Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/1tzwlto/tifu_by_not_realizing_i_was_allergic_to_everything/

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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/buzzbannana on 2026-06-08 03:34:14+00:00.

Or perhaps more accurately, every day I was fucking up until now. Let me explain.

For as long as I could remember, I've always been a bad sleeper. I even have childhood photographs of me with eye bags. Fast forward to when I'm an adult in college. I feel like I am sick all the time and just think it's because I'm in a different environment from moving to California. I don't have the habit of seeing doctors often due to my Asian parents not believing in western medicine.

One time while getting really sick to the point that I can't breath through both nostrils, I tried Afrin and realized I got the best sleep of my life. I realized that my bad sleep must be due to nasal congestion. I don't know how I didn't notice until then, but I suddenly realized I always have one nostril clogged while laying down. Consulting my friends, most could breathe through both nostrils.

Here's my biggest fuck up: I see a nose doctor (ENT) who said likely my issue is allergies, either to pollen or dust. He prescribes me allergy meds to try out for a month and see if it gets better. I procrastinate this step super hard.

Eventually, I do try it out but it barely helps and I feel maybe I am placebo'ing myself. I feel like there's no way it's allergies then. The ENT had also mentioned I have a minor deviated septum that doesn't warrant surgery. I latch onto the idea that my problems must all stem from the deviated nose septum.

I see a different nose doctor who specializes in nasal surgeries. It's approximately a year after I saw the first ENT. Lo and behold, he also tells me to get allergies checked out!

Finally, I see an allergist (which I should have done a year ago). Turns out, I'm allergic to like everything: dust mites, cat, dog, all sorts of pollen, mold, grass, trees, the list goes on and on. But the biggest are cats and dust mites.

So finally, after 20+ years, I realized the source of so many of my life's issues. I've been often breathing through my mouth due to nasal congestion causing me to constantly have sore throats and always feel sick and have horrible sleep from the discomfort. Can you imagine constantly feeling mildly sick for your whole life?? Honestly I've been crying a few times since this realization.

Everything makes sense now. The reason why it worsened in college was because I am less clean than when I lived with my parents. There was a time where I thought I had bed bugs but the inspector found nothing. In reflection, it was actually due to dust mite allergies that I had hives broken out. I was still convinced I had bed bugs and did everything you do to kill bed bugs. Coincidentally, that's what kills dust mites and so it happened to help me.

The reason why I thought I didn't have allergies was because I was allergic to so many things so it wasn't seasonal like people who are only allergic to pollen.

I wrote this in order to raise awareness in case others had the same issues. Maybe you have similar symptoms like constantly dry throats or even a time where you thought you had bed bugs but found nothing.

I saw on some website that 5-30% of Americans have dust mite allergies and I feel the wide range must also be the assumption of people being undiagnosed.

TL;DR: I didn't realize I was allergic to everything until now, especially dust mites, which explained my chronic congested nose and bad sleep.