Allergies - UGH!
Allergies are extremely common and over time everyone is likely to develop at least a few. Most allergy symptoms fall into the annoyance category—runny nose, maybe itchy eyes or nose, that sort of thing. Sometimes allergies can be life-threatening (for example, causing difficulty breathing). Severe allergies always require medical advice and attention, while mild allergies often do not. The simplest explanation of allergies is that they are your immune system over-reacting and treating something that isn’t really dangerous as if it is a big problem. When this happens, we call the thing you are reacting to an allergen, when the rest of the time we just call it pollen or milk or nuts.
If your body decides that something is an allergen, your immune system will roll out all of its tricks (which vary depending on the allergen and the location of contact with your body) and cause your body to try to get rid of the offensive substance. Sometimes this means hay fever, sometimes it’s a rash, sometimes it is stomach/ intestinal problems… the list of possibilities is nearly endless. You can have an allergy to pretty much anything. I have seen people have allergic reactions to perfumes, plants (any and all of their parts, but pollen is the most common), medications, animals, lotions, soaps, metals, foods, dust, mold, and so many more things. The common feature is that it’s something that isn’t usually harmful to humans, but your body has decided that it is harmful to you.
If you think you have an allergy or allergies, you can decide how you want to handle it. You can:
Ignore it
Try over-the-counter allergy medication (either herbal, homeopathic, or pharmaceutical)
Talk to your doctor about what's going on
All of these are valid and you should choose the right one for you depending on how much chaos the allergy is causing in your life (I do not, however, recommend doing an internet search to see if you can find either magic or the worst possible outcome that has ever happened to someone with an allergy). (Also, see Allergies part 3, I want to feel better)