Do allergic responses DIRECTLY trigger dysphoria/anxiety?
October 20, 2018 6:46 PM Subscribe
I've dealt with allergies/asthma for most of my life as well as mental illness. So basically I'm overly sensitive to everything. But this past year I've begun to suspect that allergens may directly modulate neurotransmitter regulation associated with mood rather than simply predisposing one to a negative psychological reaction. How strong is the evidence for this?
During the past year I've had to move in with my parents while changing jobs. I have seasonal allergies and especially bad dog allergies. Allergies are a fact of life to me and I have many ways to cope with them, so I don't consider them particularly distressing I guess.
However, the new dog my parents have is something else. There are some dogs that basically don't bother me at all, and most others will only bother me after prolonged or close exposure. This Golden Doodle is a sweet animal but apparently also bred in some kind of bioweapon program. No exaggeration: I am at least 3x as allergic to her as any other animal or substance on Earth, even after a year of cohabitation. She doesn't even need to be in the same room. If I even briefly touch any object that's ever touched her, my face begins to swell up, I begin having a asthma attack, my skin breaks out in hives, and my throat/sinuses become so irritated that they hurt more than itch.
Anyway, I'll immediately remove myself from the environment, change my clothes, take a cocktail of antihistamines and recover in a quiet place. It's not new or unexpected. But I've noticed that no matter how good my mood is that day or how relaxed I was, a very distinct wave of dysphoria, mental fatigue, and physical restlessness washes over me at the same time my symptoms are triggered. Long before the antihistamines kick in or I even take them. And also before I start consciously kicking any negative thoughts around my head, change my routine, or feel any social frustration.
Obviously I know that physical reactions can be triggered by psychological ones as I'm intimately familiar with that feedback loop. But this seems different than those situations. It exactly like I'm injected with a dysphoriant drug or something. The response of malaise, mild confusion and slight akathesia is uniformly predictable in terms of the scope, onset, and nature of symptoms and directly proportional to the allergic response. It doesn't seem to correspond with any conscious mental state or my physical anxiety and depression in the hours before exposure.
We all know people get miserable when allergies bother them but, well allergies are miserable and distracting. The only study I can find of the immune system directly mediating mood is here [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12140359] but it's from 2002 and I don't have access anyway. Everything else I find is pop-health clickbait that briefly raises the question without a supporting paragraph before concluding with a vague anecdotal observation and shrug. I guess I'm writing another one but maybe you can help me flesh it out? Is there any published evidence or any proposed pathways? Do you also experience this separate from neuroticism, and how can one even try to mitigate these neurological changes if not caused by thought or behavior?
During the past year I've had to move in with my parents while changing jobs. I have seasonal allergies and especially bad dog allergies. Allergies are a fact of life to me and I have many ways to cope with them, so I don't consider them particularly distressing I guess.
However, the new dog my parents have is something else. There are some dogs that basically don't bother me at all, and most others will only bother me after prolonged or close exposure. This Golden Doodle is a sweet animal but apparently also bred in some kind of bioweapon program. No exaggeration: I am at least 3x as allergic to her as any other animal or substance on Earth, even after a year of cohabitation. She doesn't even need to be in the same room. If I even briefly touch any object that's ever touched her, my face begins to swell up, I begin having a asthma attack, my skin breaks out in hives, and my throat/sinuses become so irritated that they hurt more than itch.
Anyway, I'll immediately remove myself from the environment, change my clothes, take a cocktail of antihistamines and recover in a quiet place. It's not new or unexpected. But I've noticed that no matter how good my mood is that day or how relaxed I was, a very distinct wave of dysphoria, mental fatigue, and physical restlessness washes over me at the same time my symptoms are triggered. Long before the antihistamines kick in or I even take them. And also before I start consciously kicking any negative thoughts around my head, change my routine, or feel any social frustration.
Obviously I know that physical reactions can be triggered by psychological ones as I'm intimately familiar with that feedback loop. But this seems different than those situations. It exactly like I'm injected with a dysphoriant drug or something. The response of malaise, mild confusion and slight akathesia is uniformly predictable in terms of the scope, onset, and nature of symptoms and directly proportional to the allergic response. It doesn't seem to correspond with any conscious mental state or my physical anxiety and depression in the hours before exposure.
We all know people get miserable when allergies bother them but, well allergies are miserable and distracting. The only study I can find of the immune system directly mediating mood is here [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12140359] but it's from 2002 and I don't have access anyway. Everything else I find is pop-health clickbait that briefly raises the question without a supporting paragraph before concluding with a vague anecdotal observation and shrug. I guess I'm writing another one but maybe you can help me flesh it out? Is there any published evidence or any proposed pathways? Do you also experience this separate from neuroticism, and how can one even try to mitigate these neurological changes if not caused by thought or behavior?
Best answer: This doesn't directly answer your question, but I highly, highly recommend reading the book, How Emotions Are Made.
It's a really incredible deconstruction - from a neurological, biological perspective - of what an emotion is, exactly.
One of the key insights of the book is how our brain essentially constructs emotions in response to physical stimuli. The author recounts a story of how she went on a date with a guy she wasn't particularly interested in. During the date, she found herself feeling a little nervous, a little giddy, she was blushing. "Woah," she thought, "I really do like this guy!". When she got home, her fever spiked and she was in bed for a week. Her body was in the early stages of flu, but her brain interpreted it as attraction.
The way she talks about how this happens in the book, seems very aligned to what you're describing.
Speaking personally as someone on the anxious side of things who has a chronic illness. I can totally track changes in my mood and thought patterns to my physical wellbeing. Indeed, sometimes I can surmise that something is up with my stomach before symptoms appear, based on a sudden, "unexplainable" dip in my mood and attitude.
More broadly, as you say, the mind-body connection (how stress/emotional state affects us physically, and vice versa) is a well established and researched phenomenon.
posted by smoke at 7:10 PM on October 20, 2018 [10 favorites]
It's a really incredible deconstruction - from a neurological, biological perspective - of what an emotion is, exactly.
One of the key insights of the book is how our brain essentially constructs emotions in response to physical stimuli. The author recounts a story of how she went on a date with a guy she wasn't particularly interested in. During the date, she found herself feeling a little nervous, a little giddy, she was blushing. "Woah," she thought, "I really do like this guy!". When she got home, her fever spiked and she was in bed for a week. Her body was in the early stages of flu, but her brain interpreted it as attraction.
The way she talks about how this happens in the book, seems very aligned to what you're describing.
Speaking personally as someone on the anxious side of things who has a chronic illness. I can totally track changes in my mood and thought patterns to my physical wellbeing. Indeed, sometimes I can surmise that something is up with my stomach before symptoms appear, based on a sudden, "unexplainable" dip in my mood and attitude.
More broadly, as you say, the mind-body connection (how stress/emotional state affects us physically, and vice versa) is a well established and researched phenomenon.
posted by smoke at 7:10 PM on October 20, 2018 [10 favorites]
Best answer: Sickness behavior is linked to immune system activity, so it stands to reason that allergies would also trigger these sorts of things in similar ways, I think? But I don't know of specific studies, etc, that'd just be a starting point to look for information.
posted by Sequence at 7:22 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Sequence at 7:22 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
You may be interested in this: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201203/sniffles-and-suicide and this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21143241
posted by tllaya at 7:35 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by tllaya at 7:35 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The role of cytokines in allergic response, and cytokines' link to changes in mood.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:52 PM on October 20, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:52 PM on October 20, 2018 [7 favorites]
Yeah I think if you google cytokines and inflammation and mood you can hound a lot on/adjacent to this topic.
posted by hungrytiger at 7:59 PM on October 20, 2018
posted by hungrytiger at 7:59 PM on October 20, 2018
I don’t have any scientific evidence, but when my allergies act up, I know my anxiety and IBS symptoms are going to flare up a day or so after my allergic reactions start. Keeping up with my daily allergy meds has done more for my anxiety and IBS symptoms than anything else I’ve tried so far.
posted by ilovewinter at 9:46 PM on October 20, 2018
posted by ilovewinter at 9:46 PM on October 20, 2018
just for the allergy situation itself, do you take zyrtec (or your favorite daytimer)? It sounds like you're being completely reactive, where I've had good luck with standard OTC Claritin-alikes taken either daily or as needed (I go through phases). This handles my animal sensitivities as well, though everybody's different.
You might also benefit from h2 antihistamines, which curiously are most easily found in the form of Zantac-type tummy pills.
posted by rhizome at 11:08 PM on October 20, 2018
You might also benefit from h2 antihistamines, which curiously are most easily found in the form of Zantac-type tummy pills.
posted by rhizome at 11:08 PM on October 20, 2018
A treatment for opioid addiction, Naltrexone, has been found to modulate the immune system, particularly reducing inflammation, when given at very low doses. At 1 to 5 mg, compared to a 50 mg dose for opioid addiction, the opioid receptor antagonist produces a rebound effect as it wears off this increasing endorphins and opioid receptors for several hours. In this case a rebound effect is a good thing. At higher doses this rebound effect doesn't happen because the drug is constantly occupying the receptors and basically tuning them off, hence no high can be produced when opiates are consumed. There's quite a bit of science literature about L D N (low dose Naltrexone. Here are some reviews. While this doesn't answer your question directly it's a model for brain chemistry and immune connection.
posted by waving at 11:24 PM on October 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by waving at 11:24 PM on October 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'd also argue that if your having breathing problems that's a surefire way for your body to panic and rightfully so. Oxygen is super important (obviously), and your body will immediately begin to compensate for any difficulties in breathing. Part of what it does is increase your heart rate to get more blood through your lungs per breath. It feels like panic and in a way it is, because your body recognizes you need air.
posted by AlexiaSky at 3:57 AM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by AlexiaSky at 3:57 AM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
... simply predisposing one to a negative psychological reaction ... I have seasonal allergies and especially bad dog allergies. ... the new dog my parents have ... I am at least 3x as allergic to her as any other animal or substance ....
Just a thought ... I certainly would have a "negative psychological reaction" if forced by circumstances to live with a dog I was allergic to. I'd be furious every day. And moving out of there ASAP. If my parents acquired the dog while I was living with them, then my fury would be tripled.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:41 AM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Just a thought ... I certainly would have a "negative psychological reaction" if forced by circumstances to live with a dog I was allergic to. I'd be furious every day. And moving out of there ASAP. If my parents acquired the dog while I was living with them, then my fury would be tripled.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:41 AM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Histamines seem like a likely link - I know when people have to take epinephrine for allergic reactions there is a well-known difficult spell afterwards as the body readjusts. Ah! A quick google led me to this, which seems similar to your reaction.
posted by ldthomps at 12:03 PM on October 22, 2018
posted by ldthomps at 12:03 PM on October 22, 2018
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much worse when I was school age, to the point that my family would promptly tell me to get an antihistamine when they got the fallout. My allergies and the behaviour were distinctly seasonal. Based on a sample of one, allergies can certainly affect temperament.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 7:07 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]