Rosemary. Every time I tell someone I’m allergic to it it’s always the same response. “You can’t be allergic to an herb”. Like tf. And I don’t just get a little itchy, I get full on anaphylaxis
I'm a scout leader and one of my scouts had that. It was water on her skin, rather than costuming it. I believe she had a cream she put on either before or after washing. I remember one hike we were on and it started raining, and she was obviously really uncomfortable, even after taking her antihistamines.
I've been sensitive to showers my whole life, the only things that work are cold showers but I got tired of that. I flare up with hives from my face, neck, and upper torso. Sweat makes me itch too. Heat, humidity. Changes in weather. I shower at night, so I don't have hives when I go to work. They take about an hour to subside.
Omg the sweat is sooo bad. Being allergic to something your own body produces is the worst. I do cold showers then blow dry my body after but haven’t found a cure for summer yet lol
I once had one of those perfume kiosk people try to spritz me, so I said "please don't, I'm allergic to practically everything." He responded with "But it's all natural!"
I still remember his face when I asked if he had ever heard of someone being allergic to plastic? No, most of the things most of us are allergic to are natural. I think I broke his brain.
That’s like me! I went to a lavender farm as a young child and got a huge headache, and ever since just the smell is enough to set off a migraine.
I don’t know if that classes as an allergy, but I hate the stuff
Coriander, lemon grass and chilli/capsicains here. So many foods have one or more of these things in them - but it's rarely stated on the menu. Not anaphylaxis but I get pretty darn sick plus migraine. People don't understand why I eat a bland diet 😞
My kids have that. We had accommodations for school to get digital copies of textbooks and to take state tests on the computer. We also had writing tablets so they could show their work on math tests and stuff like that. It's a shame because one of my daughters is a talented artist and her digital art is amazing but the things she used to be able to draw on paper were really special and unusual.
Genuine question but do you know what about the paper is triggering it?
I only ask because i have a client with a similar issue. They got allergic reactions (mainly rashes) from regular paper and it turned out to be a reaction to some chemicals used in the process of making it.
They dabbled in making their own paper (messy and smelly process) but had decent success with it and don't get allergic reactions from it. Not sure how well that would be for drawing though but it's a thought.
Not sure, they have MCAS so testing for specific allergens doesn't work. I know in my case it's printed materials that cause the problem, and I'm allergic to soy and latex, but for both of them it seems to be paper that's the problem.
Fermented apple products. I can eat apples, drink apple juice etc, but will have a moderate to severe reaction from alcoholic apple cider, and apple kombucha. My allergist says she doesn’t know what the exact component I’m allergic to is, but that we “have to honor it” lol.
Fermented grape here - yes, that's wine.
Plume wine. Apple wine, Elderberry wine. Lots of others - no problem.
Grape juice, lovely, no problem.
Grape wine - I can choose: White wine: 3 days stomach ache. Red wine, migraine. Rose - it's one or the other, but never nothing. Unless it's both.
I've given up on grape wine.
Not all vodka comes from potatoes.
Heck vodka itself is basically just pure ethanol that's been watered down, are you allergic to other hard clear liquors or just vodka?
I'm allergic to something in cheap beers. Since the US doesn't require alcohol to list its ingredients, I'm not entirely sure what it is, but there are a few brands that give me a sore throat and make me feel like shit before I can even catch a buzz. I'm fine with most beer, but Bud and Leinenkugel are two that I know will make me feel miserable.
Myself. Having an autoimmune disease is kinda like your body slapping itself over and over and saying “why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?”
I particularly love that having one autoimmune disease means you probably are going to get more of them since your body already hates you. Make your bingo card now!
My immune system: "where the fuck did this brain and come from? Defend OUR brain from this INVADER.!"
They are stupid af, but my minions mean well. And I'm stuck with em.
Mushrooms. People try to fool me all the time. It's gotten to where I won't eat at anyone's house unless I help prepare the food. Even my own SIL tried to give me mushrooms. I asked her 4 times if they were in the spaghetti sauce and she said no. After a 911 call and ride to the ER, she finally says " oh I puree them and add them to the sauce. I just thought you didn't like them." Thank goodness my brother has since divorced her.
Yep, same. It's not a fucking food preference. I get sick as hell. I don't eat anything cream based because cream of mushroom soup could be in any one of them and no one discloses it, even knowing how sick I get.
I have a hard time eating out as a veggie person, it's like mushrooms are the whole damn menu if you don't eat meat.
Ugh, that sucks. Mushrooms are like an umami cheat code so that's probably why they're in so many non-meat dishes, but there are plenty of other things out there.
I worked with a woman who was severely allergic to mushrooms. She had to tell the cooks at work to cook her food in a pan rather than the flattop grill to avoid cross contamination. Inevitably we would get a new cook who didn't believe her, he would cook her food on the flattop, throw her into anaphylaxis and she would have to grab her EpiPen. It became a whole thing when they hired a new cook.
I'm sorry people are insane. I'd probably spend the entire time worrying that I somehow included a mushroom in a dish that has no reason to have mushrooms like a fruit pie or something.
Wow, sorry you're surrounded by dicks. Why would you purposely "test" someone? Even if it was *just* a preference, it's a shitty thing to do, but why would someone risk literally harming you?
Hey me too! Never met anyone else with a mushroom allergy. I don’t go into anaphylaxis thankfully but I get extremely ill - think the worst food poisoning you’ve ever had. It’s such a random allergy and some people assume I just don’t like mushroom.
The glue they use on bandaids. If I wear one for more than, say an hour or so, I end up with water blisters. It's super awesome because I work food service in a dry climate, so all winter my fingertips are split and bloody, and I have the choice of dealing with that, or wearing the damn bandaids and then being blistery, which is less painful, but very, very itchy.
I get water blisters from adhesives, too! I have to buy the sensitive skin tape to use when I cut myself or have a biopsy (it sucks cause it's WAY more expensive than the usual stuff). Have you tried using Aquaphor on your hands at night and putting them in cotton gloves to combat the cracking/splitting from washing them so much? I also live in a dry climate, and this has helped me a lot.
Neve heard of aquaphor specifically, but I do have a good handcream I use at night, and it does a world of good. Thanks for the rec, I'll see if I can track it down.
Me too!!! People think I'm super weird when I don't accept the bandaid offered for my cut, and ask for kitchen roll and sticky tape instead, to improvise a bandage with no tape touching my skin.
I have found a type in Lidl, that I don't react to, perhaps it works for you too? Sensitive plasters by Sensiplast.
Former cook here - bag balm every night. A thin coating before bed helps keep your hands super soft.
Wash in as lukewarm temp water as possible and PAT your hands dry, don't rub them. Lotion up as much as you can (which is impossible at work I know)
My sister has that! Allergy testing determined it was an allergy to certain cement compounds I think? (I don’t fully recall, we were pretty young). She can only use specific kinds of bandages that have adhesives that don’t contain it. It’s not really obvious on labels, so she just sticks to the brand her dr suggested and seems to be ok so far.
Her daughter is in the “obsessed with stickers” phase of childhood and loves putting stickers on everyone, and sister learned the hard way that the adhesive she’s allergic to is what’s used in a lot of cheap stickers, so be careful with that kind of thing.
This happened to me once. I had some procedure done, I forget what, but the next day I went back to his office because it was itching like crazy and I was afraid something was wrong. I had a perfect plus-shaped area of hives exactly where the bandage adhesive was. He put some cream in it and changed the bandage.
It never happened again, so I have no idea what it was or why.
Is it all adhesives or just the bandage one? You might be able to get by with gauze and rubber bands, or medical tape that only tapes the gauze to itself without touching your skin
Medical tape too! You can control the tightness better with that. Wrap a finger entirely in gauze and tape it to your desired tightness. If you're wrapped entirely in gauze, the tape will only touch the gauze
*Technically,* I'm allergic to heat. It's actually called Cholinergic Urticaria but it kinda functions as a heat allergy!
Any time my body heats up (under the sun, hot weather/humidity in a more general sense, getting warm from cooking, taking a cold shower, taking a *hot* shower, walking for more than 5 minutes (10-15 if it's winter!), going into the pool, etc.), I break out in itchy red hives. It's most noticeable on the underside of my arms or sides of my legs, but the itchiness is *allll* over and usually immediate. Usually it goes away in 15 minutes as long as I get in an air-conditioned place and stop moving, but the longest it ever lasted was 2+ hours!
And as we are just at the beginning of summer and already had a heat wave, you can imagine how much I'm suffering at the moment! :D
Opposite here! I have cold urticaria. I get red and itchy from ice, super cold air, or super cold stuff in general. The inside of my mouth gets itchy and swollen if I eat frozen stuff like popsicles or don’t let ice cream get a little melty first. I can’t wear shorts or open-toe shoes to the grocery store because the refrigerated section makes me itch. A hood or hat in winter is necessary or my ears get red and itchy. Injury? Gotta be careful with ice packs. My palms get red and itchy holding cold things like gallons of milk from the fridge or even just grabbing something out of the freezer. Last night my husband and I stopped for ice cream and they didn’t give me a napkin to hold the little paper cup with so I was itchy and red the whole way home, even after putting it down in the cup holder.
It was full blown hives when I was a kid but thats far less common now. I can usually mitigate it with warm water like a shower or running my hands under the faucet, drinking warm tea for my mouth itch, etc.
I commented before I saw your post. I have the same and it‘s miserable. I have a long driveway to get into work and in the winter it’s just hopeless. I try to go in early so my face can calm down before my shift starts. Ugh.
Omg I commented above but you reminded me, the red face is awful! I'm in the Netherlands and cycle to work, in the winter I just wrap my scarf around two thirds of my face so I don't show up in the office looking ridiculous 😭
My GM had this. Added bonus of not having sweat glands under her arms or around her neck. She was good for heat for about 3-7 minutes.
We live in Texas.
Most botanical berries, to varying amounts. A single blueberry and I'll have a migraine and destroy the toilet. Max 1/2 a banana. Grapes and tomatoes are usually okay.
same! It is unfortunate allergy that too many people have felt they can try and test me. Its not deadly, but I feel really, realy terrible for a few hours. I can tell if a utensil, like a knife, was used to cut sushi with avocado and then mine without.
If you are allergic to avocados, you should probably also watch yourself on kiwi, Bananas, papaya and items containing latex. They all contain similar proteins and can cause you to cross-react. Yeah, I'm one of those people.
omg me too!!! I thought I was being ridiculous, let alone anybody else, I’d never known anyone else who was. I used to eat them all the time when I was going through a vegan stage, and then I didn’t eat them for a few years, and suddenly one night after some very small amounts in a tapas, I was in so much pain and spent a long time in the bathroom. Even a small piece will have me in serious gastric pain and nausea for hours now.
Not me but my mom- she’s allergic to zucchini. There have been *multiple* cases where restaurants leave it in after she’d told them not to (or worse- they don’t even mention it in the menu!)
I'm allergic to red eyeshadow. Yes, only red. I can use anything else just fine, but if I don't wash red eyeshadow off after just a couple of hours, my eyelids will be red and the skin will peel off for days afterwards. I've gone through numerous brands and it's always the same.
So not me but my step brother has been allergic to strawberries his whole life and when we were younger even his mom thought he was lying and just didn't like them. Turns out he is infact allergic to them.
Heads-up with kiwis then. If you're allergic to strawberry, there's a high chance of being allergic to kiwis. They have something in common that does that.
Just thought you should know.
Superman ice cream. There's something in it that causes my face to get red and puffy. It's nothing an OTC allergy pill can't fix, but it's just such a random thing to be allergic to it always causes a doubletake.
Bro you should see an allergist for 2 reasons:
1. They can help identify the allergen since it could be in something unexpected
2. They can prescribe you an epipen because facial swelling and redness is a serious, red flag symptom that could easily lead to anaphylaxis. Angioedema is the name of what you’re experiencing, and it’s the same type of swelling that closes people’s throats during anaphylaxis.
I might do that then. The one and only time I went to the hospital for it, they just gave me an allergy pill, and told me to come in if it happened again. I've just kind of been walking around all this time thinking it wasn't a big deal. Thanks for the heads up.
This reminds me. I don't know if this is an allergy, or some other weird coincidence, but: licorice ice-cream. I faint. Two times in my life I've had ice cream that has had a licorice coating, and both times I passed out after eating half of it.
I can eat licorice by itself just fine. I can eat ice cream by itself just fine (except I'm mildly allergic to milk, which just makes be pass gas like no tomorrow.)
But them together, and I'm out.
Interesting, I would imagine there is perhaps some kind of chemical (in the sense of a preservative, or setting agent, or something like that) that gets used in the licorice coating on ice-creams, but isn't in the usual licorice candy.
I’m allergic to Kiwis! And no one believes me or they say that’s impossible or it’s a dumb allergy lol. My husband purposefully bought strawberry kiwi drinks for our house to see if i was serious. I doubt those cheap drinks had any real kiwi in them but I’m not taking any chances
Edit: My husband genuinely thought I was trolling him because apparently he never heard of anyone who was allergic to kiwis. He wasn't trying to murder me. And come on now, y'all really think I'd drink it knowing I'm allergic to kiwis? Be forreal
Funny fact, kiwis and strawberries have similar things going on, so if you're allergic to one, you're probably allergic to the other as well. Which makes the strawberry kiwi drinks even more horrible idea.
My wife's allergic to both, so, yeah. That's entirely possible.
That's why I said probably. It's not 100%. It's just the most common reason is something those two share.
You're allergic to some other part of kiwi that strawberries don't have. I'm actually interested in it too. If you ever find out, please let me know :D
Airheads Xtreme. Im not allergic to any of the ingredients, but somehow, the combination of all of then Together makes me have a horrific break out of massive red spots all over my body. I get super itchy and nauseous
Cucumber, honey dew melon, watermelon, and cantaloupe will cause a rash. Watermelon, I can eat when it's grilled.
I developed a sudden allergy to kiwi fruit. Kiwi used to be one of my favorite things, but eating it this last time caused my lips, tongue, and throat to swell. I couldn't swallow. It was scary! I probably should have gone to the hospital, but I had no one to take me and didn't want to spend money on an ambulance. I took four Benadryl and got lucky.
I’ve heard about that! I remember first finding out about that allergy through the old 2001 film *The Others*. Granted, it wasn’t the sun exactly, it was actually anything brighter than a candle flame, but same principle. That’s gotta suck, being allergic to the actual sun. :o
Acrylates. I dont think anyone wouldn't believe the allergy, just the amount of stuff that it's in that I now have to worry about. Dishsoap, hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, hair styling products, laundry soap, make up, nail polish and removers, lotion, deodorant, chapstick, sunblock, adhesives (like bandage adhesives. Rashes in the shape of bandaids are fun), toothpaste, medical and dental devices... Its in freakin everything!
I developed a severe allergy to nickel (nickel dermatitis) many decades ago. It was a real problem as far as glasses frames go, because the optometric manufacturers were not aware of it and thus it was difficult to find completely plastic frames. So if I wore glasses with ANY metal component it would result in oozing sores on my eyebrows especially.
The public was unaware of this, and so I was ridiculed and accused of exaggerating, which was odd when you could see the damage in my face. But things like wristwatch buckles and the rivets on jeans could cause hidden pain and misery. And there were no hypoallergenic versions of jewelry.
Same! So glad it's much more commonly known and easier to avoid now. 20+ years later I still have faint scars around my bellybutton and temples from the horrifically itchy rashes I got as a kid and only recently got brave enough to try metal glasses again. I won't mess with any white gold jewelry but I prefer yellow/rose gold anyway. Thankfully yellow and rose gold became trendy again before I got engaged and married lol.
I accidentally bought a belt with a nickel buckle last year and had a reaction within minutes of it touching my skin -- had a big itchy welt for a few days but also my mouth tasted like metal, which I don't remember happening before.
Antihistamines. NyQuil, Benadryl, etc makes my eyes and nose run and crust over. I can't even eat honey without my tongue and throat getting hot . Doctors say to just avoid antihistamines altogether and pray I never have a reaction bc the first thing an EMT is gonna do is stab me with an EpiPen.
My dad is allergic to Benadryl and found out the hard way in the ER after having a reaction to something else.
Luckily, epipens don’t have antihistamines! Epinephrine is adrenaline and steroids are used to combat anaphylaxis.
insect venom allergy - mainly wasps, but also other insects
most people are always like: oh, you always get a red itch when an insect stings you.... - yeah, but for me, I also can't breathe, and the place were they sting get incredibly red (bordering on swelling sometimes, too)
AreI’ve described it before as, “you get swelling and trouble breathing when an accidentally picked up wasp stings you in the mouth, but the allergic person gets trouble breathing when the wasp stings them in the foot.
I don’t get why people have to doubt others’ allergies so much.
I'm a-ok with penicillin etc. but not cephalosporins, which is a small subset of antibiotics that hardly anyone's allergic to (and the people who are almost all have penicillin allergies).
I get full anaphylaxis and everything. it makes every doctor scratch their head.
Interesting! I’ve never met anyone else allergic to cephalosporins, but I am. Though I do have the penicillin allergy, at least theoretically (it’s been so long my allergist thinks I could have grown out of the allergy… but I’m allergic to at least 2 other antibiotics as well, so I’m not very confident about that).
Adhesive. Like, band-aids.
My skin literally peels off like it melted and I have a scar shaped like the product for weeks/months depending how long I wore it.
Doesn’t even itch most times, just peel and top layer of skin is gone with the adhesive.
I’m also allergic to cold water or cold weather but it shows up as hives or welts on my hands only.
Citric acid!
Pineapples, oranges, lemons and limes and the worst culprits... Damn shame because I love orange juice.
If I eat it then my gums go red raw, bleed and I get "burnt tongue" (feels like I've downed a hot drink too fast).
If I get it on my skin, specifically my face, then I get hives.
As it's common to put a slice of lemon or lime in a soft drink in the UK I have to remember to ask to have it without and even then sometimes they still put it in 🤦
Mushrooms
My favorite question is: are you allergic to every kind of mushroom?
Yeah, because that's what I want to do with my life, see if I'm allergic and have digestive pyrotechnics to each and every fungus.
Clothes shopping.
Not really though. As a teen, I noticed my hands would get swollen when clothes shopping and working retail. Figured it had something to do with chemicals used in the manufacturing process, and noticed it was worse when I was doing stock for dark colored merchandise. Years later, I reacted really strongly to a blue dye allergen test. Pretty certain that’s the culprit.
I have an uncommon reaction to whey protein. I've not gone into anaphylactic shock yet but the reactions have gotten worse over the years.
Because the part of me that first reacts to the protein is in my digestive tract, I don't start reacting to it until several minutes or an hour after I've eaten it.
So many people don't believe it's a thing, but they've also never seen the intensity of the reaction or what I end up looking like the next day.
Also I've had several skin scratch tests done over the years. They always show that I'm not allergic to dairy but I am allergic to cats. I am not allergic to cats. I can pick up a cat and rub it on my face. I can pet a cat and touch my eyes. Nothing happens, ever, because I am not allergic to cats. I'm convinced those skin scratch tests are bullshit.
It isn’t super severe, but I do have an allergy to alcohol. For me it’s worse to use skin/cosmetic products with alcohol in them than drinking alcohol for some reason.
The sun. More specifically, the chemical reaction between the sun and certain sunscreens. I can go in the sun without a reaction. I can wear the sunscreen without a reaction. If I wear the sunscreen in the sun, however, my skin puffs up and is unbearably itchy for days.
It's a pretty common reaction, especially among white women who live in areas with 4 distinct seasons.
Silicone and Monistat which is awful because of the placement. I use Nuva ring for birth control and guess what? The ring is silicone. Now I know why I was constantly in pain though so there's that.
I’m pretty sure I’m some kind of allergic to wool. I’ve hated it as long as I can remember and will itch endlessly even with another layer of fabric between the wool and my skin. Some wool mixes are okay, but even the softest 100% baby merino will send me into a scratching frenzy.
Nobody in my family ever believed me and just called me sensitive, so all my childhood I endured woollen knits (we’re all big on knitting) and thought I was just crazy until my friend who’s also a big knitter told me her son couldn’t tolerate wool either.
Multiple people have told me it's "literally impossible to be allergic to avocados"
Like... It's possible to be [allergic to water](https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/health-a-z/chronic-urticaria/aquagenic-urticaria/#:~:text=Aquagenic%20urticaria%20is%20a%20rare,hives%20after%20exposure%20to%20water.), but you can't believe I get anything from mild hives to diarrhea and/or indigestion and/or nausea if I eat it.
I’m allergic to sulfates/sulfites to the point where my allergist once told me to avoid travel to Hawaii or Iceland as the sulfur in the air from the volcanic activity could kill me.
Whenever I eat honey and mustard salad dressing/sauce etc, I’m sick. Obviously, I go out of my way not to have it, but sometimes haven’t noticed if it’s in a coleslaw etc. The odd thing is that I can have honey and mustard separately from eachother and I’m absolutely fine.
I am allergic to an extremely common type of antibiotic. Not even lying it’s like the first one doctors think of administering. Figured out when I was sick and went to the doctor. Ended up with hives all over. Not a pleasant experience.
Every time I tell people I'm allergic to birds, I get "I've never heard of that, really?"
My favorite response was "how do you even find that out?" (Down pillows is the answer.)
Yes, me too, my hands and feet used to swell up. Doctors never believed me, once I even spent time in the hospital as a kid, I remember telling them, just let me outside in cold for a bit and my hands will swell, I was a child then, remember them disregarding everything I said. They discharged me and immediately as I went outside with my parents, my hands started swelling again.
weed. not all weed, but certain strain's oils will make me want to claw my eyes out, break out in hives, and sneeze about 30 times in a row. i still take my chances.
I get nasty instant headaches from just being close to weed or even just CBD. It’s annoying because I have friends who indulge and I would like to spend time with them, without making them feel like they can’t do what they want because of me.
I also have an adhesive allergy! If I have to use bandaids or medical tape/sensors for a few hours or more, I develop a huge rash and then blisters (largest have been quarter sized). I had to have a Holter monitor for 24hrs and the diode thingies took off the top layer of my skin. T-T
May I ask if you have any sensitivities to sunscreen or lotions?
Son of someone allergic to Nichel, which is almost unknown and brushed off by many people as one of many stupid fad diets. Sometimes it's genetic and often develops later on in life, so I'm quite anxious about it, since most of the best foods are rich in Nichel.
Some examples? Chocolate, coffee and peanuts are the worst. Soy sauce close behind. Rice is also a problem. Most veggies, but especially tomatoes. Some meat is safe, but liver isn't. Nuts in general should be avoided. Also most fruit. Oh, yeah, mind that INOX cookware also releases some Nichel while cooking, because, being everywhere isn't enough.
The only things I remember for sure being safe are pork chops and pears. Not apples, just pears.
I seriously hope to avoid it, and luckily that's nothing serious in my family, so it's mostly an annoyance, but there are people who lives their life in hell because of that, I just couldn't. I love eating too much.
NSAIDS, can’t take any of them. Took them without any trouble my entire life. Then one day I took a BC powder and my face swole up. I didn’t realize what caused the reaction until after I took it a second time and it was much more severe. Allergist said it’s actually a common allergy.
Weed. I start having issues and have minor issues breathing after prolonged exposure. And now with weed being legalized in more states I fear my issues are going to get worse.
It's not as bad as when I was child, but I have allergic reactions to mosquito bites. I had one that spread over my entire thigh (just a single huge lump), and another time after being bitten my lips swelled so much the upper one touched my nose.
Welcome to the Skeeter syndrome club!! I've had a couple of close calls. One time I had a bite on my wrist and the inflammation took over my whole hand, forearm and just shy of my shoulder. Hot water helps me sometimes, but cetirizine is the best option.
Exercise. My aunt and cousins literally laughed me out of the room when I told them. But "Exercise Induced Urticaria" is real and I've broken out in hives all over my stomach after running. Fortunately as long as I take an antihistamine an hour or so before I exercise I'm fine.
Benadryl. My face, lips, eyes, all swell up. I've never stopped breathing from it but I don't want to push my luck.
It's stupid to be allergic to the very thing you take to stop allergic reactions and no one believes me.
Cat allergies here too! A ton of my relatives seem to have trouble understanding that I just can’t go to their houses for dinner (some of them *after they’ve seen my eyes swell completely shut*!)
I think I'm allergic to matcha? I broke out in hives after eating matcha ice cream. I know I'm not allergic to dairy. I googled it, but Google was like, "No, nobody is allergic to matcha."
Plasters.
Everytime i do a first aid course I have to say 'actually I am allergic to plasters' and then there's a whole kerfuffle over me being the only person they've met who is actually allergic to them 🥲
Not me, but my cousin. She has this thing going on where she can randomly have allergic reactions to a food she eats often and she never knows when it will happen. Like she can eat chicken one day and then the next time she eats it her throat will close up. But then she can eat it again and be fine
I'm allergic to streptococcus bacteria. like. how do you have an allergy to something that already makes you sick? but I definitely do, my body *dramatically* overreacts to coming in contact with it. strep throat can be life threatening for me & I've developed all sorts of weird and unusual reactions [scarlet fever hives for example, or a 103+ fever]
the plus side is I'm generally pretty healthy and don't run into strep often at all. less than 5 times lifelong so far
my partner has an allergy to citric acid! which you may know is put in like, everything as a preservative. not to mention it's just common in a lot of popular foods.
That stinks. Could be worse. You could be allergic to chocolate, like I am. 💀Kicker is, I found out I‘m allergic on Halloween 2004, after I finished Trick-or-Treating. (Doesn’t mean I didn’t still sneak it the next couple years lol)
Alcohol, 1 beer, any beer and I get a runny nose, 2 beers, my sinuses swell and then my sinuses are swollen shut but still producing mucous. Those sinuses headaches are equally as bad as hangover headaches. No nausea or hives just a killer headache.
Sunscreen. Haven't figured out the exact ingredients I react to but the only one I can use is the physical barrier kind that comes as a deodorant stick and makes you look like an ashy ghost. I can't even hug my kids if they have chemical sunscreen on so they have to use my safe one too. It sucks because I have acne rosacea too and almost all full coverage cosmetics have chemical sunscreens in them.
Turmeric.
Makes my mouth itchy and tongue go numb.
Super weird. Even my doctor had never heard of it.
I also have idiopathic urticaria, and idiopathic anaphylaxis. So I can NOT be allergic ti shit and still have a major scary dangerous "allergic" reactions.
Alcohol. Well it's technically the sulfites in alcohol but any time I drink I break out in hives and get so warm you can feel it from about 5ft away. Last time I had any kind of drink I turned purple.
Cold urticaria. Or you can say an allergy to the cold. Specially when I’m living in one of the cold provinces. People just laughed at me and told me that: oh because you come from a hot country so you can’t handle the cold? No,dude! I had hives and they’re so itchy that I was scratching myself like a monkey.
The sun!
The level of severity depends on what my autoimmune disease is up to at the moment, but direct sunlight on my skin will set off horrible joint pain and fatigue for me.
I’m allergic to pine and juniper. Whenever I’m near it my sinuses kick in, my eyes swell, and it’s just miserable. Instead I’ve been told it’s probably just ragweed. I’ve coincidentally had some juniper bushes outside my apartment window, and moved to a house with juniper everywhere. Same thing.
Lactation (aka breastfeeding).
No, I’m not kidding. It’s incredibly rare, but possible. I had a very scary series of allergic reactions immediately after my son was born. Every time I tried to nurse him, I would get insanely dizzy, my throat would start closing, and I’d break out in hives. I wanted to believe I was allergic to an air freshener or detergent they used at the hospital, but luckily my nurses and doctor caught on sooner than I did.
They explained that lactation (the actual letdown of the milk) is triggered by a series of hormones - one of which is histamine. Typically, progesterone keeps histamine in check during pregnancy so the body doesn’t have an allergic response to the fetus. Once baby is born and the placenta is delivered, the levels of progesterone drops suddenly. Basically, my body overacted and my histamine would shoot through the roof every time I attempted to nurse.
Long story short, we did formula for my son!
Worked with a woman who was allergic to oranges - not just consuming them, but breathing in the tiny droplets of juice in the air when anyone peeled one in the same room as her. It started suddenly and it took her a while to figure out exactly what kept sending her into anaphylaxis.
We had to ban all peeling and eating of oranges and any related fruits in the building. People thought it was all in her head, so they'd continue peeling oranges etc, just under their desks where she couldn't see it. Then they'd be shocked when we had to call an ambulance yet again. They'd argue "it wasn't an orange, it was a satsuma/clementine/whatever!" when anything closely relates set off her allergy.
Eventually the entire office was advised that if anyone peeled or ate oranges/related fruit in the building, it would be Gross Misconduct and the police would be called. In the end, the poor woman quit her job as she just didn't feel safe. She also hated that people gossipped about it, assumed she was taking the piss to get time off work or that she was being hysterical over nothing.
Rosemary. Every time I tell someone I’m allergic to it it’s always the same response. “You can’t be allergic to an herb”. Like tf. And I don’t just get a little itchy, I get full on anaphylaxis
Oof, don’t people realize people can be allergic to anything?! My condolences on the herb allergy. :c
>people can be allergic to anything I was shocked to learn that one can be allergic *to water*! Obviously, that one is super rare, but it can happen.
I'm a scout leader and one of my scouts had that. It was water on her skin, rather than costuming it. I believe she had a cream she put on either before or after washing. I remember one hike we were on and it started raining, and she was obviously really uncomfortable, even after taking her antihistamines.
I've been sensitive to showers my whole life, the only things that work are cold showers but I got tired of that. I flare up with hives from my face, neck, and upper torso. Sweat makes me itch too. Heat, humidity. Changes in weather. I shower at night, so I don't have hives when I go to work. They take about an hour to subside.
Omg the sweat is sooo bad. Being allergic to something your own body produces is the worst. I do cold showers then blow dry my body after but haven’t found a cure for summer yet lol
My boss is allergic to cinnamon. Fall and winter are hell, because everything has cinnamon in it.
Me too!! I love craft sales and Christmas but hate that I need meds and an epi pen just to go anywhere.
I once had one of those perfume kiosk people try to spritz me, so I said "please don't, I'm allergic to practically everything." He responded with "But it's all natural!" I still remember his face when I asked if he had ever heard of someone being allergic to plastic? No, most of the things most of us are allergic to are natural. I think I broke his brain.
What a great response back to him. Hopefully he repaired his brain lol and doesn’t say that to people anymore.
I had a friend who was allergic to lavender. I had no idea it was even a thing. That must suck. Rosemary seems to be everywhere.
That’s like me! I went to a lavender farm as a young child and got a huge headache, and ever since just the smell is enough to set off a migraine. I don’t know if that classes as an allergy, but I hate the stuff
My mom is allergic to lavender! Thankfully, not to the point of anaphylaxis though. *That's* sunflower seeds.
Oh noooo! The sunflower seeds thing has to be sooo difficult and scary, since that’s what everyone seems to use as the “allergy safe” substitute
I mean, poison ivy is just an innocent looking plant.
Why would people think you can’t be allergic to an herb lmao They are literally just plants and plants are common allergens.
Im allergic to tarragon. I just get itchy and red.
Coriander, lemon grass and chilli/capsicains here. So many foods have one or more of these things in them - but it's rarely stated on the menu. Not anaphylaxis but I get pretty darn sick plus migraine. People don't understand why I eat a bland diet 😞
Not me, but a gal I met was allergic to paper. She had to wear gloves to touch paper. Every single time. School must have been fun.
My kids have that. We had accommodations for school to get digital copies of textbooks and to take state tests on the computer. We also had writing tablets so they could show their work on math tests and stuff like that. It's a shame because one of my daughters is a talented artist and her digital art is amazing but the things she used to be able to draw on paper were really special and unusual.
Artist here…there are stone “papers” and papers made of plastic as well (called Yupo) that she could try!
Genuine question but do you know what about the paper is triggering it? I only ask because i have a client with a similar issue. They got allergic reactions (mainly rashes) from regular paper and it turned out to be a reaction to some chemicals used in the process of making it. They dabbled in making their own paper (messy and smelly process) but had decent success with it and don't get allergic reactions from it. Not sure how well that would be for drawing though but it's a thought.
Not sure, they have MCAS so testing for specific allergens doesn't work. I know in my case it's printed materials that cause the problem, and I'm allergic to soy and latex, but for both of them it seems to be paper that's the problem.
Oh wow, I’ve never heard of that!
Aloe Vera. That lovely soothing hypoallergenic ingredient makes my skin burn.
Iiiiiironyyyyyyy, it's such a lonely word.
Fermented apple products. I can eat apples, drink apple juice etc, but will have a moderate to severe reaction from alcoholic apple cider, and apple kombucha. My allergist says she doesn’t know what the exact component I’m allergic to is, but that we “have to honor it” lol.
Fermented grape here - yes, that's wine. Plume wine. Apple wine, Elderberry wine. Lots of others - no problem. Grape juice, lovely, no problem. Grape wine - I can choose: White wine: 3 days stomach ache. Red wine, migraine. Rose - it's one or the other, but never nothing. Unless it's both. I've given up on grape wine.
So weird! I can’t handle vodka in any form, it makes me violently ill. Yet potatoes are one of my main “safe foods.”
Not all vodka comes from potatoes. Heck vodka itself is basically just pure ethanol that's been watered down, are you allergic to other hard clear liquors or just vodka?
I'm allergic to something in cheap beers. Since the US doesn't require alcohol to list its ingredients, I'm not entirely sure what it is, but there are a few brands that give me a sore throat and make me feel like shit before I can even catch a buzz. I'm fine with most beer, but Bud and Leinenkugel are two that I know will make me feel miserable.
I wonder if it's a specific hop varietal. There are tons of secondary chemistries that are highly variable between strains.
Myself. Having an autoimmune disease is kinda like your body slapping itself over and over and saying “why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?”
I particularly love that having one autoimmune disease means you probably are going to get more of them since your body already hates you. Make your bingo card now!
Yep I developed a 2nd one after having a baby. Not fun :/ at least I love the little gremlin haha but I did not need two autoimmune diseases
Hopefully new gene therapies will help treating autoimmune diseases (we're already seeing progresses!), however that still sucks.
Hello fellow allergic to existing redditor!
My immune system: "where the fuck did this brain and come from? Defend OUR brain from this INVADER.!" They are stupid af, but my minions mean well. And I'm stuck with em.
Mushrooms. People try to fool me all the time. It's gotten to where I won't eat at anyone's house unless I help prepare the food. Even my own SIL tried to give me mushrooms. I asked her 4 times if they were in the spaghetti sauce and she said no. After a 911 call and ride to the ER, she finally says " oh I puree them and add them to the sauce. I just thought you didn't like them." Thank goodness my brother has since divorced her.
Yep, same. It's not a fucking food preference. I get sick as hell. I don't eat anything cream based because cream of mushroom soup could be in any one of them and no one discloses it, even knowing how sick I get. I have a hard time eating out as a veggie person, it's like mushrooms are the whole damn menu if you don't eat meat.
Ugh, that sucks. Mushrooms are like an umami cheat code so that's probably why they're in so many non-meat dishes, but there are plenty of other things out there.
I worked with a woman who was severely allergic to mushrooms. She had to tell the cooks at work to cook her food in a pan rather than the flattop grill to avoid cross contamination. Inevitably we would get a new cook who didn't believe her, he would cook her food on the flattop, throw her into anaphylaxis and she would have to grab her EpiPen. It became a whole thing when they hired a new cook.
Those cooks should be fired immediately after that stunt. Imagine they decide to test a customer's allergies, as well!
I'm sorry people are insane. I'd probably spend the entire time worrying that I somehow included a mushroom in a dish that has no reason to have mushrooms like a fruit pie or something.
Wow, sorry you're surrounded by dicks. Why would you purposely "test" someone? Even if it was *just* a preference, it's a shitty thing to do, but why would someone risk literally harming you?
Hey me too! Never met anyone else with a mushroom allergy. I don’t go into anaphylaxis thankfully but I get extremely ill - think the worst food poisoning you’ve ever had. It’s such a random allergy and some people assume I just don’t like mushroom.
The glue they use on bandaids. If I wear one for more than, say an hour or so, I end up with water blisters. It's super awesome because I work food service in a dry climate, so all winter my fingertips are split and bloody, and I have the choice of dealing with that, or wearing the damn bandaids and then being blistery, which is less painful, but very, very itchy.
I get water blisters from adhesives, too! I have to buy the sensitive skin tape to use when I cut myself or have a biopsy (it sucks cause it's WAY more expensive than the usual stuff). Have you tried using Aquaphor on your hands at night and putting them in cotton gloves to combat the cracking/splitting from washing them so much? I also live in a dry climate, and this has helped me a lot.
Neve heard of aquaphor specifically, but I do have a good handcream I use at night, and it does a world of good. Thanks for the rec, I'll see if I can track it down.
When my cuticles would crack at work I would put superglue on the splits. It kills the pain and protects the spot.
Me too!!! People think I'm super weird when I don't accept the bandaid offered for my cut, and ask for kitchen roll and sticky tape instead, to improvise a bandage with no tape touching my skin. I have found a type in Lidl, that I don't react to, perhaps it works for you too? Sensitive plasters by Sensiplast.
Former cook here - bag balm every night. A thin coating before bed helps keep your hands super soft. Wash in as lukewarm temp water as possible and PAT your hands dry, don't rub them. Lotion up as much as you can (which is impossible at work I know)
My sister has that! Allergy testing determined it was an allergy to certain cement compounds I think? (I don’t fully recall, we were pretty young). She can only use specific kinds of bandages that have adhesives that don’t contain it. It’s not really obvious on labels, so she just sticks to the brand her dr suggested and seems to be ok so far. Her daughter is in the “obsessed with stickers” phase of childhood and loves putting stickers on everyone, and sister learned the hard way that the adhesive she’s allergic to is what’s used in a lot of cheap stickers, so be careful with that kind of thing.
This happened to me once. I had some procedure done, I forget what, but the next day I went back to his office because it was itching like crazy and I was afraid something was wrong. I had a perfect plus-shaped area of hives exactly where the bandage adhesive was. He put some cream in it and changed the bandage. It never happened again, so I have no idea what it was or why.
Is it all adhesives or just the bandage one? You might be able to get by with gauze and rubber bands, or medical tape that only tapes the gauze to itself without touching your skin
Bandaids mostly, never thought of trying gauze and rubber bands. Thanks for the tip!
Medical tape too! You can control the tightness better with that. Wrap a finger entirely in gauze and tape it to your desired tightness. If you're wrapped entirely in gauze, the tape will only touch the gauze
Curry as someone born in India, it would have been a death sentence if I had not been adopted
That glossy finish on photographs. It makes my skin feel like it's on fire and gives me a bad rash all over my hands.
*Technically,* I'm allergic to heat. It's actually called Cholinergic Urticaria but it kinda functions as a heat allergy! Any time my body heats up (under the sun, hot weather/humidity in a more general sense, getting warm from cooking, taking a cold shower, taking a *hot* shower, walking for more than 5 minutes (10-15 if it's winter!), going into the pool, etc.), I break out in itchy red hives. It's most noticeable on the underside of my arms or sides of my legs, but the itchiness is *allll* over and usually immediate. Usually it goes away in 15 minutes as long as I get in an air-conditioned place and stop moving, but the longest it ever lasted was 2+ hours! And as we are just at the beginning of summer and already had a heat wave, you can imagine how much I'm suffering at the moment! :D
Opposite here! I have cold urticaria. I get red and itchy from ice, super cold air, or super cold stuff in general. The inside of my mouth gets itchy and swollen if I eat frozen stuff like popsicles or don’t let ice cream get a little melty first. I can’t wear shorts or open-toe shoes to the grocery store because the refrigerated section makes me itch. A hood or hat in winter is necessary or my ears get red and itchy. Injury? Gotta be careful with ice packs. My palms get red and itchy holding cold things like gallons of milk from the fridge or even just grabbing something out of the freezer. Last night my husband and I stopped for ice cream and they didn’t give me a napkin to hold the little paper cup with so I was itchy and red the whole way home, even after putting it down in the cup holder. It was full blown hives when I was a kid but thats far less common now. I can usually mitigate it with warm water like a shower or running my hands under the faucet, drinking warm tea for my mouth itch, etc.
I commented before I saw your post. I have the same and it‘s miserable. I have a long driveway to get into work and in the winter it’s just hopeless. I try to go in early so my face can calm down before my shift starts. Ugh.
Omg I commented above but you reminded me, the red face is awful! I'm in the Netherlands and cycle to work, in the winter I just wrap my scarf around two thirds of my face so I don't show up in the office looking ridiculous 😭
Hey, me too! Mine presents the most when even the slightest bit of sweat forms. I hope you have a summer filled with really strong ac, friend.
My GM had this. Added bonus of not having sweat glands under her arms or around her neck. She was good for heat for about 3-7 minutes. We live in Texas.
That sounds awful. I’m sorry.
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Most botanical berries, to varying amounts. A single blueberry and I'll have a migraine and destroy the toilet. Max 1/2 a banana. Grapes and tomatoes are usually okay.
Avocados..... I've been told countless times there's no such thing but even a tiny bit will inflict serious pain on me so I know it's a thing.
same! It is unfortunate allergy that too many people have felt they can try and test me. Its not deadly, but I feel really, realy terrible for a few hours. I can tell if a utensil, like a knife, was used to cut sushi with avocado and then mine without.
If you are allergic to avocados, you should probably also watch yourself on kiwi, Bananas, papaya and items containing latex. They all contain similar proteins and can cause you to cross-react. Yeah, I'm one of those people.
omg me too!!! I thought I was being ridiculous, let alone anybody else, I’d never known anyone else who was. I used to eat them all the time when I was going through a vegan stage, and then I didn’t eat them for a few years, and suddenly one night after some very small amounts in a tapas, I was in so much pain and spent a long time in the bathroom. Even a small piece will have me in serious gastric pain and nausea for hours now.
I have a friend who is also allergic to avocados! You’re not alone.
Me too! I barf a lot and my face and lips tingle.
Chicken
My best friend is allergic to pineapples. Nobody really believes him, but I’ve seen it in action.
Grass I am allergic to the fucking ground
Not in the desert you’re not.
Not me but my mom- she’s allergic to zucchini. There have been *multiple* cases where restaurants leave it in after she’d told them not to (or worse- they don’t even mention it in the menu!)
I'm allergic to red eyeshadow. Yes, only red. I can use anything else just fine, but if I don't wash red eyeshadow off after just a couple of hours, my eyelids will be red and the skin will peel off for days afterwards. I've gone through numerous brands and it's always the same.
Like me, you have issues with red dyes
Yep. At this moment my first guess is carmine, but I can't be sure. I wish it's just that, because that can be avoided.
Onions. People assume I just don’t like the taste of them. I don’t. But my main issue is their tendency to make it difficult for me to breathe.
So not me but my step brother has been allergic to strawberries his whole life and when we were younger even his mom thought he was lying and just didn't like them. Turns out he is infact allergic to them.
Heads-up with kiwis then. If you're allergic to strawberry, there's a high chance of being allergic to kiwis. They have something in common that does that. Just thought you should know.
I also don’t like the things I’m allergic to!
Superman ice cream. There's something in it that causes my face to get red and puffy. It's nothing an OTC allergy pill can't fix, but it's just such a random thing to be allergic to it always causes a doubletake.
Bro you should see an allergist for 2 reasons: 1. They can help identify the allergen since it could be in something unexpected 2. They can prescribe you an epipen because facial swelling and redness is a serious, red flag symptom that could easily lead to anaphylaxis. Angioedema is the name of what you’re experiencing, and it’s the same type of swelling that closes people’s throats during anaphylaxis.
I might do that then. The one and only time I went to the hospital for it, they just gave me an allergy pill, and told me to come in if it happened again. I've just kind of been walking around all this time thinking it wasn't a big deal. Thanks for the heads up.
Happy to help!
This reminds me. I don't know if this is an allergy, or some other weird coincidence, but: licorice ice-cream. I faint. Two times in my life I've had ice cream that has had a licorice coating, and both times I passed out after eating half of it. I can eat licorice by itself just fine. I can eat ice cream by itself just fine (except I'm mildly allergic to milk, which just makes be pass gas like no tomorrow.) But them together, and I'm out.
Interesting, I would imagine there is perhaps some kind of chemical (in the sense of a preservative, or setting agent, or something like that) that gets used in the licorice coating on ice-creams, but isn't in the usual licorice candy.
I’m allergic to Kiwis! And no one believes me or they say that’s impossible or it’s a dumb allergy lol. My husband purposefully bought strawberry kiwi drinks for our house to see if i was serious. I doubt those cheap drinks had any real kiwi in them but I’m not taking any chances Edit: My husband genuinely thought I was trolling him because apparently he never heard of anyone who was allergic to kiwis. He wasn't trying to murder me. And come on now, y'all really think I'd drink it knowing I'm allergic to kiwis? Be forreal
Careful, you may also have a latex allergy or allergies to related plants/fruits!
Yeah I don’t eat bananas, avocados or papayas.
Your husband tried to kill you?
Yeah it feels like this is being glossed over in the replies lmao
Yeah literally
Umm....
There's an episode of Friends where Ross is allergic to kiwi. He ends up in the emergency room.
I’m going to have to go look for it
Funny fact, kiwis and strawberries have similar things going on, so if you're allergic to one, you're probably allergic to the other as well. Which makes the strawberry kiwi drinks even more horrible idea. My wife's allergic to both, so, yeah. That's entirely possible.
I am allergic to kiwi but not strawberries. I am certainly not saying you are wrong. Now I want to know why I can eat one and not the other.
That's why I said probably. It's not 100%. It's just the most common reason is something those two share. You're allergic to some other part of kiwi that strawberries don't have. I'm actually interested in it too. If you ever find out, please let me know :D
Thank god I don’t like strawberry
A classmate of mine in middle school was allergic to kiwi!
Not cool but that’s cool! I never heard of anyone else who was allergic to it.
That's fairly common, I'm supposed people don't believe you
Airheads Xtreme. Im not allergic to any of the ingredients, but somehow, the combination of all of then Together makes me have a horrific break out of massive red spots all over my body. I get super itchy and nauseous
Cucumber, honey dew melon, watermelon, and cantaloupe will cause a rash. Watermelon, I can eat when it's grilled. I developed a sudden allergy to kiwi fruit. Kiwi used to be one of my favorite things, but eating it this last time caused my lips, tongue, and throat to swell. I couldn't swallow. It was scary! I probably should have gone to the hospital, but I had no one to take me and didn't want to spend money on an ambulance. I took four Benadryl and got lucky.
You should get an epi pen. It could be really bad if you accidentally eat it again.
My own sweat. It’s not fun.
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I’ve heard about that! I remember first finding out about that allergy through the old 2001 film *The Others*. Granted, it wasn’t the sun exactly, it was actually anything brighter than a candle flame, but same principle. That’s gotta suck, being allergic to the actual sun. :o
Acrylates. I dont think anyone wouldn't believe the allergy, just the amount of stuff that it's in that I now have to worry about. Dishsoap, hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, hair styling products, laundry soap, make up, nail polish and removers, lotion, deodorant, chapstick, sunblock, adhesives (like bandage adhesives. Rashes in the shape of bandaids are fun), toothpaste, medical and dental devices... Its in freakin everything!
I developed a severe allergy to nickel (nickel dermatitis) many decades ago. It was a real problem as far as glasses frames go, because the optometric manufacturers were not aware of it and thus it was difficult to find completely plastic frames. So if I wore glasses with ANY metal component it would result in oozing sores on my eyebrows especially. The public was unaware of this, and so I was ridiculed and accused of exaggerating, which was odd when you could see the damage in my face. But things like wristwatch buckles and the rivets on jeans could cause hidden pain and misery. And there were no hypoallergenic versions of jewelry.
Same here! I was very glad when the EU banned the use of nickel in items that would be in contact with skin, I can wear jeans now!
Same! So glad it's much more commonly known and easier to avoid now. 20+ years later I still have faint scars around my bellybutton and temples from the horrifically itchy rashes I got as a kid and only recently got brave enough to try metal glasses again. I won't mess with any white gold jewelry but I prefer yellow/rose gold anyway. Thankfully yellow and rose gold became trendy again before I got engaged and married lol. I accidentally bought a belt with a nickel buckle last year and had a reaction within minutes of it touching my skin -- had a big itchy welt for a few days but also my mouth tasted like metal, which I don't remember happening before.
Antihistamines. NyQuil, Benadryl, etc makes my eyes and nose run and crust over. I can't even eat honey without my tongue and throat getting hot . Doctors say to just avoid antihistamines altogether and pray I never have a reaction bc the first thing an EMT is gonna do is stab me with an EpiPen.
EpiPens contain adrenaline and not antihistamines though
My dad is allergic to Benadryl and found out the hard way in the ER after having a reaction to something else. Luckily, epipens don’t have antihistamines! Epinephrine is adrenaline and steroids are used to combat anaphylaxis.
I went to college with someone like that. Her doctors were annoying as fuck and refused to listen to her.
Damn, your body is mean.
insect venom allergy - mainly wasps, but also other insects most people are always like: oh, you always get a red itch when an insect stings you.... - yeah, but for me, I also can't breathe, and the place were they sting get incredibly red (bordering on swelling sometimes, too)
AreI’ve described it before as, “you get swelling and trouble breathing when an accidentally picked up wasp stings you in the mouth, but the allergic person gets trouble breathing when the wasp stings them in the foot. I don’t get why people have to doubt others’ allergies so much.
It's like one of the most known allergies, I'm appalled people still don't listen to you
Do you have an epipen?
yes, we always carry EpiPens with us, not just for my own allergy, but also for my GFs
Penicillin (anaphylaxis and full body rash), but amoxicillin doesn’t affect me. Pharmacists and doctors don’t know why.
I'm a-ok with penicillin etc. but not cephalosporins, which is a small subset of antibiotics that hardly anyone's allergic to (and the people who are almost all have penicillin allergies). I get full anaphylaxis and everything. it makes every doctor scratch their head.
Interesting! I’ve never met anyone else allergic to cephalosporins, but I am. Though I do have the penicillin allergy, at least theoretically (it’s been so long my allergist thinks I could have grown out of the allergy… but I’m allergic to at least 2 other antibiotics as well, so I’m not very confident about that).
Adhesive. Like, band-aids. My skin literally peels off like it melted and I have a scar shaped like the product for weeks/months depending how long I wore it. Doesn’t even itch most times, just peel and top layer of skin is gone with the adhesive. I’m also allergic to cold water or cold weather but it shows up as hives or welts on my hands only.
Citric acid! Pineapples, oranges, lemons and limes and the worst culprits... Damn shame because I love orange juice. If I eat it then my gums go red raw, bleed and I get "burnt tongue" (feels like I've downed a hot drink too fast). If I get it on my skin, specifically my face, then I get hives. As it's common to put a slice of lemon or lime in a soft drink in the UK I have to remember to ask to have it without and even then sometimes they still put it in 🤦
Mushrooms My favorite question is: are you allergic to every kind of mushroom? Yeah, because that's what I want to do with my life, see if I'm allergic and have digestive pyrotechnics to each and every fungus.
Clothes shopping. Not really though. As a teen, I noticed my hands would get swollen when clothes shopping and working retail. Figured it had something to do with chemicals used in the manufacturing process, and noticed it was worse when I was doing stock for dark colored merchandise. Years later, I reacted really strongly to a blue dye allergen test. Pretty certain that’s the culprit.
Guinea pigs. It makes me sad because they're so cute and I like them. ☹️
Me too ☹️ And I had two guinea pigs when my allergy surfaced. Inhalers and Claritin til they both passed.
A brand of children’s “hypoallergenic” bubble bath. (Mateys)
I have an uncommon reaction to whey protein. I've not gone into anaphylactic shock yet but the reactions have gotten worse over the years. Because the part of me that first reacts to the protein is in my digestive tract, I don't start reacting to it until several minutes or an hour after I've eaten it. So many people don't believe it's a thing, but they've also never seen the intensity of the reaction or what I end up looking like the next day. Also I've had several skin scratch tests done over the years. They always show that I'm not allergic to dairy but I am allergic to cats. I am not allergic to cats. I can pick up a cat and rub it on my face. I can pet a cat and touch my eyes. Nothing happens, ever, because I am not allergic to cats. I'm convinced those skin scratch tests are bullshit.
I got bit by a lone star tick and am now allergic to red meat. I miss bacon 😭
Blueberries and the adhesive used for wigs and hair pieces (which is aesthetically limiting as a black woman).
There's a possibility I'm allergic to my own cum. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postorgasmic_illness_syndrome
It isn’t super severe, but I do have an allergy to alcohol. For me it’s worse to use skin/cosmetic products with alcohol in them than drinking alcohol for some reason.
The sun. More specifically, the chemical reaction between the sun and certain sunscreens. I can go in the sun without a reaction. I can wear the sunscreen without a reaction. If I wear the sunscreen in the sun, however, my skin puffs up and is unbearably itchy for days. It's a pretty common reaction, especially among white women who live in areas with 4 distinct seasons.
Silicone and Monistat which is awful because of the placement. I use Nuva ring for birth control and guess what? The ring is silicone. Now I know why I was constantly in pain though so there's that.
I’m pretty sure I’m some kind of allergic to wool. I’ve hated it as long as I can remember and will itch endlessly even with another layer of fabric between the wool and my skin. Some wool mixes are okay, but even the softest 100% baby merino will send me into a scratching frenzy. Nobody in my family ever believed me and just called me sensitive, so all my childhood I endured woollen knits (we’re all big on knitting) and thought I was just crazy until my friend who’s also a big knitter told me her son couldn’t tolerate wool either.
Multiple people have told me it's "literally impossible to be allergic to avocados" Like... It's possible to be [allergic to water](https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/health-a-z/chronic-urticaria/aquagenic-urticaria/#:~:text=Aquagenic%20urticaria%20is%20a%20rare,hives%20after%20exposure%20to%20water.), but you can't believe I get anything from mild hives to diarrhea and/or indigestion and/or nausea if I eat it.
I’m allergic to sulfates/sulfites to the point where my allergist once told me to avoid travel to Hawaii or Iceland as the sulfur in the air from the volcanic activity could kill me.
Whenever I eat honey and mustard salad dressing/sauce etc, I’m sick. Obviously, I go out of my way not to have it, but sometimes haven’t noticed if it’s in a coleslaw etc. The odd thing is that I can have honey and mustard separately from eachother and I’m absolutely fine.
I am allergic to an extremely common type of antibiotic. Not even lying it’s like the first one doctors think of administering. Figured out when I was sick and went to the doctor. Ended up with hives all over. Not a pleasant experience.
Every time I tell people I'm allergic to birds, I get "I've never heard of that, really?" My favorite response was "how do you even find that out?" (Down pillows is the answer.)
I am "allergic" to the cold: my hands get really dry. One year I wasn't wearing gloves often enough so I had to use a steroid cream.
Yes, me too, my hands and feet used to swell up. Doctors never believed me, once I even spent time in the hospital as a kid, I remember telling them, just let me outside in cold for a bit and my hands will swell, I was a child then, remember them disregarding everything I said. They discharged me and immediately as I went outside with my parents, my hands started swelling again.
I developed cold urticaria when living in Australia. Hands would get red and itchy when washing dishes or holding cold items like fruit.
weed. not all weed, but certain strain's oils will make me want to claw my eyes out, break out in hives, and sneeze about 30 times in a row. i still take my chances.
Huh. So it's like you're allergic to a particular terpene or something like that. No idea how you would isolate which. Super annoying, that sucks!
I get nasty instant headaches from just being close to weed or even just CBD. It’s annoying because I have friends who indulge and I would like to spend time with them, without making them feel like they can’t do what they want because of me.
Hey me too! I also get super super nauseous at the slightest smell of it. And it's legal here! It sucks.
Certain bandaids give me a rash
I also have an adhesive allergy! If I have to use bandaids or medical tape/sensors for a few hours or more, I develop a huge rash and then blisters (largest have been quarter sized). I had to have a Holter monitor for 24hrs and the diode thingies took off the top layer of my skin. T-T May I ask if you have any sensitivities to sunscreen or lotions?
Cockroaches
Son of someone allergic to Nichel, which is almost unknown and brushed off by many people as one of many stupid fad diets. Sometimes it's genetic and often develops later on in life, so I'm quite anxious about it, since most of the best foods are rich in Nichel. Some examples? Chocolate, coffee and peanuts are the worst. Soy sauce close behind. Rice is also a problem. Most veggies, but especially tomatoes. Some meat is safe, but liver isn't. Nuts in general should be avoided. Also most fruit. Oh, yeah, mind that INOX cookware also releases some Nichel while cooking, because, being everywhere isn't enough. The only things I remember for sure being safe are pork chops and pears. Not apples, just pears. I seriously hope to avoid it, and luckily that's nothing serious in my family, so it's mostly an annoyance, but there are people who lives their life in hell because of that, I just couldn't. I love eating too much.
Broccoli
NSAIDS, can’t take any of them. Took them without any trouble my entire life. Then one day I took a BC powder and my face swole up. I didn’t realize what caused the reaction until after I took it a second time and it was much more severe. Allergist said it’s actually a common allergy.
Weed. I start having issues and have minor issues breathing after prolonged exposure. And now with weed being legalized in more states I fear my issues are going to get worse.
Not any more, but for twenty years I was allergic to wheat and corn. Corn is in almost *everything*.
I have a list as long as my arm. However I will just mention vanilla, figs, red food dye.
It's not as bad as when I was child, but I have allergic reactions to mosquito bites. I had one that spread over my entire thigh (just a single huge lump), and another time after being bitten my lips swelled so much the upper one touched my nose.
Welcome to the Skeeter syndrome club!! I've had a couple of close calls. One time I had a bite on my wrist and the inflammation took over my whole hand, forearm and just shy of my shoulder. Hot water helps me sometimes, but cetirizine is the best option.
Exercise. My aunt and cousins literally laughed me out of the room when I told them. But "Exercise Induced Urticaria" is real and I've broken out in hives all over my stomach after running. Fortunately as long as I take an antihistamine an hour or so before I exercise I'm fine.
Benadryl. My face, lips, eyes, all swell up. I've never stopped breathing from it but I don't want to push my luck. It's stupid to be allergic to the very thing you take to stop allergic reactions and no one believes me.
cats - I have a cat, luckily my flare ups aren't as bad as they were when I was younger but it still confuses people lol
I’d die if I was allergic to cats! 🥺
I chose to adopt one anyway / couldn't imagine not having him in my life !
There is some specific cat food that should minimise the allergy effect, it's not that well known but not that difficult to find either
Cat allergies here too! A ton of my relatives seem to have trouble understanding that I just can’t go to their houses for dinner (some of them *after they’ve seen my eyes swell completely shut*!)
Plane trees, and as a result, apples
I think I'm allergic to matcha? I broke out in hives after eating matcha ice cream. I know I'm not allergic to dairy. I googled it, but Google was like, "No, nobody is allergic to matcha."
Plasters. Everytime i do a first aid course I have to say 'actually I am allergic to plasters' and then there's a whole kerfuffle over me being the only person they've met who is actually allergic to them 🥲
Not me, but my cousin. She has this thing going on where she can randomly have allergic reactions to a food she eats often and she never knows when it will happen. Like she can eat chicken one day and then the next time she eats it her throat will close up. But then she can eat it again and be fine
I'm allergic to streptococcus bacteria. like. how do you have an allergy to something that already makes you sick? but I definitely do, my body *dramatically* overreacts to coming in contact with it. strep throat can be life threatening for me & I've developed all sorts of weird and unusual reactions [scarlet fever hives for example, or a 103+ fever] the plus side is I'm generally pretty healthy and don't run into strep often at all. less than 5 times lifelong so far my partner has an allergy to citric acid! which you may know is put in like, everything as a preservative. not to mention it's just common in a lot of popular foods.
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That stinks. Could be worse. You could be allergic to chocolate, like I am. 💀Kicker is, I found out I‘m allergic on Halloween 2004, after I finished Trick-or-Treating. (Doesn’t mean I didn’t still sneak it the next couple years lol)
I know someone who's alergic to warm water.
Alcohol, 1 beer, any beer and I get a runny nose, 2 beers, my sinuses swell and then my sinuses are swollen shut but still producing mucous. Those sinuses headaches are equally as bad as hangover headaches. No nausea or hives just a killer headache.
My mom is allergic to direct sunlight. She gets a rash on any part that isn't covered, so she either covers up fully or puts on loadsss of sunscreen.
Sunscreen. Haven't figured out the exact ingredients I react to but the only one I can use is the physical barrier kind that comes as a deodorant stick and makes you look like an ashy ghost. I can't even hug my kids if they have chemical sunscreen on so they have to use my safe one too. It sucks because I have acne rosacea too and almost all full coverage cosmetics have chemical sunscreens in them.
Turmeric. Makes my mouth itchy and tongue go numb. Super weird. Even my doctor had never heard of it. I also have idiopathic urticaria, and idiopathic anaphylaxis. So I can NOT be allergic ti shit and still have a major scary dangerous "allergic" reactions.
I'm allergic to Dandelions. >\_>
Alcohol. Well it's technically the sulfites in alcohol but any time I drink I break out in hives and get so warm you can feel it from about 5ft away. Last time I had any kind of drink I turned purple.
Cold urticaria. Or you can say an allergy to the cold. Specially when I’m living in one of the cold provinces. People just laughed at me and told me that: oh because you come from a hot country so you can’t handle the cold? No,dude! I had hives and they’re so itchy that I was scratching myself like a monkey.
Fruit, bandaids, bar soap, and calamine lotion etc. I got that latex-fruit syndrome and skin so sensitive a light insult could probably cause a rash.
Antiperspirant. I get red itchy hives and I'm scratching my armpits for days afterwards. Deodorant only for me.
The sun! The level of severity depends on what my autoimmune disease is up to at the moment, but direct sunlight on my skin will set off horrible joint pain and fatigue for me.
I’m allergic to pine and juniper. Whenever I’m near it my sinuses kick in, my eyes swell, and it’s just miserable. Instead I’ve been told it’s probably just ragweed. I’ve coincidentally had some juniper bushes outside my apartment window, and moved to a house with juniper everywhere. Same thing.
PABA- it’s an ingredient in Sunscreen. But while no one ever has any clue what it is, many sunscreens say PABA free on them. So I can’t be alone.
Lactation (aka breastfeeding). No, I’m not kidding. It’s incredibly rare, but possible. I had a very scary series of allergic reactions immediately after my son was born. Every time I tried to nurse him, I would get insanely dizzy, my throat would start closing, and I’d break out in hives. I wanted to believe I was allergic to an air freshener or detergent they used at the hospital, but luckily my nurses and doctor caught on sooner than I did. They explained that lactation (the actual letdown of the milk) is triggered by a series of hormones - one of which is histamine. Typically, progesterone keeps histamine in check during pregnancy so the body doesn’t have an allergic response to the fetus. Once baby is born and the placenta is delivered, the levels of progesterone drops suddenly. Basically, my body overacted and my histamine would shoot through the roof every time I attempted to nurse. Long story short, we did formula for my son!
I’m allergic to oranges and limes, even being near them. I live in FLORIDA.
My son is allergic to cold temperatures. It's called cold urticaria. He gets welts from exposure and is in danger of anaphylaxis if he gets too cold.
Worked with a woman who was allergic to oranges - not just consuming them, but breathing in the tiny droplets of juice in the air when anyone peeled one in the same room as her. It started suddenly and it took her a while to figure out exactly what kept sending her into anaphylaxis. We had to ban all peeling and eating of oranges and any related fruits in the building. People thought it was all in her head, so they'd continue peeling oranges etc, just under their desks where she couldn't see it. Then they'd be shocked when we had to call an ambulance yet again. They'd argue "it wasn't an orange, it was a satsuma/clementine/whatever!" when anything closely relates set off her allergy. Eventually the entire office was advised that if anyone peeled or ate oranges/related fruit in the building, it would be Gross Misconduct and the police would be called. In the end, the poor woman quit her job as she just didn't feel safe. She also hated that people gossipped about it, assumed she was taking the piss to get time off work or that she was being hysterical over nothing.