The wicked mind of a ha sufferer (what happened to me today)

[hypomom]

So my husband had a bin full of crap on the back porch and it has sat there for months and collected water. So today I decide to go out there and empty the water as the weather is warming up and I dont' want bugs to breed. SO i go out on my break ( i work from home) and empty it and do some general cleaning in yard (it's been windy so there was paper and crap from the neighborhood that had blown over). So anyway, I come inside after and go straight back to work . I was thinking how good it felt to get outside and move around on my break. Feeling good. THEN my arms from my wrists to my elbows started to really itch and bother me. I thought "dry skin" and put lotion on them. Then I noticed they were bumpy feeling and I had a rash on my arms on the bottom part. Hmmm... my big, big fear is my throat closing. Immediately I start thinking OMG i'm having a allergic reaction to something. I can FEEL my lips tongue and mouth swelling and my throat is getting tight!

OH I begin to really freak out and go in panic mode. Then I feel like I cannot swallow. Ok. I'm dying and I'm home alone and my husband is 30 min away.
I go to a mirror. Guess what? No swelling of lips, tongue or throat. I FEEL like they are but the proof is in the mirror!  Thankfully. I slowly calm down! Whew! My arms still have a slight rash but after putting on lotion and removing the long sleeve shirt i was wearing no longer itch. Don't know what it's about but look how my mind blew it up!

[wegngis]

It's a constant battle for me not to get caught in that.  You offered a great example of how to survive an attack.

[SighNoMore]

Thank you for posting this. I begin to struggle when I am in the midst of an attack. I am glad the mirror showed you why you were wrong. I get frequent rashes/skin irritations and sometimes they lead me down the rabbit trail as well.

[LindaRK]

I had something similar happen to me last night - one of my legs started itching.  Really bad.  It was horrible.  My mind started taking off then I said to myself - my skin is probably dry.  Put some lotion on it for crying out loud!  I did and immediately the itching stopped.