Abuamerican, ur so right! I thought it's only happening to me, but I see now I'm not the only one. :-) Doctors here prescribe antihistamine a lot and for no reason, good thing that I'm a pharmacist and I can self medicate myself, if I can say so. And it's also a thing with all arab people, every time u have a mild symptom of any kind, like fever, or vomiting, anything, they will tell u oh, maybe u have allergy, it's "hasasia" in arabic.
Once I went to a pediatrician with my infant to check his ears, because he was scratching his left ear all the time, like a dog, lol. The doctor just told me he has mild throat congestion and gave me paracetamol for pain and fever though he had no fever I said ok, it's good for teething, it will help with the pain. But he also gave me an antihistamine I don't understand why, not to mention that this antihistamine is not recommended under 3 years and my baby was just 7 months at that time.
And all my experiences with doctors in Qatar is just about the same, I have a lot of great incredibles stories but I don't have enough space to write it here.