This is your brain on allergies.

One of the things I've been actively working on is ensuring my mental health as I've been sick. This is definitely a work in progress, especially when my infections were at their worst and I could barely get out of bed for days at a time. I believe, though, that mental health plays a role in physical healing.

I've had good okay days and bad days, but I've created some rules for myself to try to prevent a meltdown.

1. Write it down. A lot of times, just organizing your thoughts on paper (even in a simple list form) can help to make everything seem less cluttered in your brain. I'm often thinking about countless things - my health, work, responsibilities at home, the people I care about, the state of the world... - all at the same time. It can feel overwhelming, then I get angry that I don't feel well enough to tackle it all. That's when I give myself permission to take five and jot it down. Once I see how short the list actually is and how low priority/not urgent most of those things are, I feel better.
2. If you feel blue, tell someone. This one can be tough, but that's by design. If I start to feel the self-pity coming on, I remind myself that I'll need to talk to someone about it. Then I'm faced with the choice of either continuing to feel bad or move on. More times than not, I choose the latter. However, ask Husband and my mom how frequently I've told them I felt down in the past several weeks and you'll appreciate how often I'm faced with the decision. But telling someone can also be helpful. Sometimes the other person has ideas to help lift your mood. Sometimes just the empathy helps. I sometimes tell Husband that I just want for him to say, "Yeah! This sucks!" so I can have an ally. Often, just that is helpful.
3. Make plans. Especially hard if you've been down and out for days at a time, but making plans commits you to getting up and not just assuming you'll have a bad day. Plans can be broken if you really can't do it, but it's easier to hide away and be lonely and bored if you don't have something committed.

...Any questions? (Sorry, I couldn't help it.)