I feel like I am a little late to the game on this one, but heyyy, it’s allergy season! If you have allergies in any capacity then I’m sure you’ve definitely already noticed this, and you may or may not be frowning at your screen reading this. I’m sure a lot of you DO experience seasonal allergies. I definitely do. Mine have never gotten bad enough for me to have to take any prescribed meds for them, but I’ll pop a Claritin every once in a while. Allergies are incredibly frustrating because they’re always a somewhat minor inconvenience that you can’t really do anything about. Maybe stronger allergy meds actually do the trick, but for those of us who are stuck suffering without them, the constant slightly runny nose, mild sinus congestion, and itchy eyes kinda suck. I have very sensitive skin on my face, and I try my best to not touch it that much throughout the day (I always fail at this), so when my eyes start to burn and itch, it is really not a fun experience.
Seasonal allergies are caused by an excess of pollen (which is plant sperm, by the way. Have fun inhaling all of that!) in the air for a certain period of time, which is typically spring/late spring. In my research I also just learned that when people talk about having “hay fever”, they mean allergies! I always thought hay fever was its own type of illness, like scarlet fever or yellow fever or something. I now know that those two are way worse. There are other ways that people attempt to combat these allergies–I’ve seen those nasal sprays before, but they kinda freak me out. I don’t like the idea of anything going in my nose like (I will not make a joke about coke here, but I did consider it for a second). If things get really dire, there are injections you can get that are supposed to help make the symptoms go away over time. Allergy shots are a thing for other allergies, too, not just pollen. For instance, I am quite allergic to cats, but I love them more than anything else on this planet, so I’ve considered potentially doing some kind of immunotherapy treatment so that I can someday, MAYBE have my own cat. Having springtime allergies is a pain, but at least you are super super unlikely to experience anaphylaxis. Cool word, terrifying, life-threatening experience.
Do you experience seasonal allergies? If so, what do you do to combat them?