Gluten free diet saves the day!

Jus wanted to pop in and say I've been on a gluten free diet for over 8 weeks now and all of my symptoms of SA/GAD are still gone gone bye byes!!! Yes, I am a completely different person - well I'd say I'm back to my old self. I was socially anxious for over 15 years. I'm 33 now. It's been hell, and very depressive. Been on all sorts of medications but I put it all down to gluten!!!!!!!!!! Damn doctors!~ I recommend you play around with your diets because it could very well be the cause of so much grief as such in my case. It truly is a joy to be anxious free and I am getting goose bumps just writing this.. Good luck with finding yourself out:) love pat
 

ImNotMyIllness

Well-known member
Congratulations! Just out of curiosity. Did you have any blood work done that you're allergic go Gluten?
I use to have IB when I ate things like Pasta.
 
No blood work... Just elimination diet because I had digestive issues.. within 3 days I felt amazing and within a week or 2 all abdominal pain and diarrhoea + itchy bum (woops) symptoms gone. I will have some tests done when I get some time. I did not expect the anxiety to disappear. I had no idea even that anxiety can be a symptom of gluten intolerance. I have been close to tear for the past 8 weeeks just thinking about how my life could have been so different if I had of known in my teens... there were so many tell tail signs but I brushed them off thinking that I was just different ie: acne, feeling anxious, upset stomach after eating sometimes, the bloatedness - just so many signs ignored.. Anyway I am very grateful I have found this now. The thing is some people can be intolerant to foods and not even have obvious symptoms but can feel the anxiety and depression therefore leading to misdiagnosis... good luck :)
 

Phoenixx

Well-known member
Great to hear, timetoheal! :) Interesting how food effects our overall being, eh? I am gluten free, plus among other things "free," but sadly that is not the cure for my SA.

I will say though that not eating certain foods definitely helps my anxiety levels though. Sugar, for instance, is one I've recently been avoiding the last few months due to a doctor's orders about yeast infections/candidiasis. All sugars, not just refined, including omitting all fruits (except berries), raw sugars, even honey -- which I love. It's been extremely hard, but I did notice a definite drop in my anxiety levels. They're still there, but not as high as they were. I can manage to walk with my head up a little more, which is a pretty significant difference in itself seeming I almost always walk with my head down.
 

ImNotMyIllness

Well-known member
I suspect that I might be gluten intolerant. I know that I was before. Now for some reason, I seem to digest food better. I'm terrible with making healthy food choices but I'll check into what a Gluten Free diet looks (and tastes) like. Worth checking into.
 

EscapeArtist

Well-known member
I am so happy for you!! This post like put tears in my eyes! I had the same moment with gluten about 3 years ago! Took away 80% of my social anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, all of my panic attacks, and psychotic visual distortions. One one of the happiest weeks of my life was when I went off of gluten and was all of a sudden like.... "OMG... THE WORLD IS BRIGHT AND SHINY AND NOT DARK AND MORPHY!" I would start dancing randomly because I had energy for once and ommmmg (after the gluten withdrawal, that is, which DOES exist.) I'm SOoooooooo happy for you! Have you further looked into other intolerances? Often they come together. Gluten is my main one (i have huge reactions where I cant even look at pictures of people or myself in the mirror) but i have smaller intolernaces to dairy and soy that do the same things on lesser levels.

anyways YAY!!!!!! IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!! :)!!! Gluten causes an autoimmune reaction that creates antibodies that actually attack your nervous system and swell up your brain (mostly frontal lobe). So it's no wonder it changes personalities SO much. On gluten, I swear, I couldn't connect to humans at all, sometimes teachers/parents thought i was autistic as a child, nope. gluten
 
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ImNotMyIllness

Well-known member
I am so happy for you!! This post like put tears in my eyes! I had the same moment with gluten about 3 years ago! Took away 80% of my social anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, all of my panic attacks, and psychotic visual distortions. One one of the happiest weeks of my life was when I went off of gluten and was all of a sudden like.... "OMG... THE WORLD IS BRIGHT AND SHINY AND NOT DARK AND MORPHY!" I would start dancing randomly because I had energy for once and ommmmg (after the gluten withdrawal, that is, which DOES exist.) I'm SOoooooooo happy for you! Have you further looked into other intolerances? Often they come together. Gluten is my main one (i have huge reactions where I cant even look at pictures of people or myself in the mirror) but i have smaller intolernaces to dairy and soy that do the same things on lesser levels.

anyways YAY!!!!!! IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!! :)!!! Gluten causes an autoimmune reaction that creates antibodies that actually attack your nervous system and swell up your brain (mostly frontal lobe). So it's no wonder it changes personalities SO much. On gluten, I swear, I couldn't connect to humans at all, sometimes teachers/parents thought i was autistic as a child, nope. gluten

So, what do you guys mainly eat? What types of foods?
 

crazycatlady27

Well-known member
No blood work... Just elimination diet because I had digestive issues.. within 3 days I felt amazing and within a week or 2 all abdominal pain and diarrhoea + itchy bum (woops) symptoms gone. I will have some tests done when I get some time. I did not expect the anxiety to disappear. I had no idea even that anxiety can be a symptom of gluten intolerance. I have been close to tear for the past 8 weeeks just thinking about how my life could have been so different if I had of known in my teens... there were so many tell tail signs but I brushed them off thinking that I was just different ie: acne, feeling anxious, upset stomach after eating sometimes, the bloatedness - just so many signs ignored.. Anyway I am very grateful I have found this now. The thing is some people can be intolerant to foods and not even have obvious symptoms but can feel the anxiety and depression therefore leading to misdiagnosis... good luck :)




i am really glad you were able to fix your issues, but it just sounds like you have celiacs disease, its not that rare and if you had a good doctor and told them the symptoms then you might have been diagnosed a lot quicker. my sister in law has it and when she eats something she shouldent, she can be ill for days.
but again really glad you are well :thumbup:
 
So what exactly do you not eat, if you have gluten intolerance? From what I've seen, almost everything has gluten in it. I guess a better question is, what do you eat if you have gluten intolerance? I want to try this out... Thanks! :)
 

Phoenixx

Well-known member
Gluten free diets can actually be pretty simple once you get the hang of everything. Yes, gluten does tend to be in everything and it sucks, but there are tons of gluten free options out there too. Some really common and cheap alternatives are corn, rice, and soy. I am also corn and rice free though, so that makes my gluten free diet even tighter and harder.

A lot of food labels nowadays will state if they are GF or gluten free, since it is becoming more common. Some key words and foods you need to look out for as far as gluten goes include wheat, barley, oats*, farro, triticale, semolina, durum, rye, malt, soy sauce (unless indicated gluten free), caramel coloring (unless indicated as organic or gluten free), and modified food starch (unless specified). Seasonings and natural flavors should also be avoided unless it's pretty clear that the product is/will be gluten free.
*There is such a thing as gluten-free oats, but even that is tricky. Some that are gluten-free can tolerate them, but some get the same reaction as they would gluten. I cannot tolerate gluten-free oats at all.

If you guys want to bake, there are a TON of different flours out there to try, if you're into experimenting. Tapioca starch, rice flour, corn flour/starch, potato flour/starch, arrowroot starch, nut flours, millet flour, sorghum flour, bean flours, buckwheat (Don't be mislead by this. Buckwheat has no relation to wheat and is totally safe.), etc. etc. Although I will note that first time experimenting can be frustrating. It took me a year to get everything down pat and now I can make all sorts of awesome cookies, desserts, even bread. :)

If you don't want to experiment, there are already prepackaged flour mixes you can buy that contain a variety of flours that basically takes all the work out for you when substituting for regular wheat flour in recipes. There are also prepackaged baked good mixes too.

Basically when you start the diet, it'll be a hunting game finding products to eat again. It'll take a bit of practice, but in no time you should be able to pull things right off the shelf without questioning whether there's gluten in it or not. Oh, but I should note that if a product's overall packaging has changed, it's safe to recheck the ingredients. More than once I've picked up something I used to eat safely, only to have the ingredients changed on me! :eek:

Don't expect to like everything you eat either when first starting, especially if you've been an avid gluten eater. I know when I first started, I hated almost everything. My taste buds weren't used to the texture or overall taste of gluten-free foods and it all just tasted gross and weird to me. It'll take a bit for your taste buds to change, but give it time and they will. Now I love pretty much anything gluten free. Not that I have much of a choice anyway, heh.

Anyway, I know this is long, but I hope this helps! Good luck! :perfect:
 
^Yeah, finding foods to eat without gluten sounds like a nightmare :/

I've read things claiming the current gluten-free trend is just a fad, unless you have celiac disease. I don't necessarily agree with this opinion - I barely know anything about going gluten-free. But I am kind of wary... and a bit paranoid now that everything I'm eating is causing inflammation or my migraines or something. Is that true? :(

I suppose the only way to find out is to remove all gluten from my diet for a while and then reintroduce it. Sounds extremely annoying, haha.
 

Phoenixx

Well-known member
^Yeah, finding foods to eat without gluten sounds like a nightmare :/

I've read things claiming the current gluten-free trend is just a fad, unless you have celiac disease. I don't necessarily agree with this opinion - I barely know anything about going gluten-free. But I am kind of wary... and a bit paranoid now that everything I'm eating is causing inflammation or my migraines or something. Is that true? :(

I suppose the only way to find out is to remove all gluten from my diet for a while and then reintroduce it. Sounds extremely annoying, haha.
^ Yeah I've heard that too about gluten free diets. I don't follow fads, basically my opinion is that if whatever you're eating makes you feel crummy, then maybe you shouldn't eat it. People really underestimate how food can actually effect our overall health, and I think a lot of issues could be solved just through diet alone.

As for your migraines, that sort of stuff can be triggered by almost anything as far as food goes. Refined sugars are a huge inflammatory food, and removing them might even help you out. Milk is also known to trigger headaches -- it does with me. I am also nightshade sensitive and tend to avoid those most of the time. Nightshades basically are a variety of crops that contain groups of alkaloids which can inflame the body. Includes tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant (but this is safe for me, hm...), peppers - including paprika, chili pepper/powder, and cayenne pepper spices, tomatillos, goji berries, and gooseberries.

I should also note that you do not need to have celiac disease to be allergic to gluten.
 

EscapeArtist

Well-known member
I usually make everything myself (although there are packaged gluten free things now). So it's a non-processed diet basically. Meats, vegetables, beans/legumes, rice, you can have corn or rice bread if you want bread, fruits. You can still have oats as long as you get the gluten free kind, obviously none of the prepackaged kind.

it's basically a non-processed foods diet but without bread, wheat,barley, rye, or spelt. (probably dont even eat the last 1).

So like a day would be like
Oatmeal and fruit

lunch could be like prawns on a salad or something. Or a stir fry over rice.

dinner would be some kind of meat, baked potato, boiled vegetables if you want to see how similar that is to the norm anyway x)

etc etc

It's actually not that difficult. It gets a little expensive if you want to keep eating processed foods, but they have gluten free versions of everything now. If you want to keep your doughnuts, cake, muffins, pizza, and baked goods, you'll just have to spend a buck or two more and can buy them premade at the store now. But if you don't eat those often anyways then it's easy peasy. Beer also is made from wheat, but they even have gluten free versions of that.

Idk, to anybody who is interested in trying it, this is the way to go about it. Go completely off of gluten for 2 weeks, and then after those 2 weeks are up, eat a LOT of it. If you get a reaction (mental, emotional, or physical) in the next 12-24 hours most likely you are gluten intolerant.
 

HexNoir

Well-known member
I know OP isn't posting on here anymore, but WOW. I needed this information today after finding the same thing out in myself.

This is a real game changer.
 
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