Some Mental Health Resources

All by myself. Don't wanna be all by myself anymore.

In addition to more research on epinephrine and food allergy reaction treatments, there was also information on food allergies and mental health at the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology conference this year. People with food allergies have a higher likelihood to experience prolonged periods of worry, avoidance of social situations, depression, food phobias, disordered eating, and anxiety. I can definitely attest that we have experienced an unnecessary amount of worry, food phobias (get that pack of nabs away from my baby!), and anxiety after our kid was diagnosed (and especially after we had to use epinephrine the first time). Frustration and anxiety were the main reasons I started this blog. Sure, I wanted to share helpful information, but mostly I wanted to vent because food allergies are TERRIBLE.

With all of the tweets from the conference about mental health, there was a fair number of resources that were shared. So, if instead of venting in a blog (or reading a blog that vents), you’d rather talk to an actual professional, there is a directory of mental health providers (in 4 countries, though mostly the US) that specialize in food allergy counselling AND there’s a list of resources that would have been great to read through when my kid was first diagnosed.

I think we’ve really turned some corners recently, as our toddler has stopped putting anything she can find in her mouth- it seems less likely that she will inadvertently eat a food allergen that has been left somewhere. Plus, we’ve also taken out almost everything she’s allergic to out of the house to make the prospect of cross contamination of her food lower. There’s still stress when we go out into the world, where we don’t have control of everything she comes in contact with, but hopefully with practice that too will improve.

But, so far we’ve only dealt with our feelings about our kid’s food allergies. She’s just now starting to understand that she has to eat different things than her peers. She knows she can’t have pizza on Friday, she knows that she has special milk, but for the most part I don’t think she has any idea what she’s missing (and that’s a good thing, too, because she’s missing all of the best things. Peanut butter. Cheese. Real ice cream…) As she gets older, though, I know she is going to have more feelings about what she can and can’t eat, especially at parties and other people’s homes. Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Connection Team has some good advice on what to do when talking with your kids about mental health and how to get the conversation started. As she gets older, I guess it’s just another thing to add to the list of worries. I just want her to be happy! And healthy! And not left out! But safe! But also happy!