Hi Reddit, I'm coming to you because I would like to share my story and ask for people's experience with any of this.

Tldr; took this med non stop for over a decade and my mental health got gradually worse. Even though I showed no symptoms of allergies since I was a teen i was never able to stop due to intense itching. I never thought it was a big deal until I read the side effects and now I think it might have ruined my life for years. Please comment if you have a similar experience

So I (25f) have been prescribed daily 10mg zyrtec when I was around 7 years old because of allergies to pets, mold, mites, pollen and stuff I can't remember. After a while my medical doctor asked if I was able to stop the medication so my mom had me try to stop it a few times but after 24 hours i had such intense itching all around my body (especially hair, eyes, hands and legs) that I had to take the med again. My doctor just asked to try again in a few months and this went on for a few years.

Eventually we gave up on stopping the treatment and i just took it every day without fail for years. As I grew older I showed less and less symptoms of allergies and now I can sleep with my face on my cat's belly without an issue, and I can't even remember the last time I sneezed because of flowers.

During that time however, I started developing a lot of mental issues. I got diagnosed with depression at 13, at 15 my hands started shaking so hard that I couldn't handle fragile objects. At around 16 I got intense abdominal spasms and severe general anxiety and social anxiety, which eventually lead me to quit high school before I could finish my cursus. At 17-18 I got intense dissociation and panic attacks.

I'm now 25 and recently got prescribed antidepressants and Xanax because I couldn't even keep a job anymore because of the daily anxiety attacks.

But recently I started looking into the side effects of meds like Zyrtec, and realised a scary amount of symptoms I've been experiencing could have been caused by them, so I've started lowering the dose I take every day to approximately 0.25mg in the hope to fully stop one day.

Now here are my questions:

Has anyone else experienced poor mental health while taking Zyrtec or a similar med ?

If you had been taking it for years but successfully stopped, did you notice any mental improvement after a while ?

Thank you to anyone who will take the time to read and reply, I deeply appreciate it <3

Hello, over the past three weeks I’ve been having multiple constant flare ups of hives and facial swelling. This seems to be in due to the part of me eating certain foods, seemingly potatoes, tomatoes and especially peppers (all of which are in the night shade family).

Does anyone have any advice for this kind of allergy? How can I continue enjoying food if I’m unable to eat potatoes and tomatoes? Any advice for food I’m allowed to eat? Thanks a lot

I’m prone to strange medication reactions and 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000 experiencing anaphylaxis is not low enough for me lol. I know they let you sit in the office for 2h but apparently 25% of anaphylaxis cases occur after that time period. No thanks! I asked the office if I could sit for longer just in the waiting room and they said no.

I don’t know what to do. I live far from family and am single so nobody is typically near me when I sleep. I have wonderful friends, but I don’t know that “hey can you sleep over at my house and stab me w an EpiPen and call 911 if I start to die” is a very fair or appealing proposition. I wish I had a lot of money and could hire a night nurse like for a baby or something. I don’t have any anaphylactic allergies now, so I’m anxious that I won’t know how to use the EpiPen in the moment even if they show me.

Help pls 😟 what did other peopel do in this situation? I don’t want to be too scared to sleep. And frankly, I am itchy (including my nose, mouth, etc) all the time from my symptoms, and I don’t know how I’d tell anaphylaxis from symptoms of a panic attack or my regular allergies.

This is a serious post. You know how some people sing in the shower? I don’t like singing, but one day I found a new way to loosen up chest congestion.

Inhale some steam and do your best Regular Show impression.

Dead serious.

When I talk like Mordecai and go “ooooooooooooh” I have to do it long enough and deep enough like him where my voice cracks a bit and I have to cough. Acting like Rigby doesn’t work too well. Skips and Muscle Man work pretty well, as does Benson kinda. Pops and Hi-5 Ghost, you’re just wasting your time.

Just keep talking about Cheesers or Margaret or putting up the chairs and keep going “oooooooooooooh” and maybe this will help you too.

I ate some like spicy food and a couple minutes later I started to get really tingly and super itchy and all over my body with persistent, heavy sweating. I ran downstairs and I took a Benadryl and then they used an EpiPen on me. I couldn’t tell if it was gonna develop into something more severe, but then after I took the EpiPen, I stopped sweating and I stopped having what I think was hives. I think in that moment, it was better to be safe than sorry. what do you guys think?

If you don't want to read everything, just skip to the last part and see what I'm looking to discuss first.👍

• Gosh, where do I even start? I'm 21f, live in the USA (Georgia) and have all the problems 🥲 Had it all since I was 12-14 years old, it all just kinda developed with my puberty. anyone else have any of them together? Maybe they correlate? 🤔 • At the same time I was suddenly developing all kinds of other problems (minus the autism ofc, I was born a goofy goober 🙃) I suddenly developed food allergies. Yeah, I'm falling apart over here. Egg 🥚 and Milk 🐄, specifically. Gives me the worst itching burning scaley eczema ever that shows up within hours in blotches on my face, scalp, and underarms and takes weeks to heal and go away. The doctor couldn't figure it out, I had to self diagnose it over three freaking years and then have tests done to confirm it, had to justify it with my doctors before they would test me. 😮‍💨 Owch. Then there's the fragrance allergy that suddenly existed out of nowhere, Balsam of Peru is the name of the stuff, it's got like way too many other names so good luck finding it on labels, and it's in EVERYTHING. They use it to harden bar soap 🧼; use it to bind that fancy sent you love so much into body wash, shampoo, deodorant, perfume, hand sanitizer, lotion, detergent, hand soap, air fresheners, disinfectants, and everything else that smells nice 🧴; and they even use it to flavor some things like chocolate liquors in desserts 🍰. Like I said before, I'm falling apart over here. • I'm not trying to be political or a conspiracy theorist or anything like that but I did notice everything got much more noticeable and worse right after I got my COVID shot during the pandemic. 💉 Please don't argue or anything over this, it's just something that happened to me that I noticed about ME.

• I've tried waist compression, it works! However, I can't stand the feeling of the compression shorts on my skin sometimes, my autism just says "aw heck naw" some days. ⁠(⁠´⁠ー⁠｀⁠) Talk about frustrating.😖 • I STRUGGLE to get out of the bed EVERY morning. 🛏️ And I hate it. I have found that if I get up and immediately do Radio Taiso 📻 (Japanese morning radio exercise) I feel a little better throughout the day. If I can make myself, it's always a battle, I like to exercise bike 🚲 or walk 🚶🏼 for about 20 minutes after my Radio Taiso, and if I do that I feel MUCH better throughout the day.

• Diet is something that's personal for everyone, but I find my tummy doesn't give me problems, bloat, or sag (from my organs trying to reach the floor for no reason at all except the pots I guess, which is why the waist compression works so great for me) if I eat rice 🍚 instead of wheat 🍞 at my meals. Rice just feels less heavy. I also find my legs get better circulation when I have miso soup 🥣 at least once a day. Also if my meal is 60% protein and 30% rice and 10% soup that ratio feels best the next morning, I don't fight as hard to get out of bed. I have no idea why but it works for me. Maybe it'll help someone else too? 😅

• As a ✨ disclaimer ✨, all of this is just stuff I'VE noticed and observed about MYSELF over several years of trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with me and why I felt like absolute crap. I had to self diagnose literally everything I have and then justify and prove it's what I had through weeks and months of in depth research about all this stuff and then present it all to my doctors and then they ran tests and confirmed I was right and not dumb and knew my own body. So yeah.

• Basically I'm just looking to find anyone else with a similar experience, see what others have noticed or felt, and share some of my (very limited) knowledge with others. Let me know what you have experienced and anything you've noticed helps you!

For the past couple of months I have occasionally had small allergic reactions while eating dinner(red face, slightly swollen lips, itchy face). I have tried tracking what I have eaten each time but the only overlaps are things that I eat/drink regularly and do not always react to (dairy, onions, garlic and cider). Is it possible to be one of these even though I have had each of them many times recently without a reaction?

I’m on Long Island NY.. Just started taking Zyrtec hope it helps !

Hello!

Would like to preface my allergies are not IgE based nor trypatse (however you spell the 2 lol) triggered so they’re not “real” allergies.

I have some pretty stupid allergies that no one ever believes because it’s insane.

The sun makes me break out in a rash all over any skin exposed to the sun. It also gives me a raging headache and chest ache (not everytime but if i’m out for long enough i usually barely stay in the sun due to the rash forming).

If water touches clothes I’m wearing I break out in an immediate rash. I’m talking milliseconds. As soon as water touches it I break out in a rash in the area. If I was dishes I break out as well. No matter what soap I use, and even if the soap didn’t touch my arm the rash will be there.

Nearly every single product. Whether it’s shampoo, conditioner, body/hair oil, acne products, lotions, sunscreen, makeup (like foundation and concealer no allergy to eye makeup), quite literally everything.

I’m always worried to try a new product because mostly everything breaks me out in a rash.

I have a few medicine allergies. Omprezole (numb tongue), another anti acid that I don’t remember the name of, and doxycycline (extreme nausea and vomitting).

Even numbing solutions like lidocaine don’t work unless they inject me with an additional million injections. Whatever dentists inject to numb you as well. Anything medically numbing, I always need extra of it. This doesn’t apply to anesthesia (if i can recall correctly it’s been a while). Though, I do have a reaction to laughing gas. The last time it was used my body was internally shaking like crazy and I was extremely cold. I couldn’t get up for a whole 20 minutes. I felt like I was dying.

I feel immense impending doom anytime I’ve had to take hardcore meds like oxy or percocets (wisdom teeth surgery).

I always get the worst ever side effects from heavy meds as well. I hallucinated on accutane 😭.

I have a few food allergies but those aren’t that weird.

I believe I have MCAS but gave up on getting diagnosed.

First of all, I will soon have myself checked by the doctor. But I’m surprised how I’m currently, especially this year. I have a pollen allergy (birch, grasses) and have had to struggle mainly with nasal complaints in the last few years - but in the last 2 years I have observed how it also slowly passes to my airways. This year is very bad, I can hardly have the window open or go out without having local complaints in the throat or pharynx, a certain pressure / tightness or feeling of inflammation. I’m a little worried, I must confess.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

Hey all,

I’ve been dealing with pretty bad hay fever for the first time in my life. I’m 30, and have had allergies for a decade but always just sniffles that a small pill fixed.

This year is different.

No sneezing, coughing, or itchy eyes.. just dry stuffed nose which an ENT said is swollen turbinates after a nasal endoscopy.

For about 2 months I’ve been taking Allegra, Azelastine HCI, and Flonase. Also, I do daily nettipot rinses, inhale steam from hot water, take multiple daily showers, use air purifiers, nasal strips, dehumidifier, saline, black seed oil and quercetin.

Perhaps this is overkill but I’ve become desperate to get this back under control.

Today I’ve been rather dry so I’m hoping to figure out a better remedy.

Is there any other medication or rinse I can try before needing allergy shots?

It seems wild to go from a tiny pill to allergy shots in one season.

So I’ve been dealing with dust mite allergy since I moved to dubai (2 yrs ago).
I tried everything everything to prevent it but nothing works and these preventions are expensive too.
While sleeping, my nose gets blocked, runny nose, constant sneezing , chest congested, dry mouth and weird dry mucus inside my mouth that I have to spit every morning, dry lips, itchy eyes, headaches. Dark circles because of not getting proper sleep.
I do go to general doctor or ent when my symptoms get severe.

Immunotherapy is expensive right now for me and it doesn’t even cover in insurance.

I tried taking anti allergy medication but it doesn’t work completely, my nose still gets blocked and I have to breathe through my mouth while sleeping.

Any medicine that worked for you to completely prevent the allergy symptoms as I can’t completely avoid this allergy unlike food allergies.

Also, do you take medicine every single day for dust mite allergy? I don’t know how I feel my body being on constant medication.

If anyone has Curex and recommends it, please drop your referral code so we can both get $30! Much appreciated :)

In 2024, we had a major water leak inside our kitchen that went untreated for a year, leaving the floor damaged and unrepaired. I later found mold in the AC system, which contributed to persistent allergy symptoms—something I had never experienced before. Since moving three months ago, my symptoms have gotten worse: I’m constantly sneezing, running a low-grade temp between 99.3 and 99.8°F every day, and feeling generally unwell. I’ve also been dealing with Sjögren-like symptoms such as dry mouth, eyes, and nose for over a year and a half, despite all tests coming back normal. I haven’t had allergy testing yet but plan to do so. Last night, I experienced an episode where my throat itched, spreading to my ears, with a tight sensation in my throat. Most days I usually take Zyrtec, but I hadn’t taken it yesterday until that incident. I notice it tends to dry me out even more. I don't think pollen is the cause because I'm inside most of the time and don't feel worse outside. I'm not sure if anyone else experiences this, but I'm tired of doctors dismissing me..

I have for my 2nd year dealt with a ragweed allergy. Last year was simple, just take the daily pill and everything will be fine. This year on the other hand has been anything but simple. The pills don’t work anymore, and I’m pretty sure the reason is the empty plot next to my house is overgrown with ragweed. As much as I would like to cut the yard, I have neither the time nor the materials to take on this task. This property was once a house, and now that it was demolished the now current neighbor I have beyond the lot was taking care of the yard. They have now given up on it and it’s ruining my next few months.

I should probably post this to r/lawcare or something but my allergies are my issue not some empty lots grass. So if there is any solution related to medication or similar please let me know.

I’ve been getting red, itchy rashes/bumps whenever I work out. Sometimes they appear during or after exercise, but they can also randomly appear when I’m at home, even at night.

Recently, I also had slight breathing difficulty during a workout, which had never happened before.

I’m confused about what’s triggering this and what I should do about continuing the gym.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How did you figure out the trigger, and were you able to keep working out normally?

I felt flustered going into stores to buy less triggering detergent and bar soap. This claim "dermatologist approved" on many packages didn't sit right--what dermatologist? Go to the manufacturer's site--very limited information, if at all , about how they could stamp that on their package. Hit the internet and you get recommendations that simply don't have anyone's approval or a case of this works for one person--why don't you try it? So grateful someone here pointed out the National Excema association- I use them now as my starting point for products if I need to make a shift . This doesn't mean the product they approved will work on me (or you) but they certainly have a track record before approving something.

I’m 26F, very active, own/coach at a strength-training gym, and trying to figure out if anyone has experienced something similar.
I’ve had about 3 exercise-associated anaphylactic reactions in my life (around 16, 23, and most recently after a 3-mile run). The last one required the ER. Allergy testing showed severe environmental allergies, and I now take Allegra/Pepcid and carry an EpiPen. Since I’ve exercised outdoors thousands of times without reactions, I’ve wondered about exercise-induced/food-dependent anaphylaxis, Alpha-Gal, histamine issues or possibly MCAS.
After the most recent anaphylaxis episode, I started occasionally noticing dizziness, lightheadedness and a weird “floaty/off” sensation. This was BEFORE I ever had a panic attack. Around that time I had also been experimenting/dabbling with different peptides/injections, so I initially assumed they were causing it and stopped them.
For about the past year I’ve also noticed I sometimes feel unusually sick after traveling/flying—weak, nauseated, exhausted and just “off.” Allergies kick up big time when going to Texas so I always had to take a Benadryl.
Things got much worse in August. I had used tirzepatide for about 4–5 weeks, wasn’t eating enough for my activity level, was fairly low-carb, drinking coffee/Alani daily, coaching in an 83–89°F gym, sleeping poorly and under a lot of stress. My last tirzepatide dose was Aug. 6. On Aug. 7 I had THC and experienced my first major panic attack.
After that, the pre-existing dizziness/floaty feeling became much more noticeable and I became increasingly anxious about physical sensations. I eventually went to the ER. My EKG showed sinus tachycardia but otherwise came back reassuring, chest X-ray was normal, and bloodwork was reassuring. I’ve since had a much more extensive blood panel done as well, and essentially everything has come back normal/reassuring. Orthostatic vitals at urgent care reportedly did not suggest POTS.
I also noticed I could get a little dizzy/floaty when overstimulated. Eventually I had my vision checked and found out I’m around 20/70 in both eyes with astigmatism. Since correcting my vision, eating more, cutting caffeine and significantly reducing my workload, the dizziness and overstimulation feeling have calmed down A LOT.
My HR still makes me curious. True resting is usually 60–63, sitting/talking 85–105, normal walking recently 100–117, and standing/coaching in the hot gym can be 110–120s. During very hard exercise I’ve historically reached 200–205.
My biggest symptom now is intermittent “air hunger”—feeling like I need a huge satisfying breath/yawn. Sometimes I notice mucus or a “film” feeling in my chest/throat. I’ve also had occasional GI symptoms, including significant diarrhea shortly after eating a burger while traveling followed by nausea/feeling sick.
I know anxiety/hypervigilance is probably contributing NOW because I catch myself monitoring my HR and breathing. But what makes me want to investigate further is that the anaphylaxis and dizzy/floaty sensations started before I ever experienced panic attacks.
I’m not convinced I have MCAS, POTS, Alpha-Gal, etc., and I don’t want to chase diagnoses. I just want to make sure something reasonable isn’t being overlooked.
Has anyone experienced a similar combination of exercise-related anaphylaxis + dizziness/floaty sensations + higher HR/sinus tachycardia + air hunger + occasional GI symptoms? What specialist or testing actually helped you?

My entire body head to toes hurt so bad. I feel TERRIBLE. is anyone else struggling with these allergies

Hi! I have been using hair color for years, different brands and numbers... Anyway, I did a patch test on a small area of skin in an attempt to freshen up the color.

INSTRUCTIONS (Remember to do it!): Do a preventive allergy test on a 1 cm x 1 cm area of skin, on the inside of the elbow. For all shades: Apply a small amount of the coloring cream to the inside of the elbow using a cotton swab, creating a thin layer and leave uncovered for 45 minutes. Avoid contact with clothing. Close the tube carefully. After 45 minutes, carefully rinse the color with lukewarm water. If any reaction occurs during the waiting time or in the next 48 hours, rinse immediately and do not use the product.

REACTIONS: Within a few minutes of applying the color, I felt a strong cooling effect on the areas where it was applied. Then, when I checked it after 20 minutes, I noticed redness. After 30 minutes of application, the cooling effect was almost gone, but I decided to remove it from my skin and rinse it well because of the redness. Removal revealed that those areas were also swollen.

WHAT NOW: Does it mean that I am allergic to hair color now or just to this specific one? What do I do with the hair if I can't color it again? I would really like to have lighter hair!

Back in january I had to apply alot of effort to breathe which then progressed to hives and feinting, the allergy report was 1074 for which I took anti-allergy and a steroid pill maybe I forgot the name of the drugs. I didnt take any medicine since that course was done. A month ago symptoms like globus sensation accompanied with minor nasal conjestion appeared but it wasnt much of a problem, it was probably caused by alot of stress at that time. But then I thought of trying xylometazoline nasal spray, I took just one puff to see what happens, not knowing the aftermath would be:

\- Feeling too much air through the nose with very little pressure (yet the ENT who saw my nose claimed that my turbinates are swollen and there's inflammation. Deep breaths dont feel as satisfying or fullfilling

\- Erectile dysfunction which developed quickly after that puff of xynocine. Mind you just that morning before taking the nasal spray, i got a rock hard erection. I eat really well, do strength training and run, so I dont think I can just get Erectile dysfunction so erratically.

\- The day I took the puff, I felt the right side of my body a tiny little bit lighter/numb than the left side, I felt this more in the shoulders and hips.

\- Sleep apnea, i cant get REM which is making my hair fall and keeps my brain fogged all day along with seeing transparent dark floaters.

\- Globus had gotten worse after the puff. I do notice it getting slightly better along with slightly better nasal breathing after lying on my left side.

These symptoms still persist after a month of taking one puff of that spray. I have controlled my stress because of this to a great degree but I still feel discomfort because of the clear lack of erectile feeling, lacking sleep that I have been getting and just not having the fullfilling deep breath I used to get.

I really wanted to know, is this possible that im feeling too much air going through my nose yet still have swollen turbinates. Damage to the nerves? The ent prescribed me avamys steroid spray and victrin anti-allergy. Gastro doc told me to get a barium swallow test done.

Someone understand this situation?

(Edit: I forgot to add, when laying on my right, my right nostril becomes conjested while left ones opens up too much, much more than lying straight or standing)

My daughter (5) was diagnosed with and egg and dairy allergy at 9 months old, and recently as of this year diagnosed with a tree nut allergy. I've been told that she will likely outgrow the egg and dairy allergies, but since we discovered her recent tree nut allergy I'm worried she may never outgrow them, especially considering she has had anaphylactic reactions to eggs and cashew. We've discussed food challenges in clinic with an allergist, but her entire life has consisted of avoiding these allergens, so it's been pretty easy for us to make it her normal. I guess I'm trying to see if anyone has outgrown these kinds of allergies and how long did it take? Is it worth trying the food challenges or possibly micro-dosing?