

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Allergy Mania

OH NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!

Recently discovered a new blog called Different, not Diseased (just what I needed a new blog to add to my Reader!) that says she just learned that Zyrtec and other allergy meds like it can trigger mania in bipolars!! I already knew that the "D" in Clairitin D or Allegra D made me so manic I wouldn't sleep for days and avoided that, but this is bad.

Where I live is like the allergy capital of the world. If we don't take our allergy meds, Bear starts hacking and spitting, Kitty's asthma and hives kick up, and I want to gouge my face off to stop the itching and dripping (oops - sorry about the graphic description).

We are all bipolar. I've always been hypomanic until the stress of adopting special needs teens caused me to have to start taking meds. Looking back now I realize that once I started taking meds regularly then I could finally remember to take allergy meds regularly - ooh I now see a viscious cycle. THIS STINKS!

I was just trying to figure out this morning why there are days when I feel like screaming, pinching everyone's heads off and throwing things (or kids). (No, of course I would never do this, but these mood spikes make things very difficult when dealing with people). I was planning on calling my doctor today to see if I needed to up my mood-stabilizer because a manic phase was "bleeding through" the meds.
What to do?! What to do?!


GB's Mom said...

Sorry! No easy answer. A lot of Bipolars can take Benadryl, but some can't. We just leave allergies untreated :(

Jessica Lynn said...

One thing you can try, that we have had a lot of success here with is the herbal route. Astragalus is for respiratory health, it works wonderfully. I have gone the past three years without pneumonia or major asthma complications because of it and LOCAL honey.
Buy some local honey, not the processed bought in the store kind.
Eat a little of it everyday, you can use it to sweeten things, on toast, or whatever.
It has the naturally occurring allergens from your environment in it. In small doses, it helps build your bodies immunity to them and eliminates the need for the allergy medicine.

Anonymous said...

We took my 9-yr-old off Singulair, and saw a difference immediately in him. Investigating Singulair clued me into Zyrtec, and I saw very quickly that I cannot take Zyrtec. I seem to do OK on Claritin, which I have in the past taken for years at a time, but now I don't need it. (Yay!). I do Benedryl at the first sign of a major allergy attack (even if it means I'll get sleepy, forcing a change in plans). That's been adequate.

But I also am doing Targeted Amino Acid Therapy and take a great multi.

Maybe take one of you off the claritin and do those TrueHope multis instead. I'm sure they help bolster the immune system.

Annie said...

That photo is classic. I feel just like that. A lot!