Stress

I take Zyrtec daily in order to keep these big itchy, welty hives from appearing.

They started in 5th grade when I was supposed to give a public presention for the first time. The doctors tried all sorts of medicines and an elimination diets before discovering that Tavist (sorta) worked. It took years before they completely went away. I literally had hives on me 24 hours a day for a few years. Most of the time the hives were in my torso, arms and legs, but occasionally caused my eyes to swell shut or make my lips huge. Luckily, it never had an effect on my breathing.

Then it happened again at the end of high school and continued into my first year of college. Then again as I was graduating college and heading to graduate school. Each time it took less time to go away though. And I took a really intense stress management course in graduate school which really helped me.

Nowadays, I can feel the hives coming. I'll take an extra Zyrtec, do some quick meditation and/or deep breathing and/or take a nap and I can usually make the hives start to go away in about 30 minutes. Zyrtec really is the key though.