The Hidden, or “Masking Effect” Explained 59Addiction
The second big clue I have already mentioned is that patients tend to get
hooked on their allergens (allergen: a substance which causes an allergy
reaction). This is an aspect of the problem that intrigues patients and public
alike. I’m talking now about real addiction: if the patient goes too long
without that food or substance, symptoms begin which induce a craving.
More of the food puts an end to the symptoms temporarily, and the craving
ceases for a time.
Thus the food or drink appears to give a ‘lift,’ but you must
understand that this is only because it is causing a ‘down’ in the first place.
You may know someone who always feels better for a cup of tea or a cookie;
it is possible to see such people visibly perk up. That’s addiction at work,
and, I need hardly point out, it is very common! The mechanism is in no
way different from the addiction of a junkie to heroin, or of an alcoholic to
liquor. Neither, in certain cases, are the consequences any less drastic – it’s
just a socially more acceptable addiction, that’s all.
Patients would say to me at the office, ‘Doctor, I’ll give up anything
you say – as long as it isn’t bread!’ (for bread, read tea, sugar, milk, coffee,
potatoes, and so on). Immediately, of course, I suspected that this was
something they were going to have to give up in order to get well. Sometimes
I was accused by my patients of being puritanical: to them it seems I was
bent on stopping the things they enjoy and crave the most, and often they
are right. Usually this was no more than a jocular criticism, but there were
occasions when I was faced with raw, steamy emotion. I had to explain that
it was not my fault the situation had come about; I merely had to treat the
after-effect of years, even a lifetime, of wrong eating habits.
It is interesting to note in passing that migraine patients are told
not to go more than a few hours without food. To do so often provokes
an attack of migraine on you, dear reader, now you know why! But I find
it baffling and frustrating that the doctors concerned, who are aware of
its withdrawal effect, never make the mental leap to recognizing they are
dealing with an addiction.
So what is a masked allergy or intolerance?
This addiction mechanism gives rise to another important new term, the
masked allergy. Essentially, this is the same as a hidden allergy, but it reminds
us that in this instance ingesting the allergen is what keeps the symptom
at bay: in other words, it masks the withdrawal effect, provided it is eaten