what's it going to take?

[allergyphobia]

I went to see my consultant today about my respiratory problems. He tore up my test results that say I have an extremely mild nut allergy, the one I have blown out of all proportion - he was actually furious that the doctors tested me for this when I have had no reaction from nuts EVER as far as I know!

he said if i don't want to eat nuts individually fine, but i have NO REASON to freak out about food. eat what i want. it will not do me ANY HARM.

why isn't this enough to get into my head? WHY? what is it going to take?????? what is wrong with me????????? why when i eat food that haven't even got nuts in do i get so frightened????? ARGGGGGHHHHH

[randomworry]

try your best to let this go now since he tore up the results you can be really confident you have no allergy problem

[allergyphobia]

i know it sounds crazy but it is just never enough to convince me... when i read about the posts here with people with health anxiety i considered my problem to be in a seperate type of field... almost like i had justification for the way i acted, just like people who think they have MS get anxiety symptoms, it is my anxiety causing my throat to tighten, for me to cough... i am so angry at myself, i need to just accept myself and take it one step at a time, just feel like i need to vent!

[randomworry]

to be honest i think we all feel we have a justifiable reason to stress ourselves into oblivion although in reality worrying about things does not get you anywhere whether you have a health problem or not thats what we have to keep in mind.

[Vixxy]

Have you thought about hypnotherapy? Works well for specific phobias.

[allergyphobia]

yeah sorry i didn't mean i was undermining health anxiety - i mean before i didn't realise how much i have in common with everyone, we all feel justified and that is why we keep it going! i still want to be with you randomworry and try and beat this thing! i am very much considering hypnotherapy - have you had it yourself or just know it works well? i would be very interested in it i think. x

[daybyday]

Health anxiety is exhausting. We can't let things out of our mind. Maybe because a gp will say no worry, unless.... and of course we now can only think of the unless.
My son has a small cyst under his chin/neck area. 3 dr. appts. over a few years said no worry, common with teens, hormones, especially boys...just watch it. And now he needs a physical for soccer, along with a small skin tag he developed on his arm. And my mind is in a tailspin. Along with all the other family members health issues that are not serious....unless... I think drs. should stop saying unless. Our anxiety would go down and our body would naturally destroy anything abnormal like it is designed to do.
Sorry, I rambled on. Just been too alone all day today, my digestion is in knots, and I just want to cry.

[allergyphobia]

no this is VERY true, it is always the "what ifs" and "unless"... this is what feeds the thought. i live alone and this does not help my anxiety... are you going to be in company soon? i think we definitely need to forget the what ifs. what ifs can happen to anybody, so we should stop worrying about them.

[allergyphobia]

i have a few close friends but most of them do not live in the same city as me..i have a couple friends in my city but not good ones. i am very close with my sister but she lives in a different city too and my parents live abroad! so i am quite alone, which is definitely a bad thing, we need company and friendship to make us feel secure x

[anthrokid]

Hey sweets,

I understand EXACTLY how you feel because as you know very well we both have the exact same phobia going on! My psychiatrist is also very very angry at the results of my allergy test. The allergy lady who did it said that my allergy is so little that it's likely to not even affect me, but it may possibly happen if I start to eat them (because I've always avoided them). He said it's absolutely ridiculous to even report such a low allergy.

What we are doing to try and fix mine at the moment is this. My psychiatrist is calling the allergy clinic where I got tested to get the complete results. He is then going to take them to an allergist he knows and trusts and ask for their opinion on the allergy and if it's even possible to have an anaphylactic reaction with such a low allergy. And if his friend is certain it's not possible then we're going to start CBT where I actually have to eat peanuts to get past it. I'm terrified even thinking of it! But my psychiatrist is so confident that I'm not allergic to them at a level that he said he wouldn't worry at all if I were to eat them. He's a very well respected doctor in our city, he actually used to be a physician befor ehe became a psychiatrist which is handy for me because I'm such a health and allergy worrier!

I'm going to Bali later this week and I'm terrified of eating something with nuts in it (because Indonesian food often contains a lot of peanuts) and I'm so scared I'll die. My psychiatrist promises me 100% that there is no way I will be dangerously allergic to anything I eat. Of course, everytime I eat something I'm going to be on the lookout for funny feelings so I'll probably make myself panicky and misinterpret that as anaphylaxis (because that's just how we are, silly us). He said that no matter how I feel he garuntees that I'll be fine. He only ever gives me 100% garuntees on things he absolutely knows so I'm trying my best to trust him. It's just the 'what ifs' that get in the way!

Anyway my point is that he's told me the same thing that your doctor told you, that there's no reason for us to avoid it because we aren't even dangerously allergic to it. We aren't even moderately allergic to it. We are barely mildly allergic! You'll be okay :) So will I! And you can always email me when you need someone to talk to, remember that!