LOVE, Kloudiia

Talk about anticipation ha! I surely didn’t anticipate having an attack of hives! Not the first thing to greet me when I woke up, certainly.

Yikes! These red patches of monstrous ugly looking rashes are darn itchy, so I hurridly went to see the same doctor I visited 2 days ago for my sore throat and cough ailment. Well, the doctor did not rule out the possibility of an allergic reaction to medication, as he cited a few other potential causes for this attack, like my flu virus for example. Want to see how my hives look like?

Here you go …

  

Looks ghastly, don’t they?

So what do you do and how do you handle when you are beseiged by a sudden attack of hives? Itch is something that can torment you and tear you into pieces, then again, there are indeed other ways (non-medical) that can help to alleviate your discomfort. Here are some that I can think of and which I practiced:

1. Get yourself distracted

Focus on other things and make yourself busy. Like now, I am concentrating on blogging, and thereafter some other work I need to do online, before reading a book to keep myself occupied and my mind focused on all things except my body condition.

This is a very useful method because it effectively kills two birds with one stone. By staying focused on my work, I kept myself productive and it allows me to ‘forget’ about my itchiness! Remember, it’s all in the brains.

2. Visualisation

Taking some time out, I sat down and made myself relaxed. Closing your eyes definitely helps a lot, and if need be, perhaps you can play some soothing music in the background to expedite the process. Then, mentally, I start to take stock of where the hives are located around my body and, putting myself in the 1st position (in NLP, we call this getting ourselves associated) I visualised those red patches beginning to slowly fade out before they totally disappear. And I can feel the smoothness of my skin all over again.

In the process, I imagined a little fairy with a magic wand flying close to my body, and with a slight touch of her wand, soothes the itchiness away, leaving with it a slight cool sensation.

You are free to make use of your own imagination in whatever ways and in whichever extent you like, so long as it helps. Even if it only helps a bit, it still helps. So maybe all you need is to magnify the extent to make it you feel even better.

Do this a few times in a day. And see what is the effect it has on you. Go on, test it. anyway it’s free!

3. Stay cool, and dry

That’s right! Contrary to the old folk’s belief that you shouldn’t go under the fan when you are suffering from hives, the doctor adviced me to stay cool and dry, because perspiration may worsen the itchiness. So, avoid going under the sun, or walking long distance or exert excess strength as that might cause you to break out into sweat!

Of course, needless to say, stay clean haha! Personal hygiene is even more critical now during this period.

4. Stay relaxed.

Though may not be the reason for this break-out (but then again, we never can be too sure it’s not, isnt’ it?), staying away from stress will help in speeding up the recovery time, as stress is also known as one of the factor that induces hives. So for the time being, do not stress yourself out unnecessarily. Take a few more deep breaths when you find yourself getting agitated, and go and do things that you enjoying doing. Like me, reading is definitely one of them! 

5. Tender loving care

Haha, how can I ever miss this out, since I’m advocating love all the time! Well, it surely doesn’t hurt and it certainly does help if your partner gives you more tender loving care during this period. Oh, it will be even better if he/she is there to apply the cream for you. Because when you receive love and concern, not just from your spouse, but also from your family, it releases a certain hormone in your body that will make you feel much better and hence, I believe, indirectly will be a boost in your mental state of mind.

And while I am typing away, the red patches are growing bigger in size. Well, I’ll just stay cool and not be over-alarmed and yes, I believe it will be over in a few days time.

[tags]Hives[/tags]