Fears and Anxieties

[spacecanada]

A post by Anaphylaxis Canada this hit really, REALLY close to home:
http://www.livingwithallergies.ca/2015/03/10/a-roller-coaster-of-emotions-for-those-of-us-with-food-allergies/
(Although reading it makes it seem far easier than it is... No mention of negativity, challenges, or seeking psychologists when needed.)

[CMdeux]

 

We are riding this roller coaster ourselves these days.


One problem that we are already running into is that many therapists THINK that they know what food allergies are, and some of them are flatly wrong, and even if they aren't, they tend to not understand that there are individuals that really do live on the tails of the distribution-- that is, for people who have that extreme kind of sensitivity, what appears to be social anxiety, or even agoraphobia-- isn't irrational.

[Macabre]

I think there is a real and growing need for specialists in this area.

[spacecanada]

  CM!

I was really lucky to find a psychologist who did his own (accurate) research into the severity of anaphylaxis (upon taking me on as a client) and truly understood and respected the challenges of living with such a medical condition.  My psychologist told me that my world needs to stay small to keep me safe - and that social anxiety was completely reasonable given my circumstances.  He was very much about defining what was safe and reasonable vs. what wasn't and how those affect life as a whole - and dealing with them.  If anyone lives near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada I can PM you his name and contact details.

I wonder if other PTSD specialists (particularly military or first responder-type) would be more in tune to anaphylaxis from a psychology standpoint, since it's facing a potential life-threatening situation on a daily basis and navigating the real risks.  (Like military in a war zone - I heard many military references throughout my treatment, which made sense.)  I don't think the psychology of anaphylaxis is anything like what most psychologists deal with.  Many psychologists deal with risks that aren't real, ones that are over-exaggerated, or irrational.  I doubt many of them see or have experience dealing with the level of real threat to life we live with each day.