My mom has severe depression and anxiety and suffered from a severe case of hives. These hives would become so severe at times that she would actually get swelling of the lips, and sometimes of the eyelids. For all intents and purposes it presented textbook food allergy. However upon several tests ruled out any allergies as an underlying cause. The issues continued and worsened. She was prescribed some medications to treat the symptoms and was just diagnosed with idiopathic hives, and most medical folks know that idiopathic is just a fancy way to say that we have no freaking idea what is causing it. So, as the months continues and I actually saw first hand the hives and the swelling, I was convinced that they were missing something. I sent her to an immunologist and specialist in allergies. There they repeated some of the previous tests and the expanded the testing to include many other analytes. Again, the results came back with nothing at all. No allergies to anything, at least anything discounting some esoteric compound that she would have to go to a deserted island to come into contact with. So at this point I decided that it had to be psychological. She was put on some different anxiety medications as well as some different medications to deal with the depression. After awhile of the new medications, these hives went away and knock on wood it has been several years and she has not had any issues with them since. It sounds to me like a good majority of your problem may be psychological in nature. I know that it is difficult to believe that so many symptoms can result from your brain fooling your body, but keep in mind just how little we all (medical professionals included) know about the brain. So when you think about it that way, it really is not that surprising.

As a result of your anxiety causing you these serious skin issues, you become even more anxious and worried. This leads to lack of sleep, or possibly you get enough sleep, but the sleep you get is not of good quality. This leads to making your immune system less strong, thus opening you up to more infections and viruses (even simple ones like the common cold, or a stomach bug). All of these minor illnesses would cause your CBC to be off, indicating an increased WBC count, as could it throw some other analytes out of whack.

Lupus is an autoimmune disorder, so you could go to an immunologist (just as I did my mother) and have them test you for that as well as allergies and any other constituent that could be some type of root cause to your symptoms. I will not say that you should not do that, and in fact, I would recommend it, just to make sure that you are ruling out such issues. From there, if those tests come up empty, as in the case of my mom, I would recommend going to see someone who specializes in treating anxiety disorders and start there.

You say that you have limited resources. If you do not feel comfortable answering these questions, then I understand, or you can email me, but do you have medical insurance? Do you live in the United States? Do you have a full time job that you have had for a year, or does your company honor FMLA for you ( less than one year or small companies do not have to honor FMLA)? If you can answer some of that, then maybe I can tell you of a few options for you to consider on how to get the care that you need without putting yourself into financial straits.

icpmslabrat@yahoo.com
References :
Toxicologist, MD, Ph.D