Asperger's: allergies, anxiety and hives.

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Hi everyone,

This may very well be an issue totally unrelated to ASD... But does anyone else have an unusual level of allergies, often made worse during times of stress?

I had an interview two weeks ago. For some reason in my mind I made it into this incredibly stressful event, for weeks!

I am still coming out in hives over my body, which are now getting better. I also developed an allergy to tree pollen (yes, some tree pollen releases in January. Who knew!). My eyes even became swollen, almost closed, one day when I went walking without taking allergy medication. These are now getting better as I'm not as stressed, and I have been able to stop taking tablets.

I have often seen my allergies increase during times of stress: before interviews, before unknown social events, before moving house or cities, before exams.

I wondered, because ASD is often associated with disproportionate stress reactions, if anyone else has similar experiences... Or whether this is just a 'me' thing!

Hives made my childhood a misery with big red welts, the extreme itching, and I was born with allergies that were not diagnosed until late in my life. In my 20s, the hives abated but under extreme stress, I would experience dermographia - which is histamine related. I have always had anxiety. The dermographia no longer happens...

I had the "allergic triangle" of excema, asthma/hayfever, food allergies - my children and grandchildren have inherited these to varying degrees. The asthma improved as I got older, the hayfever has just got worse and worse.

Antihistamines have been helpful, here is a link to a rather detailed article:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/5/1185.full

Last edited by B19 on 24 Jan 2015, 8:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks B19, I'll give that a read.

I had allergies problems throughout my life including a form of skin eczema & being stressed defiantly made my eczema worse. I kind of outgrew the eczema some & I take Buspar for my anxiety. What's nice about Buspar is that it's the only med specially for anxiety but it seems to be a hit & miss with people. I also take Singulair & Xyzal for my allergies. Xyzal is an antihistamine that's kind of like a more potent version of Zyrtec. Singulair's another kind of med that has to be taken regularly to have benefit. Zyrtec doesn't require a prescriptions but the other 3 do. I would highly recommend talking to a doc about trying Buspar if you haven't before for the anxiety aspect & getting on an antihistamine regularly might help too.

Thanks Nick,

I have been offered anti anxiety meds on one occasion. I hadn't asked for them and realised my life needed to change rather than start taking medication.

I suppose I just have a reluctance to take anything into my body that isn't natural in case I become reliant.

That said, the last few weeks haven't been easy. I've basically had to stay inside seeing nobody (wasn't so hard!) which isn't ideal and cannot be sustained once work is busier.

I'll keep in mind your meds if this flares up again. It may be a pill I have to swallow

I was about to make a post of all the allergens that can cause hives, and then I reminded myself that nobody is going to look at it anyway, because most people have the attention span of a gnat. And I'm just going to carry on my day, knowing full well that no matter what I say or do, wilfully ignorant people who proclaim themselves health experts, are going to give ME grief for my allergies and blame me for them, leaving me with the feeling of wanting to slap them all very hard, and multiple times.

Have a nice day.

I will look at it Smudge, and my attention span = more catlike than gnatlike...

Do you mean what allergens most commonly cause hives? Correct me if I'm wrong, but because different people have different responses, technically speaking, most allergens can cause hives (even if they generally don't).

@Assasta: I have allergies (to medications, nickel/gold, pet dander, pollen, and one confirmed food allergy, but I'd like to be retested), asthma, and was born with eczema. I've been on antihistamines since I was 2 years old, so I haven't had too many bad reactions. The worst I've had are one anaphylactic response to cephalosporins and I also had the worst hives at the same time as mono. Every single time that I ate anything, I broke out in full body hives.

But I highly doubt what you mentioned has anything to do with ASD. However, if you're stressed (and especially if you're stressed for quite some time), it's possible that your immune system is being lowered by this stress (or it just may be low by nature), and thus, the stress is making your allergies worse. (It's been hypothesized for a while that stress makes allergies worse, but research has also shown how stress weakens the immune system; here's one article about stress making allergies worse.)

@nick007: Interesting that you mentioned Xyzal. I tried that (and some other medication that turned out to be off the market - I don't know how my allergist didn't know that) a couple years ago after Zyrtec stopped working for me and had to stop taking it. I don't remember exactly what side effects I had, but it seemed more like an antidepressant than an antihistamine. It didn't even help my allergies either, and now I'm back on Zyrtec.