Hi I'm New

[Snappy-Pants]

Hi everyone, I hate to be a "lurker" so I figured I'd out myself and introduce a bit about me and my process thus far. I just found this site last week and it has done so much to make me feel not alone and that there are so many positive things to focus on. Haha, love the Krispy Kreme thread....gosh they were tasty!

I'm 25 years old and my whole life I've battled with "allergies". I grew up in Maine and while my mother asked my doctor to look into Celiac's he told her she was crazy and there was no way I had it. Right.... My mother is a whole other story but she has so many auto-immune symptoms and no one had been able to figure them all out. I grew up thinking I was lactose intolerant and low and behold a month gluten free and I am OK with dairy!! That has given me a lot of hope because now I can have ice cream (gluten free) and tapioca/rice puddings, just enough "fun" stuff for me.

I also have depression issues and a binge-eating disorder. I am not overweight and people tend to not believe me when I tell them about my eating disorder since I am 5'5" and 105 lbs. It is real and even if its just the invasive daily thoughts without actions, it is very prominent in my life. I LOVE food. I once said if I couldn't have bread I would rather die. Well...obviously that didn't happen .

About 6 months ago I started having hives daily. I mean really really bad where my legs were just covered and I was so uncomfortable. Hives have always been an allergy symptom for me so I assumed it was spring allergies and took my Claratin. It got BAD. Really miserably bad so I went to an allergist. He did the tests and found I was allergic to lots of environmental stuff and I insisted that I have the food allergy test even though they didn't think it was necessary and I should just start getting allergy shots. The food allergy test found me allergic to wheat, tomatoes, certain nuts, green beans, and brewers yeast. The doctor told me to focus on brewers yeast and I went on an elimination diet.

I went a week on potatoes, bananas, etc. and I was starving! So of course my first addition back was....wheat. Pasta with olive oil (avoiding the tomatoes). That night my face swelled up so big I was crying and thought I would have to go to the ER. I was really scared. So a few more days go by....oh I'll just have one little cookie...WRONG. Same thing, hives, and HUGE lips and swollen eyes.

So off to the trusty Internet I went and found Celiac's Disease. Gee....my constant loose stools and lethargy on the weekends after wheat products, my hives an hour after dinner, depression, etc. it suddenly ALL made sense. I felt so validated and vindicated. My doctor agreed (he called it a variant since you don't usually see hives) and I've been gluten free for a month.

Its so hard though. I mean, I was suicidal for about a week over wheat and while my husband is super supportive he thought I was crazy when I said that. Luckily my mother is now agreeing that this is her problem to so I have an wheat-free buddy. And my in-laws are diabetic so they have been SO great about my needs even buying rice bread and making sure nothing has wheat gluten in it for family parties and I know that I am VERY lucky about that.

So anyway, I just wanted to say hi (sorry for the saga!) and I know I'm at the very start of my journey but its great to know you are all here when I need some help or suggestions or even just to rant a little.

[lmvrbaby]

Hi and welcome. I have been gluten free not quite 2 years now. I have days when I still get something that I shouldn't but that will happen. I have 4 boys, three of which has been tested and the oldest is the only one who has celiac and he is also diabetic. There are many people on here that will answer questions or help in any way, so just ask. I have found lots of comfort on here as I have no one else in the area to share this with other than my son. He is now 21 and lives with his girlfriend and daughter and does what he wants, mom just isn't in that equasion. So I hope you find answers to any questions and that your gluten free experience only gets better

[Guest Happynwgal2]

Hi everyone, I hate to be a "lurker" so I figured I'd out myself and introduce a bit about me and my process thus far. I just found this site last week and it has done so much to make me feel not alone and that there are so many positive things to focus on. Haha, love the Krispy Kreme thread....gosh they were tasty!

I'm 25 years old and my whole life I've battled with "allergies". I grew up in Maine and while my mother asked my doctor to look into Celiac's he told her she was crazy and there was no way I had it. Right.... My mother is a whole other story but she has so many auto-immune symptoms and no one had been able to figure them all out. I grew up thinking I was lactose intolerant and low and behold a month gluten free and I am OK with dairy!! That has given me a lot of hope because now I can have ice cream (gluten free) and tapioca/rice puddings, just enough "fun" stuff for me.

I also have depression issues and a binge-eating disorder. I am not overweight and people tend to not believe me when I tell them about my eating disorder since I am 5'5" and 105 lbs. It is real and even if its just the invasive daily thoughts without actions, it is very prominent in my life. I LOVE food. I once said if I couldn't have bread I would rather die. Well...obviously that didn't happen .

About 6 months ago I started having hives daily. I mean really really bad where my legs were just covered and I was so uncomfortable. Hives have always been an allergy symptom for me so I assumed it was spring allergies and took my Claratin. It got BAD. Really miserably bad so I went to an allergist. He did the tests and found I was allergic to lots of environmental stuff and I insisted that I have the food allergy test even though they didn't think it was necessary and I should just start getting allergy shots. The food allergy test found me allergic to wheat, tomatoes, certain nuts, green beans, and brewers yeast. The doctor told me to focus on brewers yeast and I went on an elimination diet.

I went a week on potatoes, bananas, etc. and I was starving! So of course my first addition back was....wheat. Pasta with olive oil (avoiding the tomatoes). That night my face swelled up so big I was crying and thought I would have to go to the ER. I was really scared. So a few more days go by....oh I'll just have one little cookie...WRONG. Same thing, hives, and HUGE lips and swollen eyes.

So off to the trusty Internet I went and found Celiac's Disease. Gee....my constant loose stools and lethargy on the weekends after wheat products, my hives an hour after dinner, depression, etc. it suddenly ALL made sense. I felt so validated and vindicated. My doctor agreed (he called it a variant since you don't usually see hives) and I've been gluten free for a month.

Its so hard though. I mean, I was suicidal for about a week over wheat and while my husband is super supportive he thought I was crazy when I said that. Luckily my mother is now agreeing that this is her problem to so I have an wheat-free buddy. And my in-laws are diabetic so they have been SO great about my needs even buying rice bread and making sure nothing has wheat gluten in it for family parties and I know that I am VERY lucky about that.

So anyway, I just wanted to say hi (sorry for the saga!) and I know I'm at the very start of my journey but its great to know you are all here when I need some help or suggestions or even just to rant a little.

Hi Snappy, You have quite a story and I am thankful that you shared it with us. It DOES help to read about other people's struggles, but it also helps a lot to tell your story, not just for us, but for YOU, too. You know that you can safely share ANYTHING here, and that somebody will be able to say: wow, I KNOW what you are going through - and your journey toward health becomes a lot easier. And even if nobody know exactly what you are going through, you will get lots of support.

You are very blessed to have such a supportive family. My family is also very supportive, and since my oldest daughter and her daughter, my sweet little gdaughter, are both gluten intollerant, and probably Celiacs - not diagnosed yet, but both doing SO much better off gluten - I have a super cook in my family who loves to cook gluten free. I HATE cooking since I have been sick my whole life and never enjoyed cooking food that I knew would make me so incredibly sick.

So welcome to the message boards. It is a good place to be!

[gdobson]

Welcome Snappy,

Many of us have suffered for years due to doctors refusing to see the obvious. I had been told by 2 different doctors that there was nothing physically wrong with me, I had an eating disorder. And they tried to convince me that the reason it hurt when I ate was because I didn't want to eat. And I half believed it myself. The last 20 years of my life sure would have been a lot easier if I had known it was what I was eating. And it probably would have prevented the 2 miscarriages I had.

Everything happens for a reason.

Welcome.

Gina

[missy'smom]

Welcome and thanks for introducing yourself and sharing your story.

[blueeyedmanda]

Welcome to our Board! Feel free to ask any questions you have. I am sure someone will have an answer. It is nice to have you here.

[hathor]

Just wanted to say, hi and welcome. I love your name!

I do wonder how much of your eating disorder might have been due to what you were eating. Particularly since wheat was so difficult to give up -- about withdrawal symptoms, see:

Open Original Shared Link

I used to have an eating disorder myself. I got over it by finding the foods that were healthiest for me (and not keeping any of the other kind around). There are certain things that I found it difficult to stop eating once I started. Then it would seem like the next day my blood sugar would be off or something and I would need that same thing again just to feel normal.

If you have the time, you may want to listen to this video lecture. It is about how certain foods mess up our brain chemistry and how it can be difficult to give them up. You DO feel bad for awhile for a real, physical reason. The good news is that this will pass.

Open Original Shared Link

I hope you get feeling better soon. (Speaking of ranting, I hope I get feeling better soon as well -- a restaurant glutened me over the weekend. I posted just to find people who would understand what I was going through. This board is great for that!)

I am curious about your yeast allergy, since I had a test saying I'm yeast intolerant. But I don't have any symptoms that I can tell. What are your symptoms if you do have yeast? What products do you have to avoid? Yeasted bread? Wine?

[Snappy-Pants]

Thanks for the psychological links, I'm have a HARD day mentally with all of this. I keep having these days where I feel great and the next day I'm really depressed. I haven't felt this depressed in a long time. I keep telling myself that I just have to get all of the wheat out of my body and then it will get easier. Today I had a huge breakdown when I parked and scraped my rim on the curb and called my husband in hysterics.

I don't know too much about my brewers yeast allergy yet. I found out so many things to avoid that I'm trying to avoid them all but really focusing on the wheat/gluten at the moment. Once I get over that hump I'm going to try to cut out tomatoes and brewers yeast. The nuts aren't too hard to avoid or the string beans, but tomatoes just doesn't seem fair right now. I know....but I have to hang onto something.

Back to the emotional eating disorder stuff....I just have a NEED to HAVE something sometimes. Its so true, anything in the house is fair game. I've been stashing dark chocolate bars recently....I know they're wheat free and just having a square now and then (or the whole thing when I'm really having a bad eating disorder day) is serving the need that cookies once did. Its so hard fighting myself mentally but I know that wheat makes me sick so I am staying away from that just fine. Not having control of what I can binge on is either going to break me or help me really manage the ED a lot better.

I know it will get better but I'm PMSing and dealing with this whole wheat withdrawl thing and its not good. I know for the past 5 days or so I've been 100% gluten free but before that I'm fairly sure I'd been glutened at restaurants when I thought I was safe. Now I check their websites before I go.

Ahhh!!