Hello LongeCity Forum,
First of all, I've been a social anxiety (not extreme) sufferer for quite a long time, it used to be the first cause of concern in my life and something that really made me not to enjoy a normal life. However on the last months/years it has gone better, I realized that I had to do something, I started reading and following recommendations that at that time I thought were quite good (using some nootropics, like Mr. happy stack, following some lifestyle recommendations, etc.), also I'm quite pragmatic, so even though I suffered a lot of anxiety I started using dating apps, and trying to go to social meetings more often, also I felt better at my work and nowadays I feel like a normal human being when working (my boss has even designated me as procurement responisble, where I've to deal with quite a lot people) and much more capable to deal with social situations in normal life.
It comes out that this has happened also during the time when I've moved to a foreign country (USA) to live and even though it's not the first time I live outside my parents house i belive it's the first time i feel really independent, which also may help with social anxiety I believe (I'm from Spain, a country where youngsters tend to live much more time in their parents houses than in other countries like USA).
Well, I've realised that when I go back home I feel more shy and with social anxiety: trembles on my face come back, I feel anxious when I've to talk, etc. Obviously what I first thought was that seeing friends, going to family reunions and seeing cousing, uncles, etc again was triggering the anxiety; or also the feeling of being childish again when going back with my parents triggered it too. But I feel that that is, atleast, not the only cause, as just being in my house without seeing anyone I felt like acting more introvert-alike, and feeling less outgoing, once I went to the cinema with my brother, with whom I don't feel anxious at all, and I felt quite social anxious, however I would never feel like this when going to the cinema in USA.
And this is where allergy comes into play, I've allergy to dust mites, and it comes out that where I am from in Spain there is a lot of these mites and I feel with flu like symptoms more or less everyday, whereas in the USA I don't feel allergy symptoms at all. I've also started to suspect that the days that I wake up with more rhinitis and flu like symptoms I'm also with more social anxious (it's hard to measure this, however I believe there is a correlation).
I've been investigation a bit on internet and I've seen some papers regarding this:
- Allergic rhinitis induces anxiety-like behavior and altered social interaction in rodents: http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC2743459/
- Is allergic rhinitis more frequent in young adults with extreme shyness? A preliminary survey: http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/2247557
- It's also discussed on this book called Psychoimmunology: http://tinyurl.com/z53rnts (google books)
So, what do you think? Do you think it is possible that my mood changes so fast, with just one or two days of being on a place where I've allergy? Has any of you ever felt the same? Do you think that taking anti allergy medication on days where I'm going to have more social interactions is going to make me feel better?
Regards and thanks for reading.
