Think I Am Ready For The "looney Bin"!

[psawyer]

[This topic was originally posted by another member. At his request, I have disassociated it from him and made myself the "original poster."]

I know there have been topics on this subject, and so many stories have been inspirational to me, so I wanted to share mine. This is going to sound very strange!

For the last seven years I have experienced so many of the symptoms described on this forum. Doctors tested me 6 years ago for Celiac, with a negative result, but did show inflammation of the small intestine. They treated me for bacterial overgrowth and H.Pylori. I had a lot of neurological smptoms, panic and anxiety, mind racing, and so on....

Doctors checked me again this last January and my biopsy came back positive for Celiac. I was pretty shocked-guess they missed it the first time. I started going gluten free in January but have recently found I have eaten gluten from time to time by mistake not knowing the things I ate had it in them. Of course I am still learning. I also saw a lady who specializes in GI issues and says I am so malnourished from not absorbing nutrients and that has contributed to alot of my physical and mental symptoms. I am taking powder and liquid supplements to try to get back in balance. Here in the last week or two I feel so much worse than I ever have! My mind has raced before but now I am have strange, intrusive thoughts that are giving me even more anxiety. I'll have thoughts like I am afriad I am gay and do not know it, though I know I am not ( I am a happily married 37 year old), and this is why I am the way I am, or I will have fears that this is never going away, or songs replay in my head, just all kinds of crazy things. I have never felt anything like this. What is wrong with my brain???? The lady helping me with my nutrition says it's because my body is in such imbalance and it is trying to get back in balance. This makes my whole system oversensitive. But, I feel like I should be feeling better, not worse. My stomach issues are resolving, but my mind is making me insane!!! I am really close to checking myself into an institution- I cannot live with my mind's constant torture!! Has anyone experienced this and reached an all time low after starting this gluten free lifestyle? If so, did anything help to ease it?

[gf-soph]

Hello

I am not a psychologist but I work in the area, and what you are describing are obsessive thoughts. These sorts of thoughts (if they continue over time, take up lots of your time, and are distressing to you) are characteristic of obsessive compulsive disorder.

Try not to panic about the situation, but do be aware of it. If these intrusive, distressing thoughts continue it would be a good idea to find a psychologist or psychiatrist that you can discuss this with, and who can make recommendations about treatment.

OCD can involve very strange or upsetting thoughts, you can become obsessed with the most unusal thing. It doesn't mean the thought is true, just that it is upsetting to you. Examples I have seen through my work with children with OCD can be obsessions about hurting people they love, doing strange things, germs etc. Songs or words stuck in your head is another area covered by OCD.

It may be that it is related to nutritional deficiencies, e.g. B12 can cause neurological damage, and many psychiatric patients are found to be low in B12. However, I would not sit by and hope that things resolve if the thoughts continue. Even if they are related to nutrition (which they may or may not be), you don't want to suffer through them needlessly.

OCD is a recognised and relatively common disorder with many treatments available. I am not sure what country you live in. If you let us know the general area where you live people may be able to make recommendations.

Best wishes,

Sophie

[mommida]

The vitamin B12 defiency could be a big part of what is going on. Nutrician is a whole system. You need certain vitamins to properly absorb other vitamins. B12 supplements should be sublingual methylcobalamin for better absorbtion. There is no evidence of B12 overdose damage. It could be possible some of the nutritional supplements have an ingredient that you are intolerant to.

Don't be afraid or embarassed to seek out mental health care. If you were having problems with your heart, you wouldn't hesitate to go to a heart specialist. If you are a daughter, a sister, mother, aunt, or friend you are too important a part of others lives to neglect taking care of yourself.

[rdunbar]

Hi! I've been gluten-free for @ 1 month, and am feeling much better; after being off of wheat for about 3 years, i was still having problems with ( besides my other symptoms like DH) my mind and emotions being totally out of control. when it happens now, it lasts a MUCH shorter time. I would have a thought about how something upset me, and could not get it out of my head, my mind would race, like you are saying. sometimes i would obsess for days and maybe longer. I learned to use EFT, emotional freedom technique, which i benifitted from, and it is truly amazing the results you can get from practising it, but still it did'nt ever help these episodes where i would get totally carried away, almost like a tantrum, and would just focus an how this ot that made me totally pissed off, irratated to no end, and i could'nt let it go. I was wheat free, but was letting gluten into my system in many different insidious ways.

I just got the book The Gluten Effect, and am starting to learn more about the science of how your body reacts to gluten when you are genetically inclined to be gluten-sensitive, and the myriad of health problems that the gluten can cause.

according to book, blood flow to the brain is actually reduced if gluten is present in your system, even in very small amounts. It takes time for the negative effects to go away once you get really gluten-free, because the antibodies are still present, and your hormones get totally out of whack. It takes time for your hormones to return to a normal state of balance, once you get gluten-free.

give yourself a chance, and make absolutely sure you are not getting exposed to any gluten, not eating it, breathing it, not using any body care products with it.

i thought i was crazy my entire life, and have always had problems coping. I went to the mental hospital one time, and they said nothing was wrong with me. I am really starting to feel calmer now, and the itchiness of my scalp from DH is way way less, and it looks better. I was really feeling like i would never get rid of it, but getting 100% off of gluten has been the only thing that has made it better. i am actually feeling really excited about the prospect of being totally free of these problems, and leading a much happier, more producive life.

[Ratimus]

Every time I eat gluten I go crazy. I do not have an official diagnosis. I told my doctor that the symptoms which had been plaguing me for five years went away within days when I stopped eating gluten (I knew nothing of celiac at the time; I thought I was dying but was toying with the idea of it being a food allergy). Doc decided to give me the blood test AFTER I had been strictly gluten-free for over two months. Big surprise, results negative. Now he is not at all concerned about the headaches, arthritis-like symptoms, fatigue, diarrhea, blistering rash (I could go on and on) that disappeared completely, but is quite adamant that I need to start taking the vitamin D drops that he sells because I tested low for that.

Anyway, the main way I go crazy is that every time I accidentally get a dose of the old glutenous maximus, I become instantly depressed--feeling unmotivated, cynical, pessimistic and morbid; along with feeling constant rage that does not affect my actions but is not in response to any external circumstances. I also become completely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, 100 percent convinced that my doctor is right and that I do not have a gluten problem. In this state I hold on to the notion that that's just the way my body is--that I inexplicably had a nice "vacation" from my health problems (coinciding with going gluten-free) and that things are now returning to normal (i.e. miserable). Even though I know this happens every time, I still become convinced that I do not know what's wrong with me, and that I am fated to feel miserable for the rest of my life. As soon as the effects wear off, I return to sanity and thank my wife for being so understanding while my brain is going haywire.

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

Wow, that is so me. One of my friends, who is not my friend anymore actually, always told me, that I would "obsess again". She's right. I'm actually seeing a therapist, because of another reason. I've told her, that I sometimes have thoughts, that I can't shake off, like the house of my ex-husband starting to burn, when my son is with him, because his new wife is a candle freak. Everybody runs out of the house and they forget my little baby inside. This obsesses me now for about a month and I can't shake it off. I've even had nightmares about this. And the fact, that his new wife is pregnant again and already has three kids of her own with two living with her and my ex, doesn't make this fact better. I've had dreams and thoughts about each of them saving their own kids and mine is screaming inside. I've had other thoughts like this before, too. My therapist, which I'm seeing since spring 2008, says, it's normal under my circumstances, but I've been having similar disturbing thoughts, when my son was not born yet. I feel so ashamed, that I've hardly told anybody about this. But OCD also already came to my mind. This is very disturbing and I do not know, what to do about this.