Depression, Anxiety, and Allergies: What’s the Connection?

In the grand scheme of things, not much is more important than your mental health. When your mental health is lacking, it can impact so many physical ailments as well – and vice versa.

Some find that their allergies negatively impact their anxiety and depression, and by taking care of their allergies, a bit of their mental load is reduced, too. What’s the link between the two, and what can you do to help both conditions? Read on.

Possible Links

While we often think of conditions like asthma and eczema and how they relate to allergy – mental health can also be connected. An article from Wexner Medical Center gives three reasons why anxiety and depression may be linked to allergy:

• The inflammation from allergies may influence the brain
• Medications used to treat allergies may cause tiredness and lead to increased depression
• All the symptoms from allergies may lead to irritation, lack of sleep, and lowered quality of life—just not feeling good for days, weeks, months or even years at a time

Whichever way allergies impact your mental health, it’s important to work with a provider – like a counselor or psychologist – to stay on top of your symptoms. Anxiety and depression are conditions that should be managed by an expert; they’re not something you need to struggle with alone.

Ways to Combat It

There are a lot of ways you can control your allergies, and the hope is that by eliminating that extra health stressor, your mental health may improve. A few common allergy-reducing tricks are:

• Take antihistamines regularly
• Avoid your allergen (if you have identified it)
  • Reduce dust and mold in your home
  • Avoid peak pollen hours outside
• Wash clothes on high heat to eliminate pollen

Adding multiple symptom relievers and modifying different areas of your life can be difficult, especially when your mental load is already pretty full. If allergies are an ongoing problem in your life, you may consider treating the cause with allergy drops.

What does treating the cause look like? It starts with allergy testing (either a skin or blood test) to determine what you’re allergic to, and at what specific level. Your clinician uses this info, along with your history and an exam, to create a prescription for allergy personalized to your unique needs.

Allergy drops following The La Crosse Method™ Protocol are a liquid drop that is placed under the tongue three times daily. In the drop are tiny amounts of the allergens that you have been found to be allergic to – just enough to help you build tolerance, but not too much to cause reactions. Over time, the dose is gradually and safely increased so the body gets used to more and more of the things that make you sick.

After successful treatment, the body learns to not react when exposed to those allergens naturally. The goal is that you’ll be symptom-free from allergies, and your related anxiety and depression can be reduced, too. Find a provider near you that offers disease-modifying allergy treatment to get started.