New Here W/ptsd And Maybe Celiac

[jpnman]

Hi,

Just found your site here and hope this will be helpful. I've had severe PTSD for 35 years (due to ongoing childhood sexual abuse). It's taken me 20 to finally find the right therapist to start EMDR therapy with. I've lost jobs, relationships and my family has disowned me. I'm a sober alcoholic (15 years) and beat 4 prescription med addictions as well. Tomorrow I'm going to see my holistic dr. and then get blood tests for Celiac's Disease. I've done some checking on symptoms and I think I have about 50% of them.

So now I'm wondering:

Is it common for long-term stress to lead to Celiac's?

What other diseases can Celiac's be misdiagnosed as?

Which blood tests should I get?

I'm on a pretty good holistic diet right now. A little gluten which will continue till I get the tests done. If I do have it, how do you cope with such a severe diet?

If someone else here has PTSD, how do you cope with having both? In my case it's sexual abuse, physical and verbal abuse, alcoholism, PTSD. And now MAYBE Celiac's Disease. I feel like I'm getting pounded into the ground forever by the a**h*** that raped me.

Thanks for the help

[jpnman]

Hi again,

I've been advised to try and post my message again. If you see the first one I'm dealing with a lot of things right now. So I'll try again.

Is it common for long-term stress to lead to Celiac's?

What other diseases can Celiac's be misdiagnosed as?

Which blood tests should I get when you get tested?

I'm on a pretty good holistic diet right now. A little gluten which will continue till I get the tests done. If I do have it, how do you cope with such a severe diet?

If someone else here has PTSD, how do you cope with having both?

Thanks in advance for reading and the help.

[tarnalberry]

Is it common for long-term stress to lead to Celiac's?

What other diseases can Celiac's be misdiagnosed as?

Which blood tests should I get when you get tested?

I'm on a pretty good holistic diet right now. A little gluten which will continue till I get the tests done. If I do have it, how do you cope with such a severe diet?

If someone else here has PTSD, how do you cope with having both?

You're first message came through fine.

First - congratulations for all the progress you've made!

As for your specific questions:

1) While genetics play a role, it's thought that environmental factors are *also* required to trigger Celiac disease. Physical stress (e.g., surgery, pregnancy), mental stress (e.g. high-intensity work stress), emotional stress (e.g., death/abandonment in the family, significant depression) are all thought to be triggers just as excess antibiotic use, yeast infections, and major diseases. I don't think we have any statistics for whether or not it's "common", but definitely possible.

2) Irritible Bowel Syndrom is the most common misdiagnosis of Celiac. Anemia, osteoporosis, irritable bowel disease, depression, and crohn's disease are other common misdiagnoses.

3) The proper tests:

total serum IgA

EMA (endomyosial antibody) IgA

AgA (anti-gliadin antibody) lgA

AgA (anti-gliadin antibody) IgG

tTg (tissue transglutaminase) IgA

4) "A little gluten" is not enough for the tests. You need to be eating *plenty* of gluten (2-3 slices of bread a day, for 2-3 months, or the equivalent) to have a reasonable chance of the blood tests not being a false negative. (Ditto for the biopsy.)

After that, however, if you do have to go gluten free, you adapt. (It's something we humans are good at. ) Seriously, it doesn't need to be that bad. If you hold to the attitude that you are entitled to wheat just because, then you may have problems. But if you're willing to explore the hundreds of other foods out there, that aren't the four that you have to eliminate on this diet, you'll be alright.

Yes, there's a steep learning curve. There are all kinds of modifications to make to your palate, your habits, and how you approach your social life. But it's all doable, and - I think - for the healthier.

5) I don't have PTSD, so I can't speak to that part of it. I do know that when I'm in a depressive phase (I'm dysthymic), it can get harder. And annoying to have that restriction. But just as annoying as any other restriction. (Oh, the grocery store isn't right at my finger tips. Oh, my friends aren't all free when I want them. Oh, my husband won't clean the whole house without me doing a thing. ... ) That's not to make light of it in that state, but it's one other thing to work around, and - AFTER YOU LEARN IT - it gets much much easier.

I won't discount the size of the learning curve. Exactly how big it is will depend on your current eating habits, your current food/cooking knowledge and abilities, and your flexibility and adaptability in the world of food and social events that revolve around food. It can range from fairly easy to hard as heck. And it's worth working with your therapist to incorporate these changes as well - they affect us psychologically.

[SunnyDyRain]

First off, I'd like to welcome you, as somone who has battled mental health issues for the past 10 years I know how intimidating this diet and disease can seem when your dealing with everything else. I don't have nearly as many issues as you have, I basically have depression (mildly bi-polar) and anxiety. I have come to believe that my celiac was set off by mononuclousis in 1997. This is when my depression set in, and also my digestive problems began. It took me till late 2006 for me to find out about celiac, and until march 07 to be diagnosed.

I have found a great deal of my depression has been helped by the gluten-free diet, I'm not sure if it just distracting me, or keeping me busy, or the Gluten really really was effecting my mood. I haven't found so much relief from anxiety, that has gotten a bit worse, but I also find myself in more situations where my anxiety is bad (I have still not gotten to the point where I can send back a meal that has gluten in it when I ordered it without). I still get days where I just want to eat normally, there are days when I think i'm not worth the effort this diet takes. That is where this board comes in. I come on here and I see other people doing this, and I see people caring how others are doing. This diet is doable, I think even more so for you if you are allready on a light gluten diet. I was addicted to pasta, breads, cookies, cakes. If those are out of your diet already, you don't have that addiction to break.

It's doable, but don't try it alone, were here to help!

[Guhlia]

Hi again,

I've been advised to try and post my message again. If you see the first one I'm dealing with a lot of things right now. So I'll try again.

Is it common for long-term stress to lead to Celiac's?

What other diseases can Celiac's be misdiagnosed as?

Which blood tests should I get when you get tested?

I'm on a pretty good holistic diet right now. A little gluten which will continue till I get the tests done. If I do have it, how do you cope with such a severe diet?

If someone else here has PTSD, how do you cope with having both?

Thanks in advance for reading and the help.

Welcome to the forum! Yes, long term stress can lead to Celiac. Celiac is commonly misdiagnosed as IBS. There are however several other conditions that can easily result from Celiac or coexist with Celiac, but aren't really a misdiagnosis: anemia, chronic depression, osteoperosis, osteopenia, anxiety disorders, acid reflux disease, among many others.

If you're only consuming a little gluten, it is very likely that the tests will be negative. You generally have to be consuming approximately 4 slices of bread a day to result in a positive test, sometimes more, sometimes less. So, if you get a negative test you may want to try the gluten free diet anyway. Testing really isn't very accurate anyway, so it's probably best to try the diet after your tests. Be sure that they're done testing for Celiac though before you go gluten free.

Coping? It really isn't bad at all after the first year or so. I don't even realize that I eat a special diet anymore. We eat a lot of delicious fresh meat with homemade marinades or seasonings, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, fresh veggies, frozen veggies... We eat pizza, bagels, macaroni and cheese, and cereal. We just have to buy specific brands. Some aren't even more expensive than their glutenous counterpart. Once you've established good daily eating habits, you likely won't even notice that you're gluten free. It really isn't as hard as it looks after you're used to it. It's just a matter of getting used to it.

I was diagnosed with having PTSD years and years ago after being raped. Since then I have been through therapy multiple times without resolution. Finally, after going gluten free my flashbacks and most of my other anxiety issues have completely resolved themselves. I am, for the most part, living a normal life. I think that perhaps, due to mental illness from undiagnosed Celiac, that I was predisposed to the PTSD symptoms. Once I went gluten free and was able to absorb essential vitamins my symptoms were able to resolve themselves. Granted, I had a VERY mild case of PTSD, but still... There is hope. And, once you're gluten free, you may too notice that treatment becomes much easier and you may find yourself on the fast track to recovery. I hope this is the case for you as well.