Has anyone overcome cat allergies?

[AnitaV]

YES, I HAVE!

I found Dr. Sarno's work out of desperation caused by recurring insomnia as well as lingering lower back pain from a car accident (or so I thought). After doing his work for a few months, a number of chronic health issues in my life disappeared. One of them was cat allergies (some others include RSI, hypoglycemia & frequent, inexplicable headaches.)

Prior to this, I was allergic to cats for as long as I can remember. I used to have a neighbor with a cat and I could only stay in her apartment for about 20 minutes. My eyes would gradually water and my throat would become itchy and close up after that. To make a long story short, she moved into a house and I stayed with her and her cat for about two weeks, symptom-free!

I wish this were a total success story, but I've recently had a major relapse of the insomnia and I'm revisiting Dr. Sarno's work and reaching out to practitioners. I hope this time to resolve all of my issues for good!

Thank you so much for sharing this!! I'm so happy to hear your story!

I had issues with insomnia in the past as well. What helped tremendously with that is a book called In Touch And In Tune, by Vladimir Levi (http://www.amazon.com/Touch-Tune-Vl...&qid=1412561279&sr=8-1&keywords=vladimir+levi, available for free online at http://en.levi.ru/michelle.php). Levi is a famous Russian psychologist, whose work is read extensively in Russia. I've been meaning to reread this book since my TMS recovery, and see if it ties together with Dr. Sarno's work in any way.

 

[AnitaV]

wondrous - this chapter of In Touch And In Tune is largely what cured my insomnia: http://levi.ru/guests/guests.php?id_catalog=29&id_position=322. Take a look at the section entitled "Sleep Is Irrelevant: It Is all a Question of Rest".

 

[AnitaV]

I hope you can find time for a pet. I've had dogs for most of my life and adore them.
Black Lab mixes. Annie 1s 13 and others lived for 16.5 years each.

Cats are easier to keep... they can be indoor cats, so no walking.

It's great for kids to grow up with a pet. They get unconditional love and learn responsibility.

Thank you for the advice, Walt! I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks in November, and when I return, I think I will go ahead and get a cat. I live in a pretty quiet area, and I think I could give it a good life, letting it go outside during the day. I will let you know how it goes! Wondrous's story has given me great confidence!

 

[AnitaV]

Hi everyone, I'd like to let you know that I did end up getting a sweet little kitten in January. Here is my little guy Rodney, with my daughter:

He had been found in a dumpster just a few hours before we came to visit the shelter, and as soon as I picked him up, he started purring. He is such a sweet and frisky addition to our family.

I had some allergy symptoms here and there at first, but I almost never have them now. Cat allergies are indeed a TMS equivalent!

~Anita

 

[Lizzy]

I am so glad to hear how well you and your kitty are doing! He sure is handsome. I hadn't thought about it, but when I was 10 we got a cat and I was allergic to her. I became aware of issues with parents around 10-12. Before that I just thougbt we were normal. Since I moved out at 19 I have had cats for 30 years and never a problem. I guess it was TMS!

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

I get 8 hours or more of what I call my sleep time. I will wake up once or twice during the night for a "pit stop,"
and may not be able to fall back to sleep right away. A those times, I practice deep breathing and may count
backwards from 100 to l. I also try not think of worries and tell myself I will think about them in the morning.
I also do not stay in bed once I wake up at my regular time because I would just think and worry.
I tell myself it is going to be a good day, maybe even the best day ever.

I think we benefit from even the time we lay awake. I use it as a time of meditation.

 

[Bodhigirl]

Gosh, I am so glad to find this discussion tonight. My allergies have returned and now I can see them as the symptom imperative. Getting ready for vacation and stressing a bit and even though I just finished the three week intensive with
Alan on here, I have found my eyes watering, nose running like mad... after spending time with my dogs and feather pillows.
I am not taking this lying down! No need for extra distractors! I am healthy, I am strong and I am always nervous before I travel.
I am watching my nose stop running as I write this, and the nagging noise in my right lower back is loosening. I swam for six days in a row and my back wants to tell me I am hurt when I AM NOT HURT I just have a very dramatic, somatic ego. And I used a few muscles that were having a brief vacation till now.
Breathe deep! Smile on the exhale, and let go. Symptoms gone! Fast.
Great to see all the animal people where. I don't know what we'd do without two dogs!

Bg

 

[clarinetpath]

Anita, did you ever overcome your cat allergy? I recently overcame mine, which is how I found this thread. I had similar symptoms to others described, going back to around age 5. I hadn't touched a cat in over 30 years, and had the symptoms come on - asthma, wheezing, rash, itching - whenever I was in a place where cats were living. As a child, I spent many hours in doctors offices for breathing treatments, allergy testing, pulmonary function testing, all of it a monument to diagnostic incompetence, as Dr. Sarno would say. I'm a physician myself by the way, trained as a pathologist.

The key for me in eliminating allergies, asthma, and infections, was my mind's need for additional evidence and detailed understanding. My concept is that the mind/brain is in constant communication with the immune system at all times, it knows exactly what is going on immunologically everywhere in the body, moment to moment, at all times. It knows when a "pathogen" is present. It knows when an "allergen" is present. These things are triggers used in a different kind of distraction/defense, having no more basic significance than a herniated disc or something like that. Actually I've developed quite an elaborate understanding about what happens, which fits all the observations from my medical practice as well as my personal experience. Please note that allergic reactions and asthma can indeed be fatal. I have seen people die of them, but that does not exclude the possibility that they can be overcome with profound understanding and awareness, with conventional medicine as a backup.

In addition to what I've said already, current research shows that immunological memories are stored in the brain, specifically the insular cortex. These memories of the immune system are called immunengrams. They represent an entire state of the immune system throughout the body. My experiences inform me that immunological memories can be reactivated by emotional phenomena, by classical conditioning, and like other types of memory, can simply be made up or "confabulated" as the need arises. Research shows that stimulation of insular cortex neurons alone (without irritating the body directly) can reproduce the states of peritonitis and colitis in mice. Likewise, destruction or blocking of those same brain cells greatly reduces or eliminates immune responses even when the animal's body is injected with something that would cause peritonitis and colitis. Here are some scientific papers:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34752731/ (Insular cortex neurons encode and retrieve specific immune responses - PubMed)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-020-0387-1 (Neuronal regulation of immunity: why, how and where? | Nature Reviews Immunology)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36327893/ (Immunoception: Defining brain-regulated immunity - PubMed)

Focus on the figures. Does understanding any of this help anyone? Please let me know if it does.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Hello @clarinetpath and welcome.

This is a reeeally old thread ending in 2017, but you have brought us some extremely interesting information about allergies, which is often a hot topic on this forum. It's pretty technical, but I get the general idea, and I suspect that a number of people might access those authoritative resources, so thanks for those. The full Nature article has limited accessibility, but the two NIH abstracts have links to the full studies plus suggested links to lots of related studies with really interesting titles on this topic. Fortunately the abstracts are short and easy to digest, but I had to stop before going too far down the rabbit hole.

Anyway, I really appreciate the subtle and complex interactions that are involved, which is such an obvious component to the entire experience of the TMS brain mechanism - but so hard to explain! Your explanation is quite helpful.

I've been exploring this in regard to the autoimmune conditions in general, ever since I "came down with" sudden-onset RA in the spring of 2020, thanks to multiple stresses that were in my life during (and also because of) the early weeks of the pandemic. I firmly believe that my immune system responded to the level of stress I was experiencing, and that there is no other cause for me to have RA (at an advanced age and with no family history). Thankfully it is very well managed with a low level of a basic DMARD, which I credit to continuing to apply my TMSknowledge and skills, 12 years after I discovered Dr Sarno.

So Thank You for taking the time to post this. I'm bookmarking it

 

[clarinetpath]

You're most welcome Jan. I've attached the Nature paper. I don't understand many of the experimental or technological details either, but I do know enough about the pathology and biology of what's in the papers to know that this is an important mechanism of the mind's connection/integration with the immune system. Given that the immunological state of what we call "peritonitis" can be stored in the small brain of a mouse, then I would be shocked if, for example, the immunological memory of a "rheumatoid nodule" in the hand were not also stored in the human brain. I still don't know how exactly autoimmune diseases begin, other than the occurrence of great stress like you said.

 

[invincible]

bringing this thread back to life in case anyone has any new insights.

I've successfully gotten over my allergy to prawns and crabs.
But this cat allergy is proving to be a toughie.

Which sucks cause I like cats. Also I met someone new recently who has cats so it's irritating that I can't hang out with her more because of my allergic reaction to the cats.
Hmm interesting. The pressure I'm putting on myself in this situation to get over the symptoms is quite evident. It's definitely a pressure situation too because:
1) It's getting to know a new person
2) There's a need to be wanted or loved in this situation so it's even more pressure

Any thoughts, ideas or personal experiences would be super cool. thanks guys!

 

[clarinetpath]

It might help if you can think back to how this symptom first started for you. Was it a situation of wanting somebody to love and approve of you, just like now? While these emotional habits got started in the past, it's when they come up and are repressed in the present that generate the symptom. There's a lot of conditioning for this type of symptom too, as such the symptom may occur without the presence of an underlying fearful emotion. The sight of a cat hair, the distinctive smell of a cat, a cat toy, and the unconscious expectation that whenever you encounter one of these, you get the symptom. The immune system can detect these "allergens" in the air completely below the level of consciousness - even that alone without any other cue may be enough.

What's happening is that there is something inside each of us that fears these dangerous emotions, these terrible feelings like rage do not fit with our self-image, we fear rejection, etc and so it makes the decision that it can't let the person feel it consciously and instead chooses a physical symptom. I posted some of these papers above because initially I was skeptical about the immunological symptoms. The papers actually show that this is how the immune system functions. Memories of the immune system are stored in the brain, there is predictive processing and modeling of immunological situations, and this is all integrated with the emotional centers and immune conditioning, especially in the amygdala. It's a wonder that these findings are not all over the news on the front pages (that's a facetious comment of course, if everyone knew about it a lot of money would be lost).

Anyway understanding these details isn't really necessary. The basic point is that allergies are just another symptom like pain, except they manifest through some different mechanisms.

I had cat allergies and cat triggered asthma that started around age 5. I used to get rashes, hives, sneezing, runny nose, and wheezing just being in the same house with a cat. I used to take inhalers, breathing treatments, got taken around to doctors, on and on. It all got started when, as a young child, I felt that my mother didn't want me. The only way I could get her to show love and affection was to manifest a physical symptom. Otherwise it was "get the hell away from me and you're unacceptable" more or less. That is an unpleasant feeling. After I learned about all of the above, and the conditioning is broken, I have no reaction to cats anymore. I can stuff them in my face and I don't even have a sneeze. Even if you can't quite remember the original source of the problem, you can safely feel and accept these fearful emotions in the present with the above understanding and that ought to help.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

@clarinetpath has terrific knowledge and personal insights on this topic. I am going to add just one thing, which is to take a page from Dr. Sarno and others, who say that sometimes, you just need to temporarily turn to medication to take the edge off while you work on the emotional source of your symptom.

There is only one allergy medication that I am familiar with, but it worked like a charm for seasonal allergies that I unexpectedly started experiencing more than ten years "before Sarno" when my office mates and I moved our tax practices to an old (leaky joints, no sealed HVAC) lakeside building just north of downtown. The area was full of weedy alder trees, which emitted a bunch of pollen just in time for the stress of tax season (during which I of course already experienced plenty of other stress/TMS symptoms). Suddenly, mid-February (I mean, really, the timing could not have been more perfect) I was absolutely desperate for relief. So were my office mates, thanks to my constant loud sneezing, never mind the wildly distracting itchy eyes and nose. It was pretty dramatic.

After researching the many alternatives (because of course I did) I decided to try a nasal spray called NasalCrom. Interesting product, developed in Europe, I think, and at that time only recently approved for OTC. It has just one ingredient, a "mast cell inhibitor" called sodium cromolyn, or cromolyn sodium or something like that. It's usually found in small quantities on the bottom shelf at drug stores, and sometimes only the pharmacist knows where they keep it. It's not cheap but generics are now available. No side effects! No interactions with any other medications including oral allergy meds! No time limit on using it! It takes a couple of weeks to achieve full effectiveness but I had at least 50% relief in 48 hours.

I used the spray for a number of years just during tax season, and because I have always believed in "less is more" when it's appropriate, I very quickly reduced the dose to just two times a day, even that first year. And guess what - "after Sarno" (fall of 2011) I realized I should see what happened if I didn't use it - and I was fine with minor and very manageable symptoms (and no complaints from my colleagues).

My two cents, perhaps it will be useful for you to help jump start the TMS of this issue. I have a brother-in-law who has all kinds of year-round nasal allergies (and other TMS, because of course he does) and he was ecstatic when I turned him on to NasalCrom. It could partly be cat allergies, in fact - I don't think he lived with cats until he married my sister.

I was also going to suggest looking at a possible childhood connection to cats or to any situation in which cats were present - not even necessarily in your own home, and not even directly involving a cat. Knowing our funny brains, the possibilities are endless.

I have no reaction to cats anymore. I can stuff them in my face...

Okay, that's great, @clarinetpath, but really, SHOULD you be stuffing cats in your face?

 

[invincible]

@clarinetpath
thank you this is super helpful. funnily enough, i just put on a tshirt that i think had some left over cat fur on it and immediately i felt my nose start to get itchy and irritated. But this time as I sat with it I began to think of it more psychologically and the emotional stress im putting on myself in getting to know this person rather than the physical irritation. Definitely something here along the lines of 'feeling like im losing myself' in the process of getting to know someone new or getting irritated that i have to accommodate for someone else's feelings or point of view.

Making space for someone else's pov is something that infuriates me. Empathy too. I'm good at it in some situations but sometimes I'm just irritated and frustrated that I have to deal with other people and make space for their problems or whatever is bothering them.

I did change my tshirt though, i dont think im quite there yet.

@JanAtheCPA thanks i will try looking for the spray or something similar. I used to take some oral tablets - Allegra, a couple of times when it got really bad.
There's definitely something related to cats in my childhood but i really cant remember right now. Can only remember more recent events. Hopefully it will pop up randomly.

@clarinetpath
Okay, that's great, @clarinetpath, but really, SHOULD you be stuffing cats in your face?

hahahahahahaha