I’ve had long covid since July 2022, but it wasn’t until I saw a second rheumatologist in Jan. 2023 that all of my horrible symptoms finally got diagnosed as long covid. So my advice is to see a rheumatologist — they are really the only doctors that are good problem solvers anyways so it makes sense.
I definitely believe your issues could be long covid related. My son has suffered from anxiety and depression off and on for several years. He got covid on the exact same day as me, but our early and long haul symptoms have been wildly different — for me, it attacked my knees and gave me widespread pain that has lasted for months, for him his very first symptoms were severe anxiety and panic attacks that were way above normal and seemingly out of nowhere at the time, and his depression and anxiety have been especially bad ever since.
My personal theory is that covid attacks people wherever they’re weakest and/or makes existing problems 10x worse.
What’s helped me most is adopting a low histamine diet (absolutely no sugar, gluten, dairy (except goat cheese), caffeine, or alcohol. I wish my son would try it as well but he won’t (he’s 22 so there’s only so much I can do).
I will warn you that my family learned the hard way that Effexor is notorious for being really horrible to come off of if/when you do… My son took a low dosage of that one for just a few months when he was first diagnosed with depression several years ago, and when we tapered him off of it, he had horrible episodes of severe vertigo and hallucinations. You must taper off of that one very slowly and incrementally, like actually cutting the little tablets into fourths and spreading the taper out over a couple weeks at least—just so you know.