Ben is a 15 yr-old-boy who experienced the sudden onset of medical and mental health issues after having the COVID virus.

He had a normal, uncomplicated birth and a normal childhood. He had a head injury from sports at age 11 but recovered without complication. He had no known medical, attentional, learning, behavioral, or emotional issues until he had COVID.

Within 10 weeks of having COVID, Ben had an onset of diabetes type 1. Signs of anxiety, including repeated questions, difficulty sleeping, and being less willing to try new things began to appear shortly thereafter. Ben’s parents assumed it was related to diabetes diagnosis.

Obsessive thinking and rituals were noticeable and it ramped up very quickly when Ben began to refuse to go to school. His compulsive questioning due to intrusive thoughts and food restricting got in the way of his daily functioning. His parents brought Ben to a psychiatrist who was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). He was prescribed an SSRI, which lessened to some degree Ben’s intrusive thoughts and anxiety but then he became quite depressed and withdrawn.

A series of medication trials were conducted with no symptom relief. Ben also went to three different therapists who used cognitive behavioral therapy and one tried mindfulness activities. His parents reported that while the therapy helped them manage Ben’s behaviors, no noticable changes occured and Ben actually worsened over this 18-month period. Furthermore, he developed depersonalization symptoms.

Ben and his family sought care in our program after a referral from their pediatrician and a referral from a friend and in an attempt to avoid in-patient hospitalization for OCD and depression.

Ben’s QEEG Brain Map showed diffuse low activity across all brain wave activity and in his brain communication. Ben’s brain was extremely understimulated. Having done more than 10,000 brain maps and with a large portion of these brain scans from people infectious disease, it was clear that Ben’s brain’s low activity resulted from a virus.

Ben’s sudden onset of Diabetes 1 and then anxiety and OCD were due to the infection induced autoimmune PANS. Ben went from a typical teen before COVID to one that was anxious, withdrawn, had suicidal thoughts, had intrusive thoughts and feelings of depersonalization that stopped him from connecting with others and going to school.