Bad Mood Swings

[Wall3424]

I have recently been diagnosed with celiac disease. The people closest to me in my life have been telling me lately that my mood swings and irratability have been off the charts. I am not very careful about cross contamination and making sure everything is gluten-free when I go out to eat. Could this be why I am so irratable and snap very easily at the ones closest to me? I feel like I am not myself and can not get back to the person I once was. At some points I can not even look at someone without getting annoyed, I know there is no reason for the annoyance but still I can not help it at all. I do not know what to do and I am afraid of loosing people in my life because of these out burts. Is this Celiac related or should I seek out other cause?

[cat3883]

Thats how I was. Go completely Gluten Free. You must do this. Within 2 weeks I was much better. Over Christmas I somehow got glutened even though I am very careful. I got so edgy and grouchy. It has been 5 days and I still feel bad. You have no choice but to get all gluten out of your body.

[sbj]

my mood swings and irratability have been off the charts. ... I am so irratable and snap very easily at the ones closest to me? ... At some points I can not even look at someone without getting annoyed, I know there is no reason for the annoyance but still I can not help it at all. ... Is this Celiac related or should I seek out other cause?

Please don't be offended by my well-meaning response.

Mood swings and unexplained irritability are hallmark symptoms of bipolar disorder. I have some experience with this and the way you are describing this really does sound like bipolar disorder - although I am not trying to diagnose you. Do yourself a favor and read up a bit on it to see if anything makes sense or sounds familiar.

[flourgirl]

I had the same issues after I started the gluten-free diet. I think part of it was "withdrawal" from the gluten, part of it was the absolute seemingly unending sickness. With everything I was dealing with, I know I was depressed and not at all myself. For a long time I didn't like myself at all, and avoided people as much as I could because I felt no tolerance at all for them.

I'm doing much better as I'm healing and starting to absorb the nutrients I need, and have been able to avoid gluten. (At first it was hard, as I had so much to learn about it). I still have some health issues, and sometimes struggle with mood....but it's not the ugly dragon that it was. I think you'll find you are far from the only one here

Good luck, heal fast, be patient with yourself.

[Wall3424]

Thank you so much for the input flourgirl that made me feel much better about what is going on. I have never been like this before in my life. I always have been fairly carefree and very easy going. Your response helps a lot .

[*lee-lee*]

i noticed a major improvement in my overall mood once i went gluten free. like many others, i was not strict enough at first and was getting glutened left and right. it took a couple of months to really start to understand what i had to do to be healthy. only then did i notice i wasn't as grumpy and overall down in the dumps as before. i still have my moments but mostly it's due to accidental CC.

you'll do yourself a world of wonders if you can fully commit to being on the diet. ask us questions if you're not sure how to handle something. we are here to help! and it gets easier...i promise!

[dilettantesteph]

My son 11 and I are both celiac and we both have that problem when glutened. It is the first thing to show up when accidentally glutened. It is much more noticeable to others than to us. My son will deny vehemently that he could possibly have been glutened when it is so obvious to my daughter and I by his grumpy behavior. Me too, I have to admit. We both get rather unreasonable. It may be just like bipolar disorder. I had a good friend with bipolar disorder, and it doesn't seem the same to me. Fortunately it goes away when we avoid gluten completely. You need to be more strict. Not just to avoid being grumpy, but to avoid future cancer. My mother died of lymphomia at age 47.

[Wall3424]

Thank you all so much for your input and support ive gone five days now with no gluten at all and already starting to see a difference with my irritability. Does anyone have any vitamins or any other supplements that they could recommend?

[ang1e0251]

The mood swings are incredible if I am glutened. I usually warn everyone around me and apologize in advance. It's well worth it to committ to the gluten-free diet.

[dilettantesteph]

I tested low for vitamin D. That would be expected anyway since I live in the North and it is winter. The doctor recommended 2000 i.u. a day. I think it may have further improved my mood. Some of those mood swings are probably caused by various vitamin deficiencies caused by the intestinal problems.

[celiacsoyfree]

In addition to gluten withdrawal and gluten ingestion, eating too many high glycemic foods can make you "crash" and get irritable. It is common to turn to high glycemic foods when transitioning to gluten-free. I made the same mistake. The book Living Gluten Free for Dummies goes over this on pages 94-109.

[Eric-C]

Ditto to the above.

During the summer I am pretty rock solid with my mood. Winter is up and down but as someone said Vitamin D is a big factor.

I never took supplements until about 2 weeks ago. Last winter I was pretty good mood wise the entire summer but we had the sunniest winter on record and due to work I was driving 3 hours a day, mid day, 3 days per week so a lot of sun exposure.

When I get gluten in a certain manner, and I'm still narrowing it down as to what causes a straight stomach reaction which lasts a day or two, and what causes me to feel the mental effects of it, if its the mental effect almost immediately my shoulders tighten and I get this very mild panic attack.

I get a good bought of anxiety for about 1-3 weeks.

Its kind of tough to explain since I've been through this so many times I don't really let it bother me. I know its strange to say you have a panic attack and don't let it bother you. A panic attack, is a physiological response. One of the biggest things I've started to learn is I wonder how many problems traditionally referred to as mental are physically related.

For a long time I thought the brain fog and other feelings were 'mental' but if I do things to relieve sinus and head pressure, so goes the feelings with it.

So do I really have a panic attack if I am just having the physical response but realize completely what is going on and just ignore it?

I also very very strongly agree on the GI index part. We eat a very low GI index diet. I can cheat a little, but if I get into a bad habit of having say Coke or Pepsi 2-3 days in a row holy crap do I turn into a prick

Its the same deal...I get very short tempered but that one is a big harder to control because anger is a more natural feeling so it takes a bit to catch it.

Taking Vitamin B(mix of all) and Vitamin D has done an amazing job making things even more normal. I used to just deal with the feeling after having gluten but its really made it disappear entirely.

When I first read about Vitamin B here I was coming off a bad reaction to gluten and it was amazing. Within minutes of taking the Vitamin B my head cleared and I relaxed. I started taking it daily and everything leveled out.

I stopped taking it and it took about 3 days for things to creep back in, but as soon as I started taking it again everything went to normal.

I tried so long to figure out the pattern of food, even foods without gluten, that was causing what was happening to my mood and if look back at what I tracked and how I felt the supplements are filling in the gaps.

I know a lot of people find this entire thing a burden and in a lot of cases it has serious effects on people's lives but what I've learned is amazing. All the pain, annoyance, and before I was truly diagnosed what I thought at the time were some pretty life threatening situations what I've learned has helped not only myself but also others within my family.

So every time I get sick its just another data point to figure more out.

Good luck and it really does help to track this stuff. What you eat, how much you eat, how you feel, etc. For the LONGEST time I could never figure out, and it was the most frustrating part of this, was why even when I had the most severe problem you could have, after I ate I felt great for 45 minutes...now I know it was the vitamin B...we tend to eat foods higher in B but I was so deficient I never built up enough stores.

Running your body is like running anything else, just have to find the correct mix and things will work.

Good luck.

[ravenwoodglass]

Thank you all so much for your input and support ive gone five days now with no gluten at all and already starting to see a difference with my irritability. Does anyone have any vitamins or any other supplements that they could recommend?

Sublingual B12 is going to help a great deal along with the vitamin D that was mentioned. Make sure the B12 is sublingual, until you heal your not going to be able to utilize it from a vitamin that dissolves in the stomach. Something I also found helpful was Royal Jelly from bees. It is loaded with the B vitamins and lots of other good stuff. If you are not allergic to bees you might want to give it a try. I notice a difference almost immediately when I take it. The kind I use comes with a little dosage spoon I put the jelly on it then squeeze a bit of honey on top and flip the spoon over as it goes into my mouth. Royal Jelly can taste bitter to some and this keeps the bitterness from bothering me.

Meanwhile be a bear about staying gluten free, it does sound like you are going through withdrawl also and if you get glutened it will prolong the withdrawl period.

[celiacsoyfree]

This is very helpful to me as well. I accidentally ate gluten on the 24th and was in severe pain the next day. (Why there was SOY SAUCE in hummus, I'll never know) I've been pretty depressed and anxiety ridden ever since. I didn't realize it was because of the gluten. I also started taking apple cider vinegar which cleared out my sinuses and is helping with healing. This helps transition the body by balancing the body's PH level, purging toxins, and reduces high glycemic cravings. It also help acclimate the taste buds to nongluten foods we aren't used to.

I suggest organic apple cider vinegar. 2 teaspoons or capfuls diluted with water, drink with a straw. You can do this once a day, I've done as much as 3 times a day. As your ph balances, it does not taste as pungent.

[home-based-mom]

I have recently been diagnosed with celiac disease. The people closest to me in my life have been telling me lately that my mood swings and irratability have been off the charts. I am not very careful about cross contamination and making sure everything is gluten-free when I go out to eat. Could this be why I am so irratable and snap very easily at the ones closest to me? I feel like I am not myself and can not get back to the person I once was. At some points I can not even look at someone without getting annoyed, I know there is no reason for the annoyance but still I can not help it at all. I do not know what to do and I am afraid of loosing people in my life because of these out burts. Is this Celiac related or should I seek out other cause?

Eating out can be very tricky, especially when you are new and learning. Most people give it up entirely at first, and eat out rarely even once they have some experience under their belts. Nor being careful about cross contamination pretty much guarantees that you will get glutened. If you go for a time without gluten and then get glutened (no matter how small) you symptoms may be different and much more intense than before you initially went gluten free.

The only solution is to make sure you are gluten free all day, every day. If you have to seem paranoid and neurotic about it at first, so be it. Eventually it will be second nature to you and those around you.

[Wall3424]

Sublingual B12 is going to help a great deal along with the vitamin D that was mentioned. Make sure the B12 is sublingual, until you heal your not going to be able to utilize it from a vitamin that dissolves in the stomach. Something I also found helpful was Royal Jelly from bees. It is loaded with the B vitamins and lots of other good stuff. If you are not allergic to bees you might want to give it a try. I notice a difference almost immediately when I take it. The kind I use comes with a little dosage spoon I put the jelly on it then squeeze a bit of honey on top and flip the spoon over as it goes into my mouth. Royal Jelly can taste bitter to some and this keeps the bitterness from bothering me.

Meanwhile be a bear about staying gluten free, it does sound like you are going through withdrawl also and if you get glutened it will prolong the withdrawl period.

Thank you, I am going to try these out as soon as I can.

[Wall3424]

Yah, eating out and cross contamination are the things I have been having the most trouble with. Thank you all so much for your suggestions and sharing your experiences. I have noticed that I have been getting very bad anxiety and panic attacks frequently. I am a quiet and shy person and I do not like to make myself a burden so I do not really let people know about cross contamination because I feel bad. I am just going to have to start speaking up and bringing my own food places. I appreciate everyones input so much.