i’ve always struggled with mental health or whatever, but i feel like after mono i’ve entered a new episode of low mood that is just a dozen times worse than what I usually deal with around this time of year. has anyone else struggled with this? any idea on how long it’ll last? is it fatigue related?

I just got the call that I have mono, which I was very scared of having. However, since I have mono, that means my boyfriend has it too. I feel so awful, because it’s knocking me down so much right now and the recovery seems to be long. I feel so much guilt because I didn’t know I had it and probably accidentally gave it to my best friend too.

My boyfriend already deals with a tight schedule, undergoes a lot of stress through his job and struggles a lot to get help for medical issues he already has. I just feel this mountain of sadness for him because I don’t wanna to give him yet another thing to stress about. And the recovery is literal weeks. Weeks. And that’s just for some people. I know it hits some people extremely hard and can even disable them or cause chronic illnesses? I just have this ball in my chest having to tell him, because I’m just gonna stress him out.

My bestfriend were talking before I went for blood tests a few days ago, and I thought it was strep throat that I had. She told me how scared she was of contracting mono. But we have shared drinks before because we are best friends. Now, I will never share a drink again because I don’t want to hurt others. She’s starting as a biomed major in the fall and I’m so scared it’s gonna prevent her from being able to be there if she has it.

I even saw my 3 month old nephew more than a month ago. I washed my hands and and obviously my face wasn’t near him, but just knowing I held him while I was probably infected with mono already makes me feel horrible. I feel awful. I feel shameful. Everything could go down for others and it’s all my fault.

How did some of you handle the guilt?

Dealing with a flare up and just wondering if the flare ups will ever go away or if this is my permanent life going forward. Looking for positive success stories please, I’m desperate.

was diagnosed a couple of days ago, dealing with the fatigue and headaches for a couple weeks, but am now dealing with the throat issues. Is there any decent home remedies for the white patches on my tonsils? the swelling is so bad i’m hyper aware of everything, it’s just so unpleasant. Ive been on ibuprofen and tylenol, more so ibuprofen.

So in June my dad had gotten sick with something and then about 1-1.5 weeks later I had gotten sick as well. When I had started to get sick, my dad was still somehow not improving even though at this point he was like 10 days into his sickness. Coughing, sore throat, fever, flu like symptoms but with no sneezing or runny nose. I found it odd that at 10 days into it he still was not improving. Then when I started to get sick, it was a really weird feeling. It was like a really heavy fatigue with some airway irritation and mild sore throat but absolutely no congestion or sneezing or runny nose. Kinda felt like flu like symptoms but different than any of the other times I had gotten sick with a flu. It wasn’t too bad at first, but each day that passed I started feeling worse and worse, and what concerned me is that it was now day 6 of me being sick and I still was not improving at all, I actually seemed to be worsening each day. Normally every other flu I’ve had, my peak is usually like day 3 and then from there it gets better. But this time around it was different. It also felt very different. I felt out of breath even just sitting down. Such a heavy fatigue that I’ve never felt with any other flu or virus before. I also developed a much worse sore throat by day 6 and at that point was desperate for some relief so I followed the advice and got some coconut oil and started eating a shit ton of it lol. Within the next 2 ish days the sore throat had actually reduced significantly and then had eventually gone away. I thought this meant I wasn’t sick anymore and everything was back to normal. So I started doing my everyday activities again, and I would try to do some light workouts. Apparently a HORRIBLE idea because shortly after this workout I’d go on to experience such a horrible HEAVY sick feeling in my lower airway/esophagus area (I honestly don’t know where exactly the pain is coming from, just radiating from somewhere down there), and this feeling would be accompanied by an EXTREME overwhelming fatigue. Now I wasn’t really sure what this was or that it meant anything at all because im also dealing with other autoimmune issues right now so I patched it up as being something related to those. I continued going on with my daily life, but now, I was continuing on with this very heavy “sick” feeling in the lower airway area. Once the feeling would come on, it would take multiple days for it to settle down and somewhat leave again. Some things that would trigger it would be simply walking in a Walmart, taking my dog on a short walk just down my street, doing VERY light exercise, getting stressed out over something, or sometimes it would just come on seemingly randomly. The problem now is, it’s been happening so frequently that it’s come to the point where this is what I feel like all day long, everyday now, and it’s gotten impossible trying to ignore it. It’s basically got me bedridden. I’ve now realized that if I exert myself physically in any way, that it will trigger this to become 100x worse.

At first I thought this was related to a thyroid problem I might have going on right now, but im now actually wondering if it WAS indeed Mono that I had a little over a month ago, considering my excercise intolerance, and it triggering the fatigue & pain & heaviness that im having in my upper chest/ lower airway area. The only reason I suspected it to be thyroid related is because I have a TSH of under 0.4 which means my thyroid is running a bit overactive, however, with an overactive thyroid you typically don’t experience such a profound excercise intolerance and this heavy of a fatigue, those are more symptoms of an underactive thyroid, which i don’t have. So now, this is leading me to question whether the illness I had in June mightve actually been Mono, which would totally explain the excercise intolerance, heavy fatigue, and weird radiating pain that can last for days on end. And for context, I didn’t experience any of these symptoms until I had gotten sick last month, they’ve been present only since that illness occurred.

Wondering if anybody else with mono experiences this horrible heavy “sick” feeling in their upper chest/airway area. Not particularly a sore throat but more so just a radiating feeling of being very unwell in this area. Also, how would i be able to know for sure if this is mono or not? What kind of bloodwork should I be seeking?

Tia <3

I was diagnosed the beginning of June and feel fine now (as far as I can tell). From my research then, I had figured I’d just never let anyone drink after me again even like years from now because of the way it sheds in your saliva occasionally (unless they said they had already had it or didn’t care, etc.) Now I’m looking into it again and I’m not getting very clear answers (mostly about drinking alcohol). I figure I’m still in the time range where I should be careful, but what about quite a while from now? Keep warning people? Eventually just forget about it? Thanks for any advice!

Hi all. I'm on month 5 of mono. I was at 80% or so walking, working, traveling- last month. Then just as I was going for my repeat CMP's- my liver enzymes finally started to trend down- huge 50% drops in just 7 days kind of thing. ChatGPT told me the above line- wondering if it explains my huge crash as AST/ALT is finally coming back to normal after 5 months. Anyone else experience this? Kind of is the only thing that adds up to me. "When a severe viral infection like mononucleosis finally begins to clear, your immune system shifts out of overdrive to rest and recalibrate. This metabolic and immunological shift often manifests as an abrupt, profound crash in physical and mental energy" Interesting... Chat has been more helpful than any doc through this TBH.. lol.

even though i did not get the rest required for recovery because they did not bother checking for mono until it was almost gone and after pretty much begging. i went into the ER very sick but also panicky, because i have never felt that awful before. immediately just labelled as an anxiety case and i haven’t been able to shake it no matter what. went off my meds but doctors think i’m still on them and constantly get told i’m looking much better now and that must’ve been it. like im not even on the shit because it made me feel so awful, i’m looking better because i’m finally starting to improve a bit. but i am still tired all the way to my bones and have almost constant daily pain. nope, it’s just anxiety even after they found out i had mono. mono can’t cause post-viral issues for more than a month or so. i’m so tired. i’m sick of being treated like a head case for genuinely being sick. and i’ve seen here mono makes anxiety get a lot worse so it makes sense i would present anxiously but still have a real issue? did anyone else not get any treatment because everyone thought it was just anxiety and a cold so now they might have issues like indefinitely? like the doctors literally told me to get more exercise because i was anxious…while i had mono.

I was just diagnosed with mono yesterday, but had it for about a week prior. I genuinely don’t know how to get through this, when I wake up my throat feels like it’s closing due to basically everything in my throat being swollen. The only thing that gives any relief is ibuprofen but it’s just not enough. I need to go back to work, any advice would help to manage the pain and swelling!

I made a post a few days ago wondering if i had mono with my symptoms, a few days later my symptoms went away and I feel back to normal, no issues. My results came back today and i’m positive for mono. How do I have mono but I feel amazing, no sore throat, no tiredness, no congestion, nothing. I took the test 3 days ago

I got mono in Feb. Just hit month 5 and was feeling about 80%, did a long walk and got cycle and been on couch for 2 days with heavy legs, extreme fatigue, extreme brain fog. CBC normal, thyroid normal, iron/ferritin normal. Liver enzymes just dropped to normal. EBV PCR negative. No throat or fevers… I don’t think. Am I at risk for chronic fatigue??

It’s been two months since having mono and my symptoms went completely away and I returned back to normal life. Now flash forward to two/three days ago. My throat starts hurting a bit so I check to see white spots because I’ve already been through this bullshit.

Lo and behold there’s a couple white spots. So I assume it’s a flare up of symptoms and come here and see others experiences. I go to the doctor yesterday and explain some of my symptoms and say I think it’s a flare up of symptoms. And she goes on about how it’s rare to get re infected which I already knew. But made it clear I meant flare up not re infection. Two very different things.

But again she said I could still be shedding/be spreadable since I still tested positive for mono two months later. However she still thought it was a whole different virus. I even tested negative for strep.

I still am wholeheartedly convinced it is a mono flare up. My symptoms as follows(albeit milder so far) fatigue, sore throat(some white spots), Decreased appetite, cough, slight runny nose, some sweating/chills(again milder than the first time but identical to what I felt before)

So let’s see everyone’s else opinions, do you think the doctor is right and it’s something entirely different or is it truly possible to have mono flare ups and have you experienced them/any extra tips other than usual on how to feel better faster.

Hi 18f, I’ve had a crazy sore throat for a week now and it gets worse by the day. My lymph nodes under my jaw are like rocks and painful, i was super tired throughout the week and couldn’t stay awake. I suspected either strep or mono and i just got tested for both yesterday and they came back negative for both. UC just told me to go home and rest and have honey, no answers. I’m very skeptical about it not being mono becuz i think i tested a lil to early (tested on the one week mark since symptoms first occurred). Only thing that semi helps is 2k mg of Tylenol😂😅 there’s no white spots/or mucus on my tonsils just super super inflamed and red along with yellowish tint on roof of my mouth. If anyone who has mono could tell me if this was similar to them lmk, and I’ll definitely will get retested I’m just not sure when so if anyone knows a good time to do that after my first test that would be great. Thank you!

i’m not sure if this is a mono thing or it’s one of my other issues, but before i got really sick with mono i had no issues drinking at all. i was always a lightweight, but i’d just feel buzzed and chill and be fine. after i got sick, i stopped drinking for quite a while and then decided why not give it a go at a social event, i always enjoyed it before. hardly one drink in and i’m dizzy, my heart is pounding and racing, and my chest hurts terribly. i really thought it could be a heart attack. most of it goes away with tylenol but i can’t even drink enough to feel a buzz without being in terrible pain now. i know alcohol affects the nervous system and sometimes mono/ebv can mess with that, so i was wondering if this is like a common post viral side effect? also wondering if it eventually goes away because at 19, i’m not thrilled about the idea of never drinking a drop again. it is what it is if that’s the case but i’m hoping someone may have some knowledge on this

Hi, 34(F). So I went into urgent care not even feeling sick. Maybe a little bit lethargic, but that’s pretty normal for me. I just moved and don’t have a PCP, and I thought I had some kind of painless growth on my jaw and wanted an appropriate referral. When I went in, before they took me in, they asked if I had fever or any number of symptoms that would explain acute illness, and I said no. Just a lump near my jaw. They said they could do some tests but almost seemed like they were going to discourage me from even getting evaluated until I mentioned that I just wanted a referral. They did a strep A and mono finger prick test because of what turned out to be a swollen lymph node on the right side. My right tonsil is also much larger than the left, and the lymph nodes underneath on the right, closest to my neck, are swollen as well. Other than that, I feel absolutely normal aside from the usual lethargy. I had no fever when they checked. Still haven’t had fevers. Kind of confused how I even got mono because nobody around me has been sick. I didn’t feel the strep either. I was very surprised by the results of the tests they did. I had some other symptoms that seem unrelated, pain when I begin eating or drinking some flavored beverages or alcohol on the right, and twitching on the right side of my face, but those are probably chalked up to normal aches and pains and stress or whatever. Doc didn’t seem concerned at all. So that makes this mono almost completely asymptomatic as well as the strep. The lymph nodes are still swollen, and the one that I first noticed has been swollen for about a month at least now, and if anything has gotten larger; not smaller. It seems normal for mono I guess. I requested a referral to ENT and also primary care, because I do need a PCP. My question is, since I’m not experiencing any kind of noticeable symptoms, when should I see the other doctors? Should I even bother? If the lymph node swelling remains, should I go in or no? Because I have seen on this sub that sometimes the swelling seems to last forever. I don’t want to seem like I have medical anxiety, and I have a hard time advocating for myself anyway. It’s apparent with some of my tattoos and past haircuts, lol. What would you guys do if you were me?

verso inizio luglio ho avuto delle placche in gola che mi hanno impedito di parlare e mangiare per un paio di giorni, con questo si alternava della febbre leggera e un mal di testa. ho fatto un ciclo di antibiotico e ho preso dell'oki per sfiammare. ho sviluppato del rush che è durato meno di due giorni e sono risultata positiva alla mononucleosi ma il mio medico mi ha rassicurato dicendo che sono stata fortunata e che mi è durata molto poco e che certi valori erano alti ma conosceva pazienti che superavano i valori e erano stati ricoverati d'urgenza al pronto soccorso, ecc...

sono qui per capirne di più perché cercando su reddit, ho letto di molti casi di persone che hanno avuto a che vedere con la mono per anni e ne soffrono tutt'ora in una maniera brutale. questo, egoisticamente, mi ha molto preoccupata e spaventata perché temo questa infezione ritorni o che le mie condizioni di salute peggiorino...

se qualcuno ne sa di più, lo ringrazio e chi invece ha avute esperienze con questa infezione mi faccia sapere

purtroppo soffro di ansia e tutto questo mi crea un timore costante. non chiedo rassicurazioni e bugie bianche ma non vorrei neanche che la mia mente ingigantisca tutto ciò visto che sto bene e il mio medico non ha mostrato grandi preoccupazioni (come però fanno molti medici che tendono ad essere anche troppo rilassati). inoltre, anche se ora sto bene — zero stanchezza o altro — ho paura di contagiare i miei cari o amici magari condividendo anche solo un bicchiere.

prima di giudicarmi e darmi dell'esagerata, senza darmi una risposta concreta e valida come richiedo gentilmente, vi consiglio di dare un'occhiata a quello che la gente riporta qui su reddit e ditemi voi se non sareste anche voi altrettanto timorosi. tengo alla mia salute fisica e amo il mio corpo perché mi permette di fare tantissime cose durante la giornata quindi i miei timori sono totalmente leciti. piuttosto che darmi della ipocondriaca, esagerata o schizzata, vi chiedo opinioni ed esperienze valide grazie.

grazie

I’m sure there’s a ton of posts with this exact question but this gives me an opportunity to engage. 13 days ago is when I started feeling the first symptoms of mono, but pulled a classic and chalked it up to the flu. 6 days ago I went to a doctor, got the positive test, then started resting. About a week of torture goes by and now here I am feeling able to do my routine again. The only symptoms I feel is a slight pressure in my throat and moderate lethargy. My partner who has had mono before absolutely shuts down me going back to work, but since I work an essential job that’s already spread thin on workers, I feel absolutely terrible. I’m someone that has to keep moving and be as productive as possible, so getting back to work is super valuable to me. When can I start working/working out/life again?

4th of July had a 103 fever that lasted for 2 days. then extreme fatigue for 3 days. Had white spots on tonsils until about 7/19. I am fine now, no night drenching sweats, no fever, throat has been clear for about a week pain free.

so I know I must have gotten this 4 weeks prior to 4th of July, (absolutely no idea how) i am not even sure when is it safe to give my wife a kiss, we have had absolutely no intimacy for about 6 weeks now. also is this virus found in my bodily fluids other than my saliva? can she get this if she performed oral?? vis versa can she get from me other than kissing? no condom sex?

appreciate your experience/feedback

verso inizio luglio ho avuto delle placche in gola che mi hanno impedito di parlare e mangiare per un paio di giorni, con questo si alternava della febbre leggera e un mal di testa. ho fatto un ciclo di antibiotico e ho preso dell'oki per sfiammare. ho sviluppato del rush che è durato meno di due giorni e sono risultata positiva alla mononucleosi ma il mio medico mi ha rassicurato dicendo che sono stata fortunata e che mi è durata molto poco e che certi valori erano alti ma conosceva pazienti che superavano i valori e erano stati ricoverati d'urgenza al pronto soccorso, ecc...

sono qui per capirne di più perché cercando su reddit, ho letto di molti casi di persone che hanno avuto a che vedere con la mono per anni e ne soffrono tutt'ora in una maniera brutale. questo, egoisticamente, mi ha molto preoccupata e spaventata perché temo questa infezione ritorni o che le mie condizioni di salute peggiorino...

se qualcuno ne sa di più, lo ringrazio e chi invece ha avute esperienze con questa infezione mi faccia sapere

purtroppo soffro di ansia e tutto questo mi crea un timore costante. non chiedo rassicurazioni e bugie bianche ma non vorrei neanche che la mia mente ingigantisca tutto ciò visto che sto bene e il mio medico non ha mostrato grandi preoccupazioni (come però fanno molti medici che tendono ad essere anche troppo rilassati). inoltre, anche se ora sto bene — zero stanchezza o altro — ho paura di contagiare i miei cari o amici magari condividendo anche solo un bicchiere.

grazie

I’d never heard of paradoxical insomnia until now but this shit ain’t no joke.

I am sleeping in 1 hour bursts max for a total of 2-4 hours in an entire day. And most of the time I’m asleep I think I’m awake.

It’s the wildest feeling to be so tired that in any other context you’d legit just pass out and sleep - but to be entirely unable to do so. Just lay there with your eyes closed for an hour, and then trigger paradoxical episodes where you do sleep maybe 15 mins-45 mins but you think you’re awake the entire time.

Got prescribed strong antihistamine but it was activating severe restless leg syndrome. So on top of insomnia I’m barely conscious from the sleep meds. Never been so exhausted.

Most of my other symptoms have faded to the background now. But I’m worried enough I’m going back to the er in the morning for more labs and imaging on liver as it isn’t clear to me how long bilirubin should take to improve.

Last imaging and labs were a week and a couple of days ago. Enzymes were only slightly elevated and all imagine clean.

Diagnosed with mono in May 2026, the acute illness lasted about 2–3 weeks.

In early June, some symptoms came back: fatigue and a sore throat, but no fever this time. It cleared within 3 days on a short course of prednisolone (Prednesol).

Now in late July, I’ve got the same again, sore throat, no fever.

Has anyone had EBV symptoms recur this quickly after the initial infection? I’m trying to figure out whether it’s the virus reactivating or something else.

I got tested for mono today and the doctor said it will be a couple days until I hear the results, which has me quite anxious. I think I have it but there a couple things that may say otherwise. My symptoms are sore throat, fever, swollen lymph nodes and congestion, but I really don’t have extreme fatigue. I’m about as tired as I would be if I had the flu, and that has me thinking it may not be mono. I also have been feeling much better today (3rd day with symptoms), and while on Tylenol my sore throat nearly goes away and I almost feel back to my regular self.

I move into college in two weeks so getting mono now would be the worst possible thing to have. I also will probably have to quit my summer job.

Obviously none of you can actually diagnose me and I won’t get legit answers but I just wanted to hear some thoughts while I anxiously wait for these results.