Hello friends,
My name is Pat, and I am a sophomore in high school. I am a healthy, very social teen who also plays hockey. My urticaria started out of nowhere mid December, and every day since I have broken out into awful hives.
I went to the doctor, and he said to try antihistamines, which have no effect at all. These hives are ruining me because I can’t talk to girls anymore or laugh really hard with my friends without stinging like hell.
This is really putting me down and the thought of having this for the rest of high school worries me. I guess I’m just asking for advice on how to deal with my hives because lately as I said I’m not enjoying life that much.
-Pat
Hivesguy says
Sorry to hear about your struggles with this, Pat. My advice would be to spend some time reading this forum and/or watching the videos I put up (to see what worked for me). Other than that, antihistamines may help for the short term. I know you’ve tried some but there are many different kinds, and some work better than others. I have a whole treatments article on this site (see the main drop down menu). Some people use sweat therapy, etc. I’d recommend you keep working with your doctor to try different things. Thanks for your comment. Hang in there!
Ann says
My Dr has me on antihistamines and histamine blockers and that has me mostly under control. I have heat and cold triggered.
Grayson says
Hello Pat, my name is Grayson and I have had an experience the exact same as yours.
I’m going to go ahead and say that there is a chance that Hives will follow you for the rest of your life, but there is also a chance that they’ll disappear tomorrow. Doctors simply can’t diagnose the duration of these things.
My hives began in the 8th grade out of nowhere, I was already not very social, but this ruined me. I spent a LOT of time in bathroom stalls, I wore light jackets to cover my arms so people wouldn’t notice the redness, I could go on about my experiences but I’ll spare you – just ask if you have any specific questions.
For about six months, I did homework through my school from home and stayed in an air-conditioned environment, trying my best to not overheat (or increase my heartbeat, the triggers are vague and mixed). I ultimately believe this was the worst thing I could have done.
Antihistamines did not work for me, real progress came from a mixture of 1. learning how my body works, specifically how the disease affects me (it is different for everyone), 2. maturing beyond the point of “my life sucks and is not worth living if I have to go outside.”
I eventually found that purposefully overheating myself, though exercise or hot showers, would prevent any seriously debilitating outbreaks during the normal school day. I still do this, now that I’m 21, but my Hives are much less pronounced and generally flair up only during the winter. It gets better for sure.
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR PRINCIPAL AND ALL OF YOUR TEACHERS UNDERSTAND YOUR CONDITION. I would get blown off, a secretary once even accused me of trying to get out of class because of my hives (which I was! I was bright red and itching during math, I had to get out!). You should always be able to leave a classroom to go to the bathroom and splash water on your face or just pass time while your hives are flaring instead of hiding it from everyone. You can get your doctor to write a letter to your school if the principal refuses to understand your condition.
It’s a bad thing to happen to a high schooler, yes, but it is no worse than other debilitating circumstances such as losing a limb, depression, mental illness, etc. You are strong and these experiences will make you stronger, good luck.
If you have questions, or want to talk, you can reach me at just.grays@gmail.com
Nick says
Man what you wrote breaks my heart – high school is rough enough without this horrible thing. I can imagine how debilitating life feels because I too have trouble now going into a meeting and am afraid to go to work for fear I’ll have an attack when around people. Just know I’m here for you. If you ever need to talk you can email me at nickpstaff@gmail.com and I’ll give you my phone number (no I’m not some crazy guy, just know how depressing this can be and it could help to talk). If I don’t respond then your email went to my spam so try contacting me through this forum by creating a new post and i should get a notification (i don’t always get notifications if you just add to this post so don’t do that).
Zyrtec helps me a bit. Otherwise I’m going to an allergy doctor tomorrow and will see if that helps.
Lastly, do you take any ADD medications? I believe thats what triggered my current bout with this.