WHY do i do it to myself???

[allergyphobia]

I'm at work today and have pretty much spent the whole morning googling about a latex allergy. I get really bad excema and before when i have put on a latex glove it has irritated my skin slightly. However, i have been to the dentist many a time and I believe they use latex gloves but have never had a reaction to anything there, nor had a reaction to anything else.

But now, through googling and my crazed mind I have blown up my reaction to an unmeasurable size. I can't even remember the last time I came into contact with latex and at the time of getting a rash it didn't even bother me. Now i have googled and latex is in everything. People use latex gloves to handle food. the dentist, the doctors, the hairdressers, latex in your shoes, in your mousemat, EVERYWHERE. i have wound myself up so badly, i just wish i could stop this googling it is almost like an obsession, and then all i want to do is get the information out of my head. :scared15:

what is this fixation i have to fixate on something and then get so much negative information about it i wind myself up so much. i feel so low and anxious now and i am scared to eat lunch and i just feel so pathetic, i am so terrified yet full of such self-loathing.:nonono:

i am 23 and i am wasting my time and my life, i am considering hypnotherapy to break the cycle of these phobias but because of my oral allergy syndrome i am getting referred to an allergist anyway and i am hoping this will turn the thoughts into facts and i can get definite answers which will stop me doing my own "research". :doh:

sorry for the moan i just feel really upset today, and really scared.
:wacko:

[Nigel]

Hi allergyphobia,

Indeed, why do we do it to ourselves... :shrug:

I guess it’s for reassurance, but then we always seem to use that reassurance for exactly the opposite use it was intended for – to scare ourselves even more :doh:

So how about putting all this Googling to good use for a change? Now that you’ve discovered that latex is ‘everywhere’, don’t you think that after 23 years something would’ve happened by now if it was going to :winks:

Take care,
Nigel

[allergyphobia]

thanks for your reply nigel....

its very true, it starts out for reassurance and then ends up working against us... i always just wanna take my brain out and pour everything i just learnt away. i wish i could be a care-free kid again.

you are right, something may well have happened already if it was going to. what now i worry about, is when i go to the doctors/dentist etc i will go into panic, and i will confuse the breathless, dizzy feeling with me going into shock...

i am supposed to be getting my hair done on saturday, but i think i'm now going to cancel incase they use latex gloves....even though i have been plenty of times before :mad:

[Nigel]

“i always just wanna take my brain out and pour everything i just learnt away. i wish i could be a care-free kid again.”

I often think that would be great too. But would it actually work, I wonder... I mean, without hindsight, would we just go and make those same mistakes all over again :doh:

Do your best to keep that appointment on Saturday. All these fears and phobias start to take hold because the person repeatedly acts in certain ways in certain situations, and over time their subconscious learns it and starts to automatically respond in those ways without us thinking about it.

So not going to the hairdressers is reaffirming in your mind that it’s a bad place to be, and not going and surviving just confirms the fact still further. So the best thing to do would be to go, but to go armed with plenty of coping strategies to make it a success :)

Take care,
Nigel

[Dahlia]

"i am supposed to be getting my hair done on saturday, but i think i'm now going to cancel incase they use latex gloves....even though i have been plenty of times before"

Read that back to yourself, Allergy Phobia. And repeat after me - I have been plenty of times before, I have been plenty of times before....

If you had a latex allergy, you would know it by now. The stuff's everywhere. You will have come into contact with it at some point today - are you still here? Any anaphylactic shock? :)

Step away from the computer and go get your hair done. After all, you've done it plenty of times before :)

Dahlia x

[allergyphobia]

thanks guys. i just seem to be having a really rough couple of days, and there doesn't seem to be any reason why?? i'm struggling with food, even my safe foods, and i am questioning everything in my environment.

guess it's just one of those blips.

thanks for your support
x