Allergy psychosomatics

What psychosomatics says

In psychosomatics, allergy is linked to body memory. Once something painful happened, most often a separation: someone you loved left, you fell out with a friend, you moved. And at that moment something else was around: wormwood was blooming, there was a smell of hay, a cat lived in the house.

The situation itself is long over, you may even have forgotten it. But your body remembered the link: this smell or this time of year means pain. Every time it meets that sign again, it reacts as if the separation were happening all over again.

That’s why in psychosomatics it matters not only what you’re allergic to. It matters what happened in the same season before your first reaction. Psychosomatics helps you find that old story and live through it, so your body stops reliving it every time.

What it is

With an allergy, your body mistakes a harmless substance for a threat and makes antibodies against it. The next time you meet that substance, histamine and other substances are released in your skin and mucous membranes. That’s where the itching, swelling, runny nose and rash come from.

The most common form is allergic rhinitis. According to the Russian Ministry of Health clinical guidelines (2024), 10–24% of people in Russia have it, and 4–32% in different countries around the world. It’s caused by plant pollen, house dust mites, animal hair, mold. Your nose is blocked and runny, you keep sneezing, your nose and eyes itch. 15–38% of people with allergic rhinitis also have asthma.

Another common form is hives: itchy welts that look like a nettle sting. According to the Russian Ministry of Health clinical guidelines (2023), acute hives happen to about 20% of people. If welts appear almost every day for longer than 6 weeks, it’s chronic hives. It affects 0.5–5% of people, and women more often than men.

An allergist looks for the cause. They find out when and after what your symptoms start, and do skin tests or a blood test for antibodies to allergens. According to the clinical protocol of the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan (2024), skin tests are done only outside a flare-up and under a doctor’s supervision.

How it shows up

• A blocked or runny nose, frequent sneezing
• An itchy nose, watery and itchy eyes
• Itchy welts on your skin, like a nettle sting
• Swelling of the lips, eyelids or face
• Flare-ups at the same time of year or around the same thing: a cat, dust, food
• Coughing and wheezing

An allergist-immunologist examines you and chooses treatment. You can start with a general practitioner.