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Anxiety

kemper3

By kemper3
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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kemper3 Newbie
kemper3
Posted

I am new to this forum. I have been living gluten free for approx 5 months. I became a type 1 diabetic prior to being diagnosed as a celiac. Only after my sister had become diagnosed with celiac, I decided to be tested. All my prior doctors had just figured I had a "nervous stomach". I should eat better, exercise..... I had been living with symptoms of celiac for almost 15yrs before I finally was diagnosed. I do think I feel better although my symptoms have not gone away completely. I am still new at the diet and I sometimes miss gluten in the product's ingredient list. God Bless Redbridge Beer.

Previous to my diagnosis I developed some severe social anxiety issues due to my fear of not being able to find a bathroom. Now that I am off of glueten my anxiety has seemed to have gotten worse. Has anybody else had any anxiety related experiences. I am currently seeing both a psychologist and psychiatrist. I have been through Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Lexapro. I am now on some SNRI's trying to find something that will work for me.

Am I alone or do any others out there suffer from anxiety related issues they feel are directly attributed to Celiac?

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YoloGx Rookie
YoloGx
Posted

Welcome to the Forum!

All my anxiety left after I went off all trace gluten. This meant also avoiding cross contamination (CC) from a variety of sources as well as changing my soaps, detergents, shampoos, toothpaste etc. plus making sure I wasn't getting glutened from building materials (like Fixall, pre mixed plaster and the like). I also had to make a habit of always washing my hands before eating. And change lipstick (this for your wife or girlfriend) and lip gloss etc. It also meant throwing out my old wooden utensils and chopping boards and buying a new fry pan etc.

Eventually I have also had to go off all grains since I one of those really sensitive people with celiac and thus have gone a specific carbohydrate diet (scd) in addition to being off all gluten. But that's another story. The anxiety left long before I did that...

Bea

darlindeb25 Collaborator
darlindeb25
Posted

I'm not sure about others, I know I always had to know where the bathroom was in any given scenerio. If I didn't know where there was a bathroom, or was in a place with no restrooms facilities, then my anticipatory anxiety kicked in. Gluten messes with our heads, just as much as with our tummies. It's an equal opportunity poison! ;)

Before I was gluten free, it was worse, yet, even after, the memory of the years before always made me search for the bathroom, just in case. We still worry at any time, we could still NEED the bathroom. I have been gltuen free for 9 years, and I still have this anxiety sometimes. It comes from years of having to deal with these situations.

I was on Xanax first, then Paxil for years. Paxil I was able to wean off within my first year of being gluten free. Three years ago, I was put on Celexa, just to even out my anxiety, which I felt didn't do anything, and now, I am on Wellbutrin, my neuro feels I have too much anxiety, causing tense muscles in my neck and shoulders, in turn causing my constant headaches.

You will slowly get better. There will be more good days than bad. I had to learn to try and talk myself out of the anxiety. I also have a wonderful sweetheart who can talk me out of panic/anxiety. For some of us, it becomes a part of our personality. We have anxiety, maybe not because of our tummies anymore, yet, that is the first thing we worry about, out of habit.

Korwyn Explorer
Korwyn
Posted
I am new to this forum. I have been living gluten free for approx 5 months. I became a type 1 diabetic prior to being diagnosed as a celiac. Only after my sister had become diagnosed with celiac, I decided to be tested. All my prior doctors had just figured I had a "nervous stomach". I should eat better, exercise..... I had been living with symptoms of celiac for almost 15yrs before I finally was diagnosed. I do think I feel better although my symptoms have not gone away completely. I am still new at the diet and I sometimes miss gluten in the product's ingredient list. God Bless Redbridge Beer.

Previous to my diagnosis I developed some severe social anxiety issues due to my fear of not being able to find a bathroom. Now that I am off of glueten my anxiety has seemed to have gotten worse. Has anybody else had any anxiety related experiences. I am currently seeing both a psychologist and psychiatrist. I have been through Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Lexapro. I am now on some SNRI's trying to find something that will work for me.

Am I alone or do any others out there suffer from anxiety related issues they feel are directly attributed to Celiac?

It wasn't until I removed both soy and dairy from my diet that my anxiety and panic attacks began to subside. I too got worse with these after going gluten-free, and it was because the proportion of soy suddenly quintupled as I replaced dairy with soy milk, and soy flour in my baking. For me the soy will trigger extreme anxiety and panic, myoclonus, and hot flashes within 3-4 hours of ingesting it. There is some research linking dairy with psychological issues, but I haven't been able to find anything specifically about soy. However I know two other people personally (in RL) who have similar reactions. One is gluten-intolerant, no celiac disease diagnosis but carries the DQ3, and the other is DQ2,DQ3 and has celiac disease diagnosis via biopsy. Curiously I'm DQ8/DQ3. I'd be interested to see a study to see if there was a correlation there.

Korwyn Explorer
Korwyn
Posted

On a followup note, I have been taken off all my anti-stress, anxiety meds as well. !!! :) No more lexapro or wellbutrin. Which is good because I hate taking meds. And, I forgot to mention that I consider myself to be a 'super-sensitive' due to some issues with CC in products that were produced in a 'facility which also processes products containing wheat,' as well as a number of other incidents which cause me to prefer to go hungry rather than risk getting either gluten or soy in any amount. My last episode took me two weeks to recover from.

kemper3 Newbie
kemper3
Posted
  • Author

That is reassuring. My shrink and I are experiementing with different drugs to level me out. So far we have had nothing but strikes. I am sure we will find something that will work.

I'm not sure about others, I know I always had to know where the bathroom was in any given scenerio. If I didn't know where there was a bathroom, or was in a place with no restrooms facilities, then my anticipatory anxiety kicked in. Gluten messes with our heads, just as much as with our tummies. It's an equal opportunity poison! ;)

Before I was gluten free, it was worse, yet, even after, the memory of the years before always made me search for the bathroom, just in case. We still worry at any time, we could still NEED the bathroom. I have been gltuen free for 9 years, and I still have this anxiety sometimes. It comes from years of having to deal with these situations.

I was on Xanax first, then Paxil for years. Paxil I was able to wean off within my first year of being gluten free. Three years ago, I was put on Celexa, just to even out my anxiety, which I felt didn't do anything, and now, I am on Wellbutrin, my neuro feels I have too much anxiety, causing tense muscles in my neck and shoulders, in turn causing my constant headaches.

You will slowly get better. There will be more good days than bad. I had to learn to try and talk myself out of the anxiety. I also have a wonderful sweetheart who can talk me out of panic/anxiety. For some of us, it becomes a part of our personality. We have anxiety, maybe not because of our tummies anymore, yet, that is the first thing we worry about, out of habit.

utdan Apprentice
utdan
Posted
I am new to this forum. I have been living gluten free for approx 5 months. I became a type 1 diabetic prior to being diagnosed as a celiac. Only after my sister had become diagnosed with celiac, I decided to be tested. All my prior doctors had just figured I had a "nervous stomach". I should eat better, exercise..... I had been living with symptoms of celiac for almost 15yrs before I finally was diagnosed. I do think I feel better although my symptoms have not gone away completely. I am still new at the diet and I sometimes miss gluten in the product's ingredient list. God Bless Redbridge Beer.

Previous to my diagnosis I developed some severe social anxiety issues due to my fear of not being able to find a bathroom. Now that I am off of glueten my anxiety has seemed to have gotten worse. Has anybody else had any anxiety related experiences. I am currently seeing both a psychologist and psychiatrist. I have been through Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Lexapro. I am now on some SNRI's trying to find something that will work for me.

Am I alone or do any others out there suffer from anxiety related issues they feel are directly attributed to Celiac?

I can say that I am one that suffers with severe anxiety issues which definitely get a lot worse with any gluten contamination in my food. It doesn't occur only with gluten but with generally all allergic reactions or getting the flu or with any type of immune-system-connected issue that I experience.

I've tried everything under the sun including 8 different medications by psychiatrists and nothing has helped except in eating healthy and in going to bed early and getting up early. I'm not sure exactly what type of social anxiety you have but mine is the basic social anxiety disorder that is not readily dectectable to any except to those whom I tell.

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climbmtwhitney Apprentice
climbmtwhitney
Posted

Kemper3,

Have you ever checked your adrenals? Adrenal fatigue or the more extreme adrenal exhaustion have a link to Celiac. I, myself, suffered from complete adrenal exhaustion a couple of years before diagnosis. During that time of napping 3 hours a day :o my anxiety was through the roof. It was only after my adrenals were balanced with cortisol and supplements that my anxiety disappeared. Just a thought.

Wish you the best and hope you figure out something that helps soon!

Jillian

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