Covid-19’s Personality Traits
Is a Virus Able to Sit for Therapy?
Reflective Clinical Assessment
Perhaps the title of this reflective clinical assessment sounds like I am the one who needs a therapist. How is it possible for a virus to attend therapy? At best this idea sounds like an attempt to mix a catch phrase with academics, though that would be simply tasteless. With upmost sincerity I report that there was a distinct moment when I realized that Covid-19 actually had unique personality traits. The following information is a section of my clinical findings.
Covid-19 is a virus that infects and damages the brain. Early into the pandemic (and by “early” I mean somewhere in November 2019) I, along with some of my colleagues, observed the emergence of what appeared to be a mysterious neuro-cognitive illness. Many of us, including myself, assumed that ‘Meth Cough’ was having a resurgence.
Meth Cough is a slang term for Cryptococcus neoformans, which is a fungus often found in soil. When this fungus is inhaled by a methamphetamine abuser it causes symptoms that including pneumonia, neurological and cognitive problems, shortness of breath, and fever. This deadly fungus is able to cross the blood brain barrier where it infects the brain. The result of meth abuse and C. neoformans infection is chronic extreme illness, long-term disability, and death. Notably, patients who were not meth addicts were just as ill and sometimes even more ill than meth abusers. This was quite perplexing.
A couple weeks into January, and soon after SARS-CoV-2 was first disclosed, I was no longer concerned about Meth Cough. During this disturbing time in January 2020, Covid-19 was simply known as “nCov”. Emergence of the novel coronavirus was very new and restricted only to China. But we suspected nCov of being on our American shores for longer than what was officially disclosed at that time. How is this true? Although Cryptococcus presents with symptoms remarkably similar to Covid-19, none of the Cryptococcus tests were positive.
I read a CNN article on 1/31/20 that discussed a medically observed asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19. I read that article many times, late at night, on that Friday. During that weekend I reviewed my personal assessment notations and charted clinical notes for specific patients — ones who I suspected of being “asymptomatic”.
An existential therapeutic concept holds that for something — anything — to be ‘asymptomatic’, or without presence, is a delusion because everything has and displays its purpose during a shared reality. Specific to a virus or disease, if an illness were to produce or present itself with no observable symptoms that illness is not proving its own absence or its invisibleness. Rather it is the onlooker, or the observer, who is unable or unwilling to see, validate, and share that reality.
Monday morning came too soon, for it had rained all night, and I was unable to sleep. Upon arriving to my hospital I quickly livened up and held session with a patient that I suspected of ‘asymptomatic’ infection. This patient was a white, mid-twenties male who admitted to residential treatment for alcoholism about 1 month prior. At admission his temperament was observed as largely pleasant with good humor and display of insight, marked with moderate depression for which he frequently minimized. These traits went largely unchanged until January 29, 2020 when an unexplainable and persistent irritability and dysphoric mood variations were observed in this patient. I met with him for a therapy session during the morning of the 30th and 31th. He was a stranger to me on both of those days. The morning of that cold, gloomy Monday in early February was when I realized this patient’s prior psyche had all but vanished. Covid-19 sat for therapy with me that Monday morning, hiding within the body of my patient.
What is it like to give therapy to a virus?
What’s giving therapy to a virus like? In my experience, it was not much different than giving therapy to a selfish, resentful, and ambivalent human.
The virus sat for therapy with me while wearing many different hosts; wearing the bodies of countless patients it infected. Though these infected bodies continually rotated in and out of the therapy chair, the virus presented with steadfast loyalty to what eventually became known to me as asymptomatic personality traits. An example of a personality trait specific to asymptomatic Covid-19 is how the virus perpetually struggled to manage what it also generated: simultaneous and intense tension mixed equally with conflict. An asymptomatic Covid-19 patient typically presented throughout session with agitation and laziness such that although the patient verbalized wanting to end session early they were ultimately too unmotivated to enact any change. The asymptomatic patient was, essentially, unable to make decisions outside of spontaneous reaction.
Behavior manifestations observed of asymptomatic infection during individual and group therapy included continuous glaring, pronounced slouching, a rapping of the fingers or a rapid shaking of a foot, scowls, dramatic sighs, excessive rubbing of the mouth and chin, and wringing of hands. Most intriguing, this behavior appeared largely compulsive and involuntary.
Asymptomatic Covid-19 also begrudged basic human concerns, such as regular eating and sleeping. Long periods of insomnia coupled with prolonged fasting were frequent and became a dependable reference point of asymptomatic Covid. Unspecified Anxiety Disorder or Generalized Anxiety Disorder were mental health diagnoses typically applied to asymptomatic patients due lacking a better, more honest explanation. Our state government actively denied the presence of Covid and did not have SARS-CoV-2 testing available.
Conclusion
The virus was and will never be asymptomatic in any respect involving the brain. Asymptomatic and mild case SCoV2 patients suffer from many neurocognitive ailments including memory loss, new and chronic irritability, personality trait and/or mood variance, and heightened impatience. Covid-19 seemed to shut down the frontal cortex and left perianal lobe while dwelling in the amygdala and hippocampus.
There were certain moments I had with Covid-19 that were so eerie I couldn’t help but wonder if the SARS-CoV-2 somehow shared consciousness with itself while infecting different hosts. Just as bizarre is how the vast majority of asymptomatic or mild case patients did not recall having therapy sessions with me while they were infected.
