THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM WITH ANTIHISTAMINE 

Histamine is a chemical reaction of your body’s immune response to cope with irritants like pollen, dust, and allergens. Antihistamine is drugs we consume/apply to squash that responds to irritants, so the body doesn’t know irritants are invading – although we will still be impacted by it…

It’s sadly foggy in Los Angeles; the NEWS reports that we are experiencing 20 degrees lower than average temperatures today… Although sunshine is forecasted for the next few days, we need rain.

 

An odd anniversary is around the corner; the reminder of 9/11… I don’t promote the celebration of negative moments, nor do I recommend highlights of ominous or glorious past times annually… We should appreciate the moments “as is” and focus on coping immediately and improve our future.

Antihistamines are drugs or plant essences that bind to but do not activate histamine receptors. I  think our mental “allergies” need the same treatment: Find something pleasant that occupies the mind to avoid bad thoughts infecting your brain and make you feel uncomfortable in a chain reaction. 

Yes, I’m using a medical comparison to talk about a psychological issue.

Many folks evoke “our constitutional rights” nowadays, but oddly their reality is a “us against you” stand. The main media seems to become more bias and religious leaders mix politics with religion… When a nation goes through changes, it seems opportunities “pop up” on many levels for political leaders to speak to their selected groups, segregating others that look critical upon these views. I could dismiss any of these extreme participants as uneducated or narrow-minded, but seemingly that too would continue the “single-out” effect. Yet, I think that well-traveled people have a more relaxed and composed understanding of embracing differences and adopt a more unifying perspective.

America is stuck in a repetitive cycle of counter-reaction; Good education for families with income levels below $45k has been neglected for decades. Kids are sent off to fight in wars under the mission of Democracy, and a whole new generation of young kids are poisoned with food products that clearly have created an onslaught of side effects we cant curve. The results are physically and mentally damaged generations, influenced by millionaire radio talk-hosts confusing them with messages that sound terrible to be poor and the government is their enemy… Their only way out seems to be via scholarship-lotto tickets or winning an America has Talent contest… 

Add to this religion; a mélange of fantastic perspectives of “what could be” fused with Theoretical dogmas of “this will happen if…” and you are presented with a modern America. Multiracial, yet disliking anything not equal. This set of fragile infrastructure is further confused with reality revoked celebrity idols catering to the poorest a sense of hope, and gun-trained offsprings shooting up schools because they disagree with a teacher or classmate. Media-thirsty politicians, lobbied by corporate interests, abandon their sworn “I fight for you” and mingle with foreign espionage selling our intellectual properties… The USofA struggles to implement the same modernizations they enforce in other lands with drone bombs and cannot take care of our poorest here at home. So poor that trying to find happiness within poverty is impossible, even an idea. Material survival must come first. We keep pointing out the “wrong” in others, maybe to look better in comparison? We are allergic to anything in our way to survive, to find peace. We live in a polluted world!

A Muslim Center in New York would not even be a media leading story if any of the reporters would be investigated why several Mayors and NY Governors failed twenty years ago to assign this building as a Historic landmark: The true story of a very unpleasant chapter of “accepting the past as is” escalated this week into hate and blame. I can see this escalating further in the decades to come. We can’t change the past by eliminating everything that “doesn’t fit any longer” – even so, we have evolved, changed, and now understand what was wrong; what seemed correct in the past to be unfitting today. We don’t learn by erasing. We teach by revisiting. Pretending it was never an irritant sets future generations up to repeat lessons they can’t visualize. We create further illness. As unpleasant as they were, these irritant symbols are here to create better awareness, a defense…

You see, how cleverly I am preparing you to treat the histamine intolerance, not to cover it up with artificial chemicals and then pretend everything is okay… There are steps to take before being informed; learn history, test if we can cope, and aid our response with solutions that prevent a bad outcome!

We have enough current issues to ponder: Floods in the world, barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf stream, wildfires, increased deadly weather systems, medical disadvantages, and the fragile idea of bringing “peace” to Afghanistan. We struggle with illusions and inability when tackling reality, often without a positive perspective. A mental antihistamine can have a placebo effect. It is bleak. A wildfire raging nearby, an unusual Alaska cold-front cooling down the West, parts of Texas expecting record rain and this unusual fog during the peak of Summer cooling down California: However “nice” the media is trying to present the future, we all need to participate in being better now.

Take the changes seriously. Encourage and show proactivity. Balance your tendency for frustration with showing random love to a neighbor. Offer to help someone and explain this is how you want to cope with your darkest thoughts. Get away from the TV, from the never-ending online tirade of misinformation (your slew of always annoying happy friends is misinformation too…) It is okay to have strong opinions, but often it would be wise not to form everything that floats through our busy minds into words.

I restrain calling anyone with different views stupid. You’re just coloring our world with hues of variations. And although it is increasingly frightening to live in a nation that consumes so many poisonous materials: from inhaling toxins in the air to the terrible foods produced, to the entertaining gossip we share amongst each other, the loud and meaningless, lyric-deprived music we adapt, to the silly faux heroes we praise in sports and on “reality” TV shows, including theoretical “religion,” violent movies, evil politicians… We might only be hyper-reacting to all the synthetics consumed and could actually exist sanely if only we’d share a kind word: Antihistamine, anyone?

I’ve drafted blogs like this before. Stop reacting. Acupuncture recommends ways to defuse your immediate notion to react. I have to add a TCM tip to counter the physical reaction: Histamine Inflammation. Learn about Astragalus, known as Huangqui in China, and milk vetch in the US has been shown to balance interleukins, another inflammatory cytokine that may be released from mast cells at the same time as histamine.

Laugh off the idea of changing others but set an example in how to being reasonable. Stay away from negative influence and respect, encourage efforts to please, and become a part of the change from negativity to beautification. Start by eating healthy products, detox your body and mind. Listen to soothing music and speak out a compliment while holding a hand, smile more. Embrace that the allergies you feel are most likely a “healthy” reaction because something else in your body can’t cope with an exterior irritant. That’s what you need to change, not the reaction!

Consult with me and let us find a solution.

TCMchef Raphael