"Just Venting" I had an allergist appointment today, his suggestion: Psychotherapy

So, I thought I mention to my Internist about her opinion on testing me for food allergies hoping to get some information that may be helpful in avoiding flare ups of my UC. Honestly I thought she may just order an IgE food allergy panel since I was having blood work anyway and that would be the end of that. I also know test results even if positive may be inaccurate, but hey, just grasping for anything that may help.  Well she referred me to an allergist, I thought, just go see if he can help, from previous posts here I thought it unlikely but went anyways. Basically his position is that since I have not been able to pinpoint an allergic reaction to a particular food and testing most likely would yield nothing he suggested a food diary. I told him I have done that before and has also yielded nothing for me. So he suggested psychotherapy and goes on talking about the relationship between UC and Stress, and lists for me all his assumptions about things causing me stress from what information he had on the chart, closing with "believe me you are much healthier than you think you are" I should have replied with "Believe me I feel much crappier than I look".

I of course don't deny that stress has an impact on UC and will probably give a try to Psychotherapy sometime, but it is so upsetting that underlying tone people give us of causing our own illness, have gotten it from friends, doctors and family. It just sucks doesn't it? Would they give the same advise to a 2 year old diagnosed with UC?

On a positive note at least he didn't ordered a whole bunch of tests to fatten up his wallet and then send me to psychotherapy anyways. I give him that much

I guess try gluten free more consistently on my own and see if it helps, already off dairy and have tried gluten free for a few days but have not noticed a difference. Thanks for allowing me to get this off my chest, I already feel better.

My allergist wouldnt do food testing for me either. Her answer was similar- "if you dont get wheezing, chest tightness, or swelling, then you have no food allergies." She just said she didnt want me to eliminate foods based on the results and im like "lady, i have a thousand restrictions. I can test out a few more if it would help me."

Prednisone would definitely make you nuts. I saw a shrink while tapering off. I had been on for a while and I was so depressed and miserable and FAT, I felt physically ill. It definitely helped. I wouldn't take it as an insult, I'd go for it. Of course it's annoying when people say you're not as sick as you feel, my psychiatrist never said that at all, in fact, he had been on pred for an AI condition and he made me feel much better about feeling the way I was feeling. I had allergy testing prior to all of this. Not blood tests but pricks in the back and none of mine reacted aside from histamines - and that provided no direction.