Any Tips For Heading Off Irritability At The Pass?

[StacyA]

I'm certain I got glutened at my mother's. She's trying to cook gluten-free for me, and I appreciate her efforts, but within 2 hours I was feeling the symptoms that I think are my personal glutened symptoms (I'm only a few months into the dx and gluten-free diet): low back pain, abdominal discomfort, bloating and gas.

If my estimates are correct, pretty soon I'm going to get verrrrry irritable. I'm going to warn my husband, and I'm making some nice soup, and I'm going to take an extra magnesium supplement. I'm still on a probiotic I started after going gluten-free, and I already took it and my other vitamins today (a multi, D, C, magnesium). I have some valerian root, so I may take that as well.

Any other advice out there? I know and teach relaxation techniques, but since this is caused by gluten, not stress, I wondered if there were nutritional/food interventions I should try as well?

I read about aloe supplement/juice. I have an actual aloe plant, anything I can do with that?

As I'm typing this it's Christmas, so I don't want to run out to a store. I'm considering asking my GI for a benzo to use PRN for these occasions.

I've been searching old threads for advice on the abdominal pain and back pain.

Gotta love the holiday family functions. Next time I'll take a dish and just eat it...

[Ahorsesoul]

I think the one thing that will help you is you know what caused this, you know it will pass and you know how to avoid it in the future.

A hot bath and a good/hot book might help with the irritability.

[JillianLindsay]

Sorry to hear

I got glutened on the September long weekend while on a big family (in-laws) get-away at the cottage. I spent an entire day reading in bed and the family gave me my time to rest and recuperate. I'm sure this would be much harder to do on Christmas, but perhaps taking a bath (as mentioned) or doing small things throughout (taking 10-20 minutes to yourself here and there) will help ease the irritability.

Everyone says drinking as much water as possible helps, and I wouldn't follow this advice myself (lol) but avoid the alcohol as that can worsen irritability in many.

My GP had me on a benzo for a bit... this is a very short-term solution (as you probably know) and makes one very drowsy, especially when first starting to take it (or when taking it as a PRN). It did help for anxiety, but it made me foggy the next day and interfered with my athletics so I stopped using them, except in extreme cases.

Try to do things you really enjoy to take your mind off of it. Take care of yourself as best you can and enjoy the holiday

Best wishes,

Jillian