Anxiety with anaphylaxis like symptoms

[Mat789]

Can anxiety attacks really mimic anaphylaxis?  Symptoms including hives all over body, sort of shortness of breath (but not sure if it is), stomach cramp and diarrhoea, extreme anxiety and uneasiness and fear, fast heart rate (not sure if it’s strong or weak), hot flash. I once thought this was anaphylaxis and went to ER but ECG, blood pressure reading etc all came back normal. Ive had similar symptoms since but they always subside after resting for about an hour and sometimes taking a 1st generation anti histamine. My symptoms tend to develop slowly over about half an hour to an hour and generally peak after an hour, sometimes longer.

[Achrinfo]

I hope you get well soon. Praying for you :)

[Mat789]

I’ve lost count of the number of blood and urine tests I’ve had after googling. Results always come back normal.

[Mat789]

The other strange thing is that although I’ve always had mild hives with diarrhoea, these other accompanying symptoms only started becoming noticeable after I learnt what anaphylaxis is through a web search. And now it’s the first thing I fear whenever I get hives or diarrhoea.

[Paxiled]

Get off the Google.  The fact you Google something and then think you have it to this extent does suggest an anxiety disorder.  Allergy meds can help with anxiety if they're the sedating ones.  Mom is right, you need a more thorough medical analysis than you can get from the ER, so do exactly what she recommended.

[Mat789]

I went to an allergy specialist too and he said it probably was either a mild allergy combined with anxiety or just purely anxiety. None of the tests done in the ER seemed to point towards a severe allergic reaction. Blood pressure was normal, there was no swelling of throat or face, ECG was normal.

[specialmom]

I think it is important if you have an onset of symptoms to get checked out to rule out any other physical reason.  Good that you went to the ER for an acute episode of this.  But after that, I think it is important to visit your general practitioner to go over what is happening.  A full physical is really important.  If there are no issues found, then yes, it is amazing what mental health issues can create physically in our body.  Your doctor then can direct you to the next step to work on treating this if anxiety is determined to be the main cause.  Let us know if you have that physical.  good luck

[Mat789]

Also pins and needles in hands. But when I did go to the ER, the presence of reassuring medical staff seemed to help in calming everything down.

[Mat789]

Also get extreme sensitivity to sound when this happens and feel very panicky to the extent I can get overwhelmed, lightheaded.

[Mat789]

Normally when it happens, I also start looking up symptoms which makes everything worse

[Mat789]

It also happens randomly and isn’t associated with any food or anything.