Please please can I have some advice. Anaplylaxsis fear

[AstridAv]

I know this is irrational. I am absolutely terrified of getting anaphylaxsis even though I dont have any known food allergy. Its stopped me from being able to eat basically anything. Ive health anxiety (if you couldn't guess) which I am working on and have made huge progress with it. This is just a large hurdle standing in my way and I want to beat it! Anyone got any ideas or tips, suggestions. Thank you

To add, I have had CBT about anxiety and spoken to my doctor.

There are certain foods that are known to cause severe allergic reactions. Can you build a list of foods that aren’t related to these in any way, so you have a base group of things that you can relax with?

Then add one food at a time, keeping a close watch for any reactions, until that food becomes a “safe staple” too. Do it at a pace you are happy with.

I have health anxiety too and I have issues with food and worrying certain foods will make me ill ( sulphites, alcohol etc).
Personally I'd warn against keeping a close eye and watching got reactions as all this does is feed your anxiety and so the loop continues ( you can easily convince yourself that egg you ate has made your face swell for e.g, as anxiety is so all- consuming).
I'd look into anxiety. It's great you recognise your fears are out of proportion to the threat.
Look into food safety and how much testing goes into foods before they are released for sale etc.
Knowledge is power and I believe this will help you rationalize things. It's certainly helped me.

@Mintjulia @Spied thank you for the replies. I am thinking of building a base list just need to research. Irritating because I've never had a reaction unless its been medications but I need to eat at least something. I had eggs earlier and also a cheese salad sandwhich and kept it down but alot of times I will vomit after eating through fear.

I am very educated about anxiety which is why its so frustrating. I am coming to terms with the constant chest pains and accepting that its not a heart attack but at least with that I could still get nourishment. Anxiety itself is draining but anxiety around food is the worst because not eating has a detrimental effect on your wellbeing.

@AstridAv I am coming to the end of therapy for this exact issue, for the same reasons as you. You aren't alone. Please, please feel free to PM me x

@WhatANotSoWonderfulWorld thank you, so much! I've sent a PM x

Could you get blood tests done?

I have a DC with nut allergies, who initially had pin prick testing at an allergy specialist. When they were retested, some of the results seemed strange, so we went to her regular doctors, who arranged blood tests.

I'm not sure exactly how they worked, but from the sample of blood, they tested it against food categories and then worked down the chain until they found the allergen involved.

We had this done just after we moved to the US, but perhaps you could see if the blood tests are available privately in the U.K. to give you some peace of mind?