Most People With Hives Do Not Need Tests
Tests are sometimes done when hives go on for long periods, or when unusual symptoms are occurring around the same time. This is to exclude other diseases, which may appear as hives first, and other conditions later. If hives are associated with high fever, bruising, bleeding into the skin, purple lumps that last for several days, or sore joints, a doctors appointment should be arranged promptly.
Allergy testing is performed when the history suggests an allergic cause.
How To Treat A Stress Rash
The brain has powerful effects on the body, and prolonged stress, anxiety, and other factors can manifest in an unpleasant stress reaction. Add to that preexisting skin conditions, and you have the recipe for a potentially severe and uncomfortable skin flare-up.
Everyone is different, so the impact, level of irritation, and treatment routines can vary depending on life and personal circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has put the entire world on edge. Some of that stress is undoubtedly making its way into your daily life in some unpleasant ways.
While stress-related skin disorders may seem severe, there are multiple ways to deal with them. Let’s learn more about stress rashes, then see which is the best treatment for them.
How Do I Get Rid Of My Stress Hives
The #1 best proven method of eliminating stress hives from your life forever is to remove ALL stress and tension from your life. Aside from that, the only other way is to take an OTC medication like OxyHives that has proven to get rid of hives within 1-2 hours. OxyHives has been around for over 10 years now and is effective without any of the harmful side effects other hives medications have. OxyHives recently received approval to sell their hives treatment over the counter and thus no longer requires a prescription. Please see our hives treatment page for more information.
In addition, it is best to avoid tight fitting clothing over the areas affected by the stress hives, and to avoid hot or cold baths and showers as this can cause further skin irritations and cause hives from stress to spread. Please see our how to get rid of hives page for tips on how to alleviate your symptoms until your order of OxyHives arrives.
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Stress Rash Woes: What To Expect
Howlong can you expect to stay polka-dotted? Sorry to say it, but this gets worsebefore it gets better.
Itstotally normal for new hives to bubble up just as the firstwelts are fading. They will typically subside within a day or two, and you cantreat them with over-the-counter antihistamines.
Nowbrace yourself for this last bit of bad news: Even after they subside, hivesmay not be through with you yet. Hive breakouts often come and go in waves andcan flare up on and off for weeks.
Ifhives last longer than a few days, a doctor can help you figure out whatsgoing on.
Hives usually arent medical emergencies, though they can feel like a major disruption to your regularly scheduled programming. However, get medical attention post-haste if you have symptoms like fever or swelling of the mouth, tongue or lips, since those are signs of a more serious allergic reaction.
Common Signs & Symptoms
Symptoms of hives can include:
- Swelling of the surface of the skin into red or skin-colored welts with clearly defined edges.
- Wheals are typically round or oval and can get bigger, spread, and join together to form larger areas of flat, raised skin.
- Wheals can also change shape, disappear, and reappear within minutes or hours.
- You know you have hives when you press the center of a wheal and it turns white. This is called blanching.
- Itching
Hives can appear on any area of the body, especially on the trunk, thighs, upper arms and face.
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Why Does The Body React To Stress This Way
When you’re stressed, your body’s cortisol levels begin to increase, leading to increased oil production that can cause acne breakouts, and revving up your body’s histamine response, or a release of inflammatory chemicals that often make you feel uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, how that histamine response results in a rash or flare-up of your other skin conditions is still unclear. “We don’t know how or why the skin responds to your stress hormones, but it’s not a direct relationship,” says Dr. Nazarian. “We may not know exactly why the trigger happens, but we know how to fix it.”
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Treatment Of Anxiety Hives
Since anxiety hives occur as a result of your bodys autoimmune reaction to high stress and anxiety levels in your body, they may be treated by a non-prescription type of antihistamines.
If you know you are easily prone to developing anxiety hives, you can make use of antihistamines as a preventive measure.
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However, individuals who may have severe anxiety hives episodes may need to see their physician for a more effective anti-inflammatory prescription.
Several other non-medicinal treatments for anxiety hives, which may also help prevent this unpleasant skin condition.
Preventing an anxiety hive may not always be possible. Some situations may allow you to deal with anxiety-inducing hives before it may occur.
If you find out that you are feeling overly anxious, it may be wise for you to take a break from what you are doing and try to calm yourself if the situation permits.
If the situation does not permit you to stop what you are doing, you can pause for a while and take in deep breaths.
Lets take, for example, that you are in mid-air and feel anxious about flying, taking deep breaths, and calming your mind. It may help deal with anxiety hives in such a scenario.
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Top 10 Tips On Handling Stress Hives Effectively
by Allergy FYI Team | Apr 8, 2019 | Stress
Do you suffer from stress hives and rashes? Have you noticed that as soon as the strain of daily life affects you, pesky bumps and welts pop up on your skin? Here in the United States, most of us live at a high octane pace, always running from one activity or commitment to the next.
It’s easy to become so overwhelmed with so much going on in our daily lives these days. Whether it’s work, school, extracurricular activities, family responsibilities, or a combination of each, stress takes its toll. Dealing with the demands of the day can be taxing enough, but when it emerges into a palpable physical presence on your skin, it becomes all the more frustrating. If you struggle with stress hives, the following 10 tips will help you learn what you can do to manage stress effectively.
How To Prevent Hives
- To avoid hives, you need to figure out what causes them. If you dont know, start keeping a daily diary. The most probable suspects are things that you eat, drink, or swallow food, drink, supplements, and medications. But even if you dont see any obvious connections, continue keeping your diary, noting other factors like weather, stress levels, clothing, or the amount of time that you spend in the sun. With careful tracking, you may link a specific lifestyle factor with the eruption of those red, itchy welts.
- Foods most likely to trigger hives include shellfish, nuts, chocolate, fish, tomatoes, eggs, fresh berries, and milk. Some people react to preservatives in certain foods and wine, such as sulfites. Once youve identified a food trigger, eliminate it from your diet and see whether you have fewer outbreaks.
- Common drug triggers include antibiotics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen. But doctors have heard about many other triggers, including sedatives, tranquilizers, diuretics, diet supplements, antacids, arthritis medications, vitamins, eye drops, eardrops, laxatives, and douches.
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The Vicious Cycle Of Stress And Hives
Research has shown that for some people, stress and hives are intrinsically linked, particularly in those who have an autoimmune condition or have other allergy issues and are predisposed to getting hives. This link may have something to do with the fact that the nervous system and the skin are derived from the same embryologic layer, but research is still underway to better understand the correlation.
When To See A Doctor For Stress Rash Treatment
Most rashes and acne breakouts will clear up after a few days with good skin hygiene and over-the-counter medications.
Treatment is similar for skin breakouts and eczema. Antihistamines and medicated creams and ointments often help clear it up within a few days. If your condition doesnt clear up within that time frame, check with a provider. Many skin conditions can be diagnosed and treated through a virtual or online visit. Definitely check with a provider if:
- Your skin rash or breakout becomes so uncomfortable you are having trouble sleeping or focusing on daily tasks.
- You develop a fever, red streaks, pus, skin peeling, blisters or scabs.
Depending on your symptoms, your provider may treat your skin rash or breakout with stronger antihistamines, steroids or antibiotics.
Image above shows what stress rash looks like
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Common Causes Of Hives Rash:
- Allergies An allergic reaction is the most common cause of hives. The common allergens include insect bites and stings, some foods and medicines, pollen or latex, etc. Hives caused by allergies usually appear just a few minutes after you contact the allergen.
- Stress Stress can affect the function of your bodys immune system. When you experience long-term stress, your body releases histamine and leads to red rashes on the skin.
- Infections Sometimes, colds and infections caused by bacteria or fungi can also lead to hives on the skin.
- Illnesses Some illnesses such as vasculitis, lupus, and thyroid disease can also be the reason for hives.
- Other factors-Too hot, too cold, skin pressure, scratching the skin, or exposure to chemicals or sun can also cause hives breakout.
Anxiety And Your Immune System
Anxiety-related skin hives may not be as common as other causative factors of skin rashes. Being overly anxious may lead to stress, which harms your immune system and other organs in your body.
One of the affected organs in your body is the skin. Skin is the largest organ in the human body, and it is highly sensitive.
Anxiety can cause your skin to develop hives, which may lead to severe itching.
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As anxiety builds up stress in your body, it weakens your immune system. Your bodys immune system may send histamine to help fight up the intruder or the anxiety itself.
Anxiety hives may occur in an individual at any age and may come in varying degrees of frequency and severity. It may appear even when you do not have any previous skin condition.
It can also escalate a skin condition that already exists.
Anxiety hives may appear as bumps that may cause itching all over your body. Mainly, anxiety hive usually occurs in skin area such as hands, torso, arms, etc.
Anxiety hives, in most cases, may last for several weeks. Still, on most occasions, anxiety hives may no longer be seen after the issue causing the anxiety may have subsided.
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Stress Rash Symptoms And How To Relieve Them
April 30, 2018 By Melissa Gonzales
Stress rash symptoms can be such a nuisance to your day to day life. Unfortunately, stress is something you simply cant avoid in its entirety. Given this, it is important to learn how to deal with stress and anxiety rashes in order to minimize its effect on your quality of life.
Causes And Risk Factors
What causes hives? Hives are typically caused by an allergic reaction. The allergy can be to a food or medication. When your body is allergic to something, it can release chemicals that make your skin develop hives. An infection or emotional stress can also cause hives.
When hives are caused by an allergic reaction, your skin can break out within minutes of exposure to the allergen. Some common allergens that can cause hives include:
- Certain foods, especially food allergies to shellfish, tree nuts, milk, and some fruit
- Medications, especially antibiotics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen.
- Allergy shots
- Pollen
- Insect bites and stings
When hives occur due to an allergy, high levels of histamine and other chemical messengers are released into the skin. These substances cause your blood vessels to open up. This often results in pinkness or redness, as well as extra fluid in the tissues, which causes swelling and itching.
Sometimes someone may have allergy hives and other times a hives breakout has nothing to do with allergies. Hives can also result from one of the following:
- Stress or anxiety
- Vibration
- Pressure on the skin
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What Are Stress Hives
Stress hives develop due to chronic stress or tension in your life, and appear as red, raised and swollen areas on the skin that seem to suddenly appear. Stress hives, which are also known as a stress rash or as stress bumps, are often incredibly itchy, and some people report having a burning or stinging sensation wherever they appear. Stress induced hives will go away by themselves when you have successfully released ALL the stress from your body or taken the hives treamtment OxyHives, which will eliminate your symptoms.
Think Outside The Box
You may wish to try a more creative approach to sending your stress hives packing, such as meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises. Since bodily stress is at the root cause of your hives, these therapies can do wonders to calm your system down and help you re-center yourself, reducing your worry and anxiety. Some individuals dealing with chronic hives have found relief through methods like acupuncture to ease stress.
Image by: kaboompics
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How Are Hives Diagnosed
Most of the time, a doctor can diagnose hives just by looking at the skin. To find the cause, you may be asked questions about your child’s , recent illnesses, medicines, exposure to allergens, and daily stressors.
If your child has chronic hives, the doctor may ask you to keep a daily record of activities, such as what your child eats and drinks, and where the hives tend to show up on the body. Diagnostic tests such as blood tests, allergy tests, and tests to rule out conditions that can cause hives, such as thyroid disease or hepatitis might be done to find the exact cause of the hives.
To check for physical hives, a doctor may put ice on your child’s skin to see how it reacts to cold or place a sandbag or other heavy object on the thighs to see if the pressure will cause hives.
Histamines And Immune Response
When stress overloads the body, it sets off an immune response causing the body to release histamine. Though this histamine release can happen in anyone, research has shown that stress hives are more likely to occur in people who have autoimmune conditions or those who have had other allergic reactions or allergy-related issues in the past.
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You Cannot Always Prevent Hives
You get hives when something causes high levels of histamine and other chemicals to be released in your skin. This is known as a trigger.
Triggers can include:
- contact with certain plants, animals, chemicals and latex
- cold such as cold water or wind
- hot, sweaty skin from exercise, emotional stress or eating spicy food
- a reaction to a medicine, insect bite or sting
- scratching or pressing on your skin such as wearing itchy or tight clothing
- an infection
When To Seek Professional Help
If you are experiencing anxiety skin hives that may be preventing you from living a productive and successful life, then you need to see a counselor or doctor for professional help.
Anxiety may become worse if you have to carry the outward symptom of hives or rash coupled with the emotional and physiologic challenge.
Discuss with your family doctor about your anxiety challenges and the anxiety hives that form on your skin.
Your doctor may examine your anxiety-induced hives and may want to know about your medical history.
Your health care provider may ask questions about the intensity, frequency, and effect of the hives on you.
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Yes Stress Can Cause Hives
Under high stress situations, you may develop a stress rash. These hives can appear anywhere on the body, and anyone can get them, though they tend to appear most often in women and people aged 30 to 50 years old, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Stress-induced hives often look like bug bites or allergy-induced hives, but some forms can have a halo-like look to them, says Sharon Bergquist, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.
Bergquist says allergies are perhaps the biggest trigger of hives, which happens when your body releases histamines. Histamines cause the body to leak plasma the clear or yellowish liquid that carries your blood cells throughout the body into the skin.
Hives can also occur as a result of certain chemicals in food, bug bites, medication side effects, and exposure to sunlight. However, Bergquist notes that it’s often difficult to find the exact reason why someone breaks out in hives.
“There are a lot of times where we can’t even figure out what causes hives,” Bergquist says. “There’s a chronic form of hives that is very difficult to actually manage because in the majority of cases we never actually figure out the cause.”
Stress can not only cause hives but also worsen other skin conditions such as acne, psoriasis, eczema, and seborrheic dermatitis.
