shows readers:
- The ways in which they can manifest and disrupt
- Suggestions for how and when to seek professional evaluations
- Science-based treatment options and strategies,
- Information on navigating health care systems and disability insurance
- Validation and hope as patients wrestle with their new diagnosis
In addition, Dr. Jackson shares his own experience with chronic illness, relating to long haulers with vulnerability and compassion.
Through moving stories as well as hands-on guidance, Clearing the Fog will help long haulers understand their current situation while offering multiple ways to address it, make sense of it, and move through it with the goal of thriving instead of merely surviving. Download and start listening now!
For two decades, I’ve witnessed my colleague, Dr. Jim Jackson, expertly care for and support patients struggling with newly-acquired cognitive impairment and mental health difficulties after illness and into survivorship. His wisdom and empathy—on display throughout the pandemic in his treatment of patients with Long Covid—is distilled here on the pages of Clearing the Fog, a kind, profoundly human, and practical resource for long haulers, their families, and Health Care professionals. Grounded in science and guided by compassion, Clearing the Fog presents a way forward to the millions navigating Long Covid and other chronic illnesses such as ME/CFS, Long Lyme, or fibromyalgia, people who have been dismissed for far too long. Dr. Jackson has listened to their concerns and provides solutions wherever possible and empathy when answers remain elusive. His book fulfills a driving unmet need in the literature and will bring hope to many.
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Wes Ely, MD, author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath