Social rejection because of Celiac

[Name]

Does anybody have tips on dealing with social rejection because you're celiac. I've experienced...

Former friends avoiding me cause they think celiac could be contagious.

People thinking brain fog makes me to boring.

People thinking I'm too picky or celiac is something I invented entirely in my head.

Other celiacs mocking that I won't eat the filling out of a regular gluten pie off of the crust, or candy that has a little wheat.

Non celiacs thinking it's an anaphylactic allergy and telling me I can't come to parties at their house anymore or shouldn't go out in public or hang out with friends who eat gluten.

People thinking celiac is just a way to hid anorexia.

Other friends calling us rude for not allowing them to bring gluten to parties at our house.

I try to counteract misinformation with truth. I've lost a lot of friends but I have a super cool friend I met a year ago whose great, humble, and understanding and isn't celiac, but has gluten sensitivity. Being an extrovert celiac is hard, but I enjoy meeting new people at larger events where nobody knows my medical history.

 

[Scott Adams]

Celiac disease really does expose how much ignorance and bad assumptions people carry about food, weight, and chronic illness, and none of that is your fault. It is encouraging that you have found at least one truly understanding friend, because the right people do make a huge difference. Sometimes losing people who refuse to learn clears space for better, kinder friendships, and it sounds like you are already finding that by meeting new people who know you as a person first, not as a diagnosis.

It also sounds like you are in the super sensitive celiac group, so perhaps you may not be going too far in not allowing others to bring gluten snacks to a party into your home, but my thought was that maybe you are being a bit too strict in this regard? For example, would you be upset if someone would not allow you to bring your gluten-free foods to their party? I clearly can't answer this for you, but just giving you food for thought.

Celiac.com has published a book on our site by Jean Duane PhD called Gluten-Centric Culture, which covers many of the social aspects of having celiac disease:

This chapter in particular covers issues around eating with family and others - Gluten-Centric Culture: Chapter 5 - Grabbing A Bite Together:

 

 

[Name]

I've let people bring a personal snack with gluten but the people I said no to wanted to actually make gluten desserts in our kitchen.

[Scott Adams]

It's fair for you to draw such a line after providing an kind explanation to them which they will hopefully understand. It's too bad that some people still won't understand.