If you’re feeling especially down emotionally after a bout with the flu, you’re not going out of your mind. There really is a condition called Post-Influenza Depression. Also called the blues, or the blahs, it goes on for a time after the flu’s chills, fever, nausea, aches and bad dreams.
The problem is most people don’t realize that it’s the aftermath of the flu and may think they’re falling into a more serious case of depression.
But look at it this way: A flu virus attacks your body – and some strains are pretty vicious. All your body’s immune defenses are mobilized. Your major organs may spring to the defense – the lungs, liver, lymph system, intestinal tract. No wonder you feel exhausted, weak and depressed after the battle is won.
What it means is that you should take more time to recover. Be sure to get lots of sleep and rest, and eat an especially sensible diet with lots of liquids. Don’t rush back to taking on a full load before you feel really back to normal. By the way, the same kind of fatigue, mental and physical, often follows other viral infections such as hepatitis, the liver infection.
Don’t worry a case of the flu won’t cause you to need therapy or a prescription for anti-depressants. According to a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers found there is no relationship between a flu attack and clinical depression that was ever severe enough to require professional help.
Depression following the flu is temporary. You most likely can, and will, bounce back before long.
Robin Westen writes about health for national magazines.
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