What If?

[Danno]

I was diagnosed a celiac at age 38, and diagnosed with depression/anxiety and treated at age 41. Looking back I wonder how much of a role being a celiac played in the struggles with deppression and the effects on my personal life.

Has anyone found themselves in a similar situation and wondered "what if" I wasn't a celiac?

[Jeremiah]

I was diagnosed a celiac at age 38, and diagnosed with depression/anxiety and treated at age 41. Looking back I wonder how much of a role being a celiac played in the struggles with deppression and the effects on my personal life.

Has anyone found themselves in a similar situation and wondered "what if" I wasn't a celiac?

I think it played a large role for me before I realized I had celiac disease. Your brain needs particular nutrients and when it does not get them (by not being able to absorb them) all kinds of conditions result. Put simply when I ate gluten, I understood why people went crazy... but gluten-free I'm fine.

[Hardyo]

Hi

The first time i suffered from depression was post-natal and since being diagnosed as a celiac i often wondered if my first pregnancy was my trigger, especially since my son has autism.

I've never felt right since then, and i've struggled with severe depression of and on for the last 4-5 years but after being on a gfd for about 3 months i weaned myself of anti-depressant and i have felt so much better, i really do believe if i wasn't a celiac i wouldn't have suffered from deression because in the last 9 months i've messed up my diet a couple of times and the symptons are so extreme i've behaved like a mad woman and then i was so depressed i could have topped myself, everything seemed so awful and i was ranting and raving at my family and i just couldn't cope and i didn't know that it was because of the gluten until i found this site and found out that quite alot of celiacs suffer similar symptons after eating gluten i was going to go back on anti-depressant but now i know that alot of other people are affected the same as me i can put things in perspective and i just need to be vigilant about what i eat and then emotionally i remain stable.

The bottom line is being a celiac totally sucks and i wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy but at least we've been diagnosed and we can do something about it now,

Imagine if we had to spend the rest of our lives living undiagnosed it doesn't bear thinking about, and its believed that there are 3/4 of a million people in Britain undiagnosed so i guess i'm one of the lucky ones.

good luck

[annemerlemac]

I was diagnosed a celiac at age 38, and diagnosed with depression/anxiety and treated at age 41. Looking back I wonder how much of a role being a celiac played in the struggles with deppression and the effects on my personal life.

Has anyone found themselves in a similar situation and wondered "what if" I wasn't a celiac?

II was told that my depression/anxiety was a result of my Celiac D. & that it should improve given time & gluten-free diet. It has too!

Anne

[melrobsings]

I start to think that and then i slap myself on the wrist and say everything happens for a reason and at least I'm not NEARLY as sick as i was when eating gluten. At least I only have to watch what goes in my mouth unlike some other horrid disease....in other words, it could be much worse. I also suffer from depression and "I'm pissed off about this disease-ness".

[jparsick84]

One of my symptoms is depression. It was never officially diagnosed, but whenever I had gluten I would feel like I wanted to kill myself (emotionally, not physically), that no one cared or understood, etc. The last time I was accidentally gluteneted I laid on the couch all day and couldn't stop crying. So yes, it is entirely possible your depression symptoms are related to Celiac. (Of course, I'm a bit of a medical weirdo - my internist calls me his "Little Medical Anomaly" b/c my body goes against all his medical knowledge.)

[ravenwoodglass]

What if? That is a question I have tortured myself with for 6 years now. Mostly when glutened but it does still creep in at other times. Celiac had a serious neuro impact for me that started at about age 4. My grandfather said it best on one of our yearly visits he asked 'Where did my little sunshine go?' I would be almost 45 before that happy person was fully back. The depression has almost killed me more than once, if you know what I mean and the thing that got me the most was that most of the time I had nothing to be depressed about. I just felt hopeless and tired and dark. I did realize in adulthood that it was physical in nature, it felt almost like a drug when the depression would hit, but no doctors had a clue. The only meds that worked were after they figured out I was having seizures and put me on anticonvulsents (sp) the conventional meds for depression would make me worse.

I feel worst for all the stuff my kids missed, that's where the 'what if's' really hit hard. They missed out on a childhood with a healthy parent who could actually play and do things. Not of course just due to the depression but also to the extreme pain I was constantly in due to the other effects on my system. The good thing was it got one child into medicine and she is studying hard. It is also hard to deal with the fact that if they had been diagnosed my Mom and twin might still be with me.

I am a late diagnosis person who not only struggled with overwhelming depression since childhood but then got to watch my children deal with it also. Watching the hell they have gone through is probably worse for me than dealing with my own problems, a common Mom thing I think. When the depression lifted for good, (for me it was cyclic) I felt like a new person. My DS experienced a less complete recovery from the depressive issues and still stuggles at times but for me the gluten-free diet lifted that cloud for good. I do have to be very strict as even tiny amounts will trigger the black clouds but now I know that after a day or so they will lift and that makes them easier to deal with. Thankfully the depression lifts before the overwhelming belly pain and D, and before I break out in oozing blisters. Hey sometimes you have to look on the bright side.

In my family depression and other mental issues are really strongly linked to the celiac issue and the effect that celiac has on the brain. It is really hard on the nervous system to have blood coursing through it constantly that the body is recognizing as a poison and producing antibodies to. We actually will sometimes form lesions that US doctors are clueless about but that other countries recognize as diagnostic of neuroimpact celiac. There are a lot of folks suffering needlessly especially since the doctors here seem to think the depression is a result of being sick and rarely listen when it is actually one of the first presenting symptoms, especially in young adults and children.

One thing that may help speed the healing and speed along the remission of depressive symptoms is sublingual B12. It will help the brain to 'fire' properly and will also help with your energy levels. If you are not a pill person then Royal Jelly from bees also has a lot of B12 and other good stuff. It also will be absorbed outside the gut, like the sublingual, if you follow the dosing instructions and don't drink more than a tablespoon of water with it.

You are not alone. I can't say whether the 'what if's' will ever stop for you. I try not to think about them too much. Sometimes it is not easy. Obviously.

[CuriousOne]

my life would have been completely different without gluten...completely.

i mean...i have been depressed...and lots of times even suicidal...since 5th grade. Pretty much a constant struggle just to want to live until a few years ago only.

Now when I eat gluten I do get depressed...its so indidious just sorta creeps up on me usually...and then everything sucks and i want to kill myself because its just all too hard and life isn't worth it and i'm so tired of feeling this way etc etc...then a few days later i finally can reason i must have been glutened...then a few more days later i start coming out of the fog.

ugh

I think its because when the body goes into such an immune response you enter sickness-behavior, which is basically where you really just need to crawl in a cave and heal. Problem is the world is going on around you...and you can't do that. Hence things are so much worse than they need to be...specially if you have to work etc etc. Its like you are dying inside but you have to carry on like normal.

[feelingbetter]

I am 45 and newly diagnosed. I have struggled with depression since grade 3. It has been my constant companion throughout my life. I was first medicated at the age of 31 and was on countless drugs for the next 14 years. One combo of drugs caused manic episodes and I was diagnosed as bipolar.

I lost my career and have been on a disability for the past 4 years. Like many others here my children were robbed of a mother. The oldest girls are in university and my youngest is ten. I hope to be there for him at least.

I finally found an alternative doctor who treats depression as a symptom and not a disease. I am so grateful as I am starting to climb out of a dark pit. Six months ago I pulled myself off of all psyc meds and went through a very hellish withdrawal. I think my recovery is slower than most because of all the meds I have taken. At 2 mos gluten-free I am so fatigued it is unbelievable but I do think I am healing.

I have to be careful as to not indulge in self pity too often. It is very easy to do with all of the losses in my life. I try instead to focus on all that I have.

[DebraH]

I am so glad I am reading this. I was diagnosed 1.5 years ago at age 53. I have ostepenia and was having extreme digestive symptoms. I have suffered from depression all my life. And, I have suffered from digestive system pain and "female problems" my entire life. Allergies resulting in constant use of antihistamines and decongestants. Fogginess. Gluten free for over a year now, I find I am remembering much of my childhood and I remember often trying to distract myself from the pain of my digestive system. It was horrible. Also, I have suffered from bladder problems my whole life and while urinary frequency doesn't seem much talked about, that problem has abated significantly in the past year.

I have read about the relationship between celiac disease and some mental illnesses and it is a no brainer for me. Consider the situation of an infant in constant pain from "colic". The child can't get away from the pain and thus becomes depressed and even develops dissociative adaptive responses. Think of how the screaming child bonds to her mother. Not an ideal situation. And, when I think of all the times I felt sick but received the message that I should smile and take care of myself better, or stop complaining, I could cry.

Lack of nutrient absorption leading to anemia and all anemia causes: weakness, mental fatigue, etc. outright physical pain, irregular body functioning, embarrassment and shame over digestive difficulties: all of these contribute to emotional and mental problems.

I am grateful to know that something can be done now. I am angry that celiac isn't one of the first things looked at.

Think of all the people for whom a hot dog and a beer at the ball park is pure poison. I question how much of the overuse of alcohol is due to the problems caused by gluten.

I find it easier to live for today now and focus on the good. But when I think of how hard I have worked to try to seem happy while in horrible pain, weak and fatigued since I was a little girl, I do feel outright grief. I believe celiac had a lot to do with other problems I've experienced in life.

I recently read an article in The New Yorker concerning colic and it's "possible" link to emotional and mental problems later in life. Celiac Disease was not mentioned specifically. But I can only hope that we as a society become more pro-active in quickly addressing problems in children's health.

I was unaware of celiac disease until the age of 53. I am happy to see more and more published in my own local newspaper and hope that more parents become aware of this extremely damaging condition.

[kbtoyssni]

I occasionally wonder what if. What if those two or three doctors I went to for non-traditional celiac symptoms had caught this earlier, before I got really sick. Luckily I was only a bit sick for eight years and really sick for one year so I did miss out on some things, but not as much as some people here. But I always come to the conclusion that I'm a much stronger, more compassionate, inquisitive person with a new appreciation for every day I'm able to get out of bed and better able to make the right decisions for me rather than the ones other people expect me to make. I got really sick at what was probably the best possible time in my life that I could have gotten sick (if there is such a thing as a good time to be sick for a year!), and celiac forced me to make some changes in my life that I should have done much sooner. I don't think I'd be as happy and getting as much out of life right now if I didn't have celiac.

[Guest digmom1014]

"I got really sick at what was probably the best possible time in my life that I could have gotten sick (if there is such a thing as a good time to be sick for a year!), and celiac forced me to make some changes in my life that I should have done much sooner. I don't think I'd be as happy and getting as much out of life right now if I didn't have celiac" -----kbtoyssini (okay- I cound't get the quote thing!)

I am looking at the up side also, I got out out a bad job/life situation because of celiac and see that as a positive outcome of the disease. My son is now 11 and I am fully there with him. I quite honestly have very hazy memories of the first 10 years of his life. I pretend when I see picture that they kind of jog my memory or maybe it's just the memories of the pictures themselves. I try not to think about that, I hope that made sense.

[geokozmo]

My son is now 11 and I am fully there with him. I quite honestly have very hazy memories of the first 10 years of his life. I pretend when I see picture that they kind of jog my memory or maybe it's just the memories of the pictures themselves. I try not to think about that, I hope that made sense.

[mn farm gal]

i to had lots of depression at the begining and before going gluten free. All the blood work they did everything was normal other than everything relating to iron. However when I started to see a naturalpathic doctor that puts me on a machine of some kind said I was dificient in 18 different vitamins and minerals, she explaind to me that the lack of any or all the B vitamins cause depression, she has me on a liquid B vitamin complex and I can tell right away if I don't take it for a couple of days. So it could still be something you are lacking that you may want to check into.