Category: Stress Management

Evidence-Based Allergy Behavioral Health Resources

2/7/2023

It's so easy to find a resource website, such as this one, yet not really take the time to explore all it has to offer. After all, life is busy and many are trying to limit how much time is spent online anyhow.

Hopefully this post helps simplify that exploration process for you by highlighting a few key resources available here at The Food Allergy Counselor (The FAC) beyond the FAC Directory! And, make sure to read this whole post so you get to the exciting announcement!

First, What Makes The FAC Unique?

The FAC is an allergy behavioral health and psychosocial resource hub offering evidence-based content developed and curated by licensed clinical professional counselor and founder, Tamara Hubbard. As an allied health member of both the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, Tamara is a well-recognized and respected behavioral healthcare clinician in this field.

Why is this important to mention? Because when looking online for reputable allergy resources, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the number of websites available covering allergies. However, you can be assured that the content and resources offered here at The FAC are based on clinical behavioral healthcare and allergy/immunology best practices, and are aimed at helping you find your "just right" balance between the overwhelm and the quality of life you want, even with allergic diseases!

Allergy Behavioral Health
& Psychosocial Resource Section

If you've not yet checked out The FAC's Psychosocial Resource section, you're missing out on an incredibly thorough list of allergy-specific psychosocial content.

Broken down by topics, you'll find links to research, articles, and other related content to help enrich your quality of life, adjust your approach to life with allergies, or simplify things. This section is constantly expanding, so be sure to check back from time-to-time!

Here's a snippet of topics this section offers content on:

Information for behavioral healthcare providers working in allergy
Allergy testing anxiety resources
School, social and bullying resources
Parenting, child, and teen-specific resources
Anxiety & mindfulness tools also useful for allergy anxiety
Quality of life research links
Oral immunotherapy and psychosocial impacts research links
Research on addressing food allergy anxiety in the allergist's office

Allergic Disease Counseling Niche Information

Wondering what the Allergic Disease Counseling niche actually is? Maybe you're a therapist who is curious about working in this niche. Or maybe you're an allergy practice looking to learn more about the benefits of incorporating allergy behavioral healthcare practices in your patient care routines.

Well, The FAC has all of this information covered in the Allergic Disease Counseling niche section, which is broken down by focus:

Information for Allergic Individuals and Families - benefits of the Allergic Disease Counseling niche for those managing food allergy/allergic conditions
Information for Therapy Providers - working in the Food Allergy & Allergic Disease Counseling niche
Information for Allergists/Healthcare Providers - how the Allergic Disease Counseling niche can help patients in your practices

Food Allergy Therapeutic Worksheets
& Clinical Practice Forms

Feel like you or a family member could benefit from exploring your allergy-related anxiety and stress, and learn practical strategies to manage it more effectively?

Based on evidence-based behavioral health concepts, these therapeutic worksheets can be useful for exploring the emotional aspects of living with allergies. They can even be used within therapy to enhance sessions with your own therapist, too!

Speaking of therapists - there are clinical provider versions of these worksheets, as well as allergy-specific clinical intake forms to help you gather deeper insights that lead to developing effective therapeutic treatment goals with your allergic clients.

Exciting Announcement.....

New Food Allergy Counselor Website Soon!

The Food Allergy Counselor is getting a makeover!

Coming soon, the updated website will offer new features such as a searchable Food Allergy Counselor Directory, a more functional flow for all the amazing content, and a member's only section for Food Allergy Counselor members!

But wait, there's even more great news!

You can also expect TONS of fresh and one-of- a kind content coming from The FAC this year, especially for behavioral healthcare professionals!

There's lots happening behind the scenes here at The FAC!

Want to be sure you don't miss anything?
Subscribe to receive The FAC's emails -
no spam, just useful content!

And don't forget about ALL of The FAC resources here to support you!

Allergy counseling information for patients, therapists, allergists
Find an allergy-informed therapy provider - most offering telehealth
Listen to podcast episodes offering practical and relatable guidance
Watch (and listen to) webinars and podcast interviews
Explore allergy-focused behavioral health resources
Learn mindset strategies from allergy-specific therapeutic worksheets
Connect with other allergy-informed therapy providers!

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Stress Management Skills For All Ages

1/17/2023

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In a recent FAC post, we explored what stress is and how it differs from anxiety, with specific mindfulness-based approaches for managing food allergy-related stress.

But there's no one perfect way to manage stress! It's important for everyone to find strategies that work specifically for them - and this takes trial and error to determine.

Therefore, in an effort to help you better understand your own stress and decide which stress management tools to put in your toolbox, this post offers a variety of videos with different strategies for you to consider. Additionally, it includes skills to teach your kiddos and share with your teens so they also learn how to cope with stress, too!

(While these aren't allergy-specific, they will help with allergy-related stress...and are useful in other areas of life as well).

Stress Management Skills for Kids

2-minute story: Little Monkey Calms Down [early childhood age]
Read-Aloud Video: "Keep Calm: My Stress Busting Tips" by Gina Bellisario [best for elementary age and older]
7-minute video explaining stress, physical and emotional responses to it, and simple strategies for coping with it [best for upper elementary and older]

Stress Management Skills for Teens

5-minute video with quick tips to unwind and help manage stress
3-minute video with practical stress management tips [especially helpful for older teens and young adults]
Ted-X Youth Talks - Stress & its impacts on teens [especially helpful for older teens and young adults]
Ted-X Youth Talks - Stress at school [especially helpful for older teens and young adults]

Stress Management Skills for Adults

Quick Stress Release: Anxiety Reduction Skill
6 Daily Habits to Reduce Stress & Anxiety [useful for young adults, too]
7 Simple Science-Backed Tips for Reducing Your Stress
Ted Talk: How to Make Stress Your Friend (similar approach to Tamara Hubbard's "Befriend Your Allergy Anxiety" approach - free webinar here)

Stress Management For Parents & Families

When a Child Has a Chronic Illness: Tips for Managing Family Stress
Ted-X Talk: Compassion Fatigue & Caregiver Stress [easily applies to parenting kids with chronic allergic conditions]

want more empowering allergy life tips like this emailed directly to you? subscribe to receive "food allergy counselor corner" emails!

And don't forget about ALL of the FAC resources there to support you!

Allergy counseling information for patients, therapists, allergists
Find an allergy-informed therapy provider - most offering telehealth
Listen to podcast episodes offering practical and relatable guidance
Watch (and listen to) webinars and podcast interviews
Explore allergy-focused behavioral health resources
Learn mindset strategies from allergy-specific therapeutic worksheets
Connect with other allergy-informed therapy providers!

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Managing Allergy-Related Stress

1/3/2023

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As we welcome 2023, let's set some mindful intentions for the year. Let's focus on finding practical ways to effectively manage the stress and anxiety we may feel related to living with food allergies and allergic diseases. And The Food Allergy Counselor is here to help you do just that with all of its resources!

Image by 1388843 from Pixabay

What Exactly is Stress?
According to the American Psychological Association, “Stress is a normal reaction to everyday pressures, but can become unhealthy when it upsets your day-to-day functioning. Stress involves changes affecting nearly every system of the body, influencing how people feel and behave.”

Simply put, stress is how we feel and/or react when under pressure or threatened. It’s an emotional and physical response to a thought, feeling or situation, and with it often comes tension and a feeling that we don’t have the ability to manage the stress (or stressor causing the stress).

All the way back to the cavemen days, humans have experienced this automatic response to help the body/mind kick into gear to act quickly while seeking out safety/protection. (That's the fight-flight-freeze response). But the typical daily threats we experience today, such as bills and deadlines, don't require such a strong stress response. Therefore, our body's natural "alarm system" sometimes over-functions, leading us to stay stuck in the stress cycle.

Physically, stress can show up by causing headaches, digestive issues, high blood pressure, fatigue, problems with sleep, etc. Emotionally, it can give way to irritability, anger, worry, increased anxiety and depression, and even panic.

Am I Feeling Stress or Anxiety?
It's common to confuse stress and anxiety. After all, both are emotional responses, and they often show up hand-in-hand! But here are the differences to help you determine when you're experiencing stress and when you're experiencing anxiety.

Stress:

Stress is typically triggered by something external
Stress can be acute/brief/situational or ongoing/chronic, and when ongoing, can lead you to feeling stuck
Stress responses can lead people into an anxiety cycle
Stress can also be a motivating force, pushing you to achieve
Examples of short-term stress triggers: a fight with a friend, a work/school deadline, an upcoming event
Examples of long-term/ongoing stress triggers: chronic illness, inability to work/attend school, discrimination, basic needs not getting met

Anxiety:

Future-focused, anticipatory worry and thoughts; they often show up like racing thoughts
Persistent and/or excessive worry that is still present even when the stressor isn't
Anxiety can be useful, helping us prepare and make safe choices
Can physically and emotionally show up similar to stress, but the stressor/trigger can help differentiate between them

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

What Can We Do About Stress?
The truth is we've all felt stress - we navigate through it each day! Paying the bills, making tough daily decisions, navigating childcare, etc. Some stress we're better at managing, while some feels like a constant struggle to regain balance from.

Therefore, it's helpful to recognize the stress triggers you're not navigating well. Becoming aware of them and acknowledging the need for more effective strategies is a great place to start!

The key is finding workable ways to manage stress when it does impact your functioning. Therefore, whatever works to help you release the emotional and physical tension should be a tool in your stress management toolkit!

This may include physical releases such as movement, walking and exercise. It could include feel-good things such as laughing and connecting with others/friends. Deep breathing, stretching and mindfulness exercises can be useful, too. It’s also helpful to regulate sleeping and eating patterns, as our mind and body are better able to handle stress when rested and fueled.

How Can We Manage the Ongoing Stress of Food Allergy?
For many, food allergy and allergic diseases likely fit into the category of an ongoing stressor, causing chronic stress. While that may be the case, we can still approach the stress in a way that makes it feel more manageable.

Here are some tips for making allergy-related stress more manageable:

Stay in the here-and-now; by being too future-focused, we are likely to increase anxiety, which doesn't help with stress management
Focus on what you CAN do to navigate each day well with your allergy
Focus on how you can INFLUENCE outcomes in stressful situations (rather than trying to control all possible outcomes)
Preparing for stressful scenarios and practicing allergy management skills can help decrease how stressful things feel
Break allergy management tasks into chunks and/or delegate tasks to others to help you manage the ongoing stress more effectively
Take good physical/emotional care of yourself so that when allergy-related stressors do happen, you're better able to handle them
Mindset matters! Yes, the allergy isn't likely to go away, but we don't need to navigate each day with a doom-and-gloom mindset either. It's absolutely possible to live a full and meaningful life - even with allergies and the stress they cause!
Positive self-talk helps! We're often judgmental of ourselves and supportive of others. So develop empowerment-based phrases you can say to yourself when feeling stressed, such as: "I'm brave!" and "This feels hard, but I can get through it!" and "I don't like this, but I'll feel better soon!"

Final Thoughts....
Stress is part of life, so learning how to effectively navigate it and manage it well is crucial. Living with food allergy and allergic diseases does add more stress, but even so, we can still find workable ways to deal with it.

Start by taking inventory of your biggest stressors, and an honest look at the stress management tools you use (or don't use, but likely should be using). Commit to trying one new approach to managing your stress over the next week, and then reflect on how it impacted your physical and emotional stress levels. You can do this!

want more empowering allergy life tips like this emailed directly to you? subscribe to receive "food allergy counselor corner" emails!

And don't forget about ALL of The FAC resources here to support you!

Allergy counseling information for patients, therapists, allergists
Find an allergy-informed therapy provider - most offering telehealth
Listen to podcast episodes offering practical and relatable guidance
Watch (and listen to) webinars and podcast interviews
Explore allergy-focused behavioral health resources
Learn mindset strategies from allergy-specific therapeutic worksheets
Connect with other allergy-informed therapy providers!

0 Comments

Evidence-Based Allergy Behavioral Health Resources

First, What Makes The FAC Unique?

Allergy Behavioral Health
& Psychosocial Resource Section

Allergic Disease Counseling Niche Information

Food Allergy Therapeutic Worksheets
& Clinical Practice Forms

Exciting Announcement.....

Stress Management Skills For All Ages

Stress Management Skills for Kids

Stress Management Skills for Teens

Stress Management Skills for Adults

Stress Management For Parents & Families

want more empowering allergy life tips like this emailed directly to you? subscribe to receive "food allergy counselor corner" emails!

Managing Allergy-Related Stress

want more empowering allergy life tips like this emailed directly to you? subscribe to receive "food allergy counselor corner" emails!

Archives

Categories

FAC Resources

For THERAPY Providers

About

Evidence-Based Allergy Behavioral Health Resources

First, What Makes The FAC Unique?

​Allergy Behavioral Health​& Psychosocial Resource Section

​Allergic Disease Counseling Niche Information

​Food Allergy Therapeutic Worksheets & Clinical Practice Forms

Exciting Announcement.....

Stress Management Skills For All Ages

Stress Management Skills for Kids

Stress Management Skills for Teens

Stress Management Skills for Adults

Stress Management For Parents & Families

want more empowering allergy life tips like this emailed directly to you? subscribe to receive "food allergy counselor corner" emails!

Managing Allergy-Related Stress

want more empowering allergy life tips like this emailed directly to you? subscribe to receive "food allergy counselor corner" emails!

Archives

Categories

FAC Resources

For THERAPY Providers

About

Allergy Behavioral Health
& Psychosocial Resource Section

Allergic Disease Counseling Niche Information

Food Allergy Therapeutic Worksheets
& Clinical Practice Forms