Allergic Reaction/Can't Eat!..

[toriamarie]

I'm soo overwhelmed with panic attacks I've been having since I had an Allergic Reaction to something & the ambulance had to come. My ten year old was home with me. The scariest feeling I've ever had in my life. My tongue swelled, they gave me Benadryl & steroids. Never could figure out what it was. It's been 2 weeks since this happen! I haven't had a meal in 6 days, my throat tightens up, my cheeks get stuff. Now I've been having panic attacks at least 3 times a day. I just want to be able to drink from a straw & eat a small meal without this happening!..I have had Anxiety for at 20 years, since a dr paralyze my right vocal cord during a thyroid surgery. Soo, I know very well what anxiety feels like, but I've never had panic attacks like this in my life!!!...does anyone know how long these panic attacks will stay with me? I really need to eat!!...:-(

[Althea]

toriamarie, I think you should give your primary care physician a call tomorrow and tell him/her you're facing this problem. It's not hugely uncommon for a health scare to kick anxiety into overdrive, but it can be harder to shake it if it goes on longer.

In the meantime, what about trying the CBT4panic online material? A lot of people have found that helpful, and that will give you something to work towards until you get info from your doctor. You can find info about it here: http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=91696

[anthrokid]

This is actually something I suffered with a LONG time, and still get anxious about to a degree today. I have a lot of allergies, some quite severe, and I went through a phase where I wasn't eating/drinking anything but protein shakes in fear of having an allergic reaction and dying. I had constant panic attacks and this was absolutely the centre of my anxiety. I actually posted a thread at the time that had a lot of traffic so perhaps you could have a look at that. You definitely are not alone though, this fear is more common than you would think.

http://nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=72538

The biggest problem in people with our fear is that anxiet and panic attacks cause a feeling of throat constriction, facial stiffness and troubled breathing, which we associate with allergic reactions. However, you need to remember that if it was a true allergic reaction you would KNOW. You wouldn't doubt it for a second. This is what helped me get through. Also, try eating a little bit of something, wait 20 minutes to see if anything awful happens, then tick if off as a safe food and eat it. It is really important to be proactive with this fear and to try and get back to eating as soon as possible. I got extremely sick and lost a very unhealthy amount of weight (I think I weighed less than 45kg at one point!) because I didn't eat properly for months.

Have a chat with your GP and let them know what is going on for you, including your experience, fears, panic attacks and difficulty eating. It is important to get some support for this before it becomes a bigger problem for you. You could also ask the doctor to refer you for an allergy test. I don't know if you've ever had one, but it involves an allergy specialist putting a bunch of different things on your skin to check for allergies. I've had them a couple of time and they are really helpful in identifying what you are allergic to :)