On Allergy Acceptance

Each week on my instagram, I look for a quote that I feel connects with my food allergy journey, and I briefly describe why. My Quote of the Day series is a repost of what I put on instagram.

Accepting my allergies and the fact they will likely be something I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life has not been an easy thing for me to do. But I have discovered that doing so has helped me live a better life. And now, I believe acceptance is a key component to managing this condition. Growing up, I thought one day things would be better, or at least different. I’ve spent a lot of time in the past being anxious and stressed because of my allergy, and hiding away at home waiting for the day I was better. The problem is, my allergies never went away. They have evolved and manifested in new ways as I myself have...but my allergies are still here. It occurred to me after some rough patches that I wasn’t living my life, I was only existing. And at the heart of that was me thinking that one day things would be better and I could finally live my life. I realized as time went on that my life was happening with every moment I was given. Recently I lost an Uncle to cancer, after a 3 year long battle. He fought hard, and had to deal with the constant pain and fear from his body literally trying to shut down. But even with all that, he still made the effort to tell people he loved them, to keep himself groomed the best he could, to make people laugh, and to live all he could. Seeing how he was able to continue living through his sickness made me consider my own situation a bit more. I’ve come to the conclusion that I can do things at my own pace, but that I shouldn’t stop living life because of this condition. Waiting for things to get better will only hurt you. Yes, maybe there will be better options in the future for managing food allergies, but I think it’s important to come to terms with the fact that things might not change so that you can move on. Accepting my allergy and talking about all the ups and downs has helped me process it better. Accepting allergies has helped me feel better about myself, and my self esteem has really improved. Accepting allergies as part of who I am is helping love myself. It’s an ongoing process but I work on it each day.