English Transcript
If you’re feeling anxious about your allergy and asthma diagnosis, it’s important to start with reminding yourself that it’s okay to feel anxious. It’s actually really normal to feel anxious. Anxiety is a normal human emotion that’s triggered by the unknown or unpredictability or something new. Unfortunately we always think that anxiety means something bad is going to happen because it’s that worried “what if” thinking that makes us feel really uncomfortable.
So first remind yourself that it’s okay to feel anxious, that anxiety is part of living with these diagnoses. The next thing to do is to figure out what is the anxiety about? Get to know your anxiety, befriend it. You can even give it a name so that you’re more aware that Mr. or Miss Anxiety is here. And then figure out what kinds of questions you need to circle back to your allergist on. What is at the core of this anxiety? Are you worried about your child’s safety? Do you not know how to keep them safe? Are you worried about going out to eat and traveling, and if so, maybe you need more information to understand how you can do that safely.
One thing to remind yourself is that when we’re feeling anxious, we actually tend to overestimate risk and underestimate our ability to handle a risky situation. So recognizing that you’re anxious, knowing that it’s normal to feel anxious, getting to know your anxiety, maybe giving it a name, befriending it, and then taking what is causing and fueling that anxiety, putting it into questions, and following up with your healthcare team and your allergists is going to be a really great plan to managing anxiety.
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