By Martha Ross
Freshman (click here) Riley Christiansen, a business administration major, passed away November 9. He was 18.
The day before Riley Christiansen took his life at Lookout Point, (click here) the scenic cliffs near Chico State University, the 18-year-old searched online for anything to explain his bewildering bouts of memory loss and why he felt so “down.”
“What to do if you start to talk less?” the usually affable college freshman from Clayton typed into a search engine on Nov. 8 and again the day of his death. “What to do if you are losing your personality?”
Two months earlier, Riley had tested positive for COVID-19 during an outbreak that swept campus just a few days into the fall semester. At first, Riley’s case seemed mild — he briefly lost his sense of taste and smell and developed a cough.
But afterward, Kevin and Lisa Christiansen said their son exhibited symptoms of “brain fog” — problems with memory, concentration and sleep, hallmarks of “long-haul” COVID. Beset by short-term memory issues, Riley quit his new job busing tables because he didn’t remember working the night before. In hindsight, his comments to friends and family in the weeks leading up to his death show his increasing distress over changes in his mood and personality.....
