Hi All,
I'm wondering if anyone can help me navigate an 'allergy' I've had since a relatively young age but started in a way, and perhaps manifests in a way, that suggests it might be something else.
I'm 40 years old now, and when I was younger, I used to love fish and seafood, with it being some of my favourite foods overall - I'd eat a variety of fish and seafood from all around the world.
We were on holiday around my 11th birthday, and walking past a fishing fleet on a beach, the smell of rotting fish was quite overpowering and triggered something in my brain. For around 4 or 5 hours, I couldn't stop vomiting.
When it finally finished, I went about my life but noticed that I couldn't eat or be near seafood again.
The smell of any seafood manifests itself as a rotting seafood smell; similarly, the taste of anything from the water will be the same and start violent bouts of vomiting.
I have had this for the past 29 years now, and it is even triggered when I have no knowledge that there's seafood in something, but I happen to consume something made with oyster sauce, or even Worcestershire sauce (which I didn't know had fish in it until I checked the ingredients after being particularly ill)
Is it possible for an allergy to be set off so violently by just smell?
If not, and it's just something my brain has associated with a memory, then can it be reconditioned somehow? I've been trying for years, but to no avail. I'm assuming that because it happens even when it should be undetectable or is unknown to me, it can't be psychological, but I'm clutching at straws as it's quite debilitating.
Any help/guidance/sharing of experiences is very much appreciated.