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Getting Depressed When You Get Glutened

Googles

By Googles
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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Googles Community Regular
Googles
Posted

I got glutened last week (cc I think, as everything I ate was good). I became extremely depressed and I was wondering if this happens to anyone else. I usually suffer from depression, but this was a totally different flavor (so to speak) of depression. I was wondering if this might be due to the glutening or if I just am experiencing a new phase of my depression. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

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emcmaster Collaborator
emcmaster
Posted
I got glutened last week (cc I think, as everything I ate was good). I became extremely depressed and I was wondering if this happens to anyone else. I usually suffer from depression, but this was a totally different flavor (so to speak) of depression. I was wondering if this might be due to the glutening or if I just am experiencing a new phase of my depression. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Symptoms of a glutening can vary widely from person to person, but depression isn't uncommon. Besides the normal bloating and GI upset, I get depressed, fatigued, and super hungry.

zero Newbie
zero
Posted

For the year of so before I was diagnosed, I had the strangest depression which would come and go. I would do or experience something which should make me happy but it wouldn't. I kept asking myself "why am I not happy?". And it felt like a depression which was imposed on me. After I went gluten free, I still felt a degree of depression but it felt (feels) more like a pattern that I am in which can be broken out of through good experiences. I have only glutened myself a couple of times and fortunately I am not sensitive enough for it to trigger the gluten type depression. The depression really sucks. It was the worst of my symptoms so I wish you the best in managing it.

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

I get severe depression for 24 hours after being glutened. And I do mean severe, I feel worthless and frankly am suicidal. Fortunately I have been able to clearly see the relationship between the glutening and the reoccurance of this and I am able to ride it out. As long as I am not reglutening it lifts after one day. Gluten can be a neurotoxin for many of us and depression can definately be a side effect of a glutening.

Googles Community Regular
Googles
Posted
  • Author

Thank you all for your sharing your experiences. It helps me feel more sane and think that this new thing is probably related to gluten. I end up majorly depressed (this last time) for three to four days and then it dissipated over the next week. I don't get glutened that often, but if this is what happens when I do, UGH. I was barely able to get out of bed and go to class, much less get homework done. Last time I was had to take two tests and almost failed one. I just didn't care and my brain wouldn't work. Thanks again.

wilem008 Contributor
wilem008
Posted

One of my biggest glutening symptoms is depression.

I feel depressed/sad/blue/down in the dumps for 24-48 hours after being glutened.

Its terrible but ive learnt the difference between gluten sadness and sadness in general.

Aswell as depression I get bloating, stomach aches and cramps, constipation and headaches.

Its not fun. :-(

Im coping well though, and learning a lot about my body and what it can and can not tolorate. :-)

marycontrary Newbie
marycontrary
Posted

I mentioned this in passing in my other thread. The small cytokine so called storms can be potent neurotoxins.

I am a talented scientist and engineer...and WAS diagnosed as Bipolar I...no medication was working, I could not sleep, and I was quickly descending into this cyclical psychosis that would last until early afternoon every day. Thousands of times I thought..."God, I feel like I am being poisoned...this psychosis is like a hangover that burns off."

And that's what it was. And man, this has majorly screwed up my intestinal tract. I have trouble tolerating almost everthing but vegetables. I mourn for the many years I fought with my demons, how so many times I thought I felt poisoned or drugged...yet I could not pinpoint it. I have tears for all the lost opportunity, the vain struggle. Life sucks.

I suppose I would have some real psychological issues with not being able to eat anything, but the fact is, I was a real nut case, and I am afraid of eating glutin. It's not even a temptation. It scares me. I am acually not bipolar.

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RacerRex9727 Rookie
RacerRex9727
Posted
I got glutened last week (cc I think, as everything I ate was good). I became extremely depressed and I was wondering if this happens to anyone else. I usually suffer from depression, but this was a totally different flavor (so to speak) of depression. I was wondering if this might be due to the glutening or if I just am experiencing a new phase of my depression. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

haha do I get get depressed on gluten? I become maniacally depressed. I put hundreds of dollars on counseling before I became gluten-free.

hannahp57 Contributor
hannahp57
Posted

I am in the same boat as ravenwoodglass on this. for about the first 24 hours it gets very bad. i might cry endlessly or just lay there and do nothing but like her, i saw the connection eventually so i remind myself it will pass if i can just hold on. hope you dont have to go through that again.

  • 2 weeks later...
fnord Rookie
fnord
Posted

Yes. Feeling despondent and suicidal. Now I can see the connection as the depression comes and goes, but has hit hard in the past couple of weeks while I have slipped off the gluten-free wagon.

Googles Community Regular
Googles
Posted
  • Author

Apparently for me it isn't just depression, it is really really bad anxiety. (Some of the worst I've ever experienced). I've been glutened twice since I moved into my own apartment after being diagnosed (I moved for school). The first time I got majorly depressed and now this past weekend had some of the worst anxiety ever. As I also suffer regularly from depression and anxiety it was really bad. I'm dreading getting glutened again. (neither time did I eat anything that i knew had gluten in it, or come in contact with it.) I'm afraid I will get some other psychiatric symptom that I'm not used to and freak out. I'm still not sure how long it takes between when I get glutened and when symptoms show up. UGH!

positivenrgfairy Apprentice
positivenrgfairy
Posted

all of this is true for me too. i ate a cheesy biscuit a few months ago and cried for 3 straight days. and if I eat a lot of it, or if it conincides with my monthly cycle, i have been known to get suicidal. i am usually a happy and positive person but gluten makes me feel crazy. then it just gets worse because i feel like ive been cursed with this stupid disease and i feel trapped by food, so the cycle begins anew.

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