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Anxiety And Vulnerable Feeling When Glutened

rustycat

By rustycat
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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rustycat Rookie
rustycat
Posted

I had an incident with accidental cross-contamination this week. When I realized what had happened, I watched carefully to see what was going on with my emotions because I had always suspected that there has been a major change in my emotions since going gluten free.

From 5PM when the incident happened, I tracked the following:

-felt fine until bedtime at 10PM

-woke up feeling a little vulnerable and sensitive

-by about noon, I was convinced that everyone I work with thought I was a hopeless incompetent and an awful person. This made me withdraw and feel very defensive.

-by late afternoon, the full anxiety hit full force and didn't go away until about 9PM. The anxiety is debilitating and makes it hard to make logical decisions.

-the next day I felt fine

Wow, I can't believe I spent most of my life feeling that way. I had no idea how abnormal it was to feel so much anxiety. I get excellent ratings at work, so my thoughts were far from the truth.

Has anyone else experienced that similar changes in their emotions with/without gluten?

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Skylark Collaborator
Skylark
Posted

Yep. I used to be bipolar from the effects of gluten on my mind.

Nowadays if I get into gluten I wake up at 3 in the morning frightened of a noise in the house or I can't stop worrying about something stupid.

Muffy Rookie
Muffy
Posted

I have also been CC'd this week and noticed the big change in my mood. I get anxiety with hopeless dark moods as well. And I also get really paraniod and have serious brian fog. It gets increasingly severe if I get CC'd frequently and don't have a lot of time to get it out of my system in between - a cumulative effect. dry.gif

eatmeat4good Enthusiast
eatmeat4good
Posted

That has been my biggest relief on going gluten free: Finding out that the internal angst, underlying sense of despair, and a grief-stricken sense of loss for no reason have all gone away. Anxiety no longer happens unless I get glutened.

rustycat Rookie
rustycat
Posted
  • Author

Yep. I used to be bipolar from the effects of gluten on my mind.

Nowadays if I get into gluten I wake up at 3 in the morning frightened of a noise in the house or I can't stop worrying about something stupid.

That's something else that I used to have, now that I think of it.

I have also been CC'd this week and noticed the big change in my mood. I get anxiety with hopeless dark moods as well. And I also get really paraniod and have serious brian fog. It gets increasingly severe if I get CC'd frequently and don't have a lot of time to get it out of my system in between - a cumulative effect. dry.gif

Paranoid feelings have been with me from the gluten, as well. I was scared to share that with anyone because I don't think I ever wanted anyone else to know how bad it was and the paranoia, of course, made that all worse. Cutting back on gluten made it less severe, but it didn't go away until the gluten was banished.

That has been my biggest relief on going gluten free: Finding out that the internal angst, underlying sense of despair, and a grief-stricken sense of loss for no reason have all gone away. Anxiety no longer happens unless I get glutened.

I thought those types of feelings were a part of my being. It's all that I had ever known. Now, I just need to learn coping skills for when cc happens again.

Now I find out that I'm actually a pretty happy, upbeat person. Who knew? :)

revenant Enthusiast
revenant
Posted

feeling vulnerable... woah! I have a fear of vulnerability, I can look back on my childhood and feel a horror filled vulnerable feeling for no reason, and have always wondered where it came from.. But, looking back, I always felt that way too!! Thankyou for sharing :) Good that it only lasted a day

  • 1 month later...
OasisFlyer Newbie
OasisFlyer
Posted

Yep. I used to be bipolar from the effects of gluten on my mind.

Nowadays if I get into gluten I wake up at 3 in the morning frightened of a noise in the house or I can't stop worrying about something stupid.

How interesting! I'm new here (untested and undiagnosed, hoping to change that at the doc tomorrow), but have been diagnosed with bipolar in the past (currently untreated) and wonder if going gluten free could help with my mental troubles as well. This forum is amazing!!!

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txplowgirl Enthusiast
txplowgirl
Posted

Ever since I was a kid I had had a knot in the pit of my stomach. Social anxiety disorder, clinical depression, no matter what kind of anti depressants I was on that knot never went away. After kicking out the gluten, soy and dairy everything went away even the knot that I thought was natural. 6 months after kicking everything out of my system I tried to do a gluten challenge. Oh lord, everything came back with a vengeance even the knot, except mine lasted a whole week. I never want to experience that again.

  • 2 weeks later...
aliasyncope Newbie
aliasyncope
Posted

Oh my Goodness!!! There are people out there like me!!! I just started switching from gluten filled food to gluten free food. I noticed almost right away that I can control my emotions and not get confused, angry, cry, and every other unwanted emotion in the world. I am so amazed at what not eating Gluten filled foods have changed my life!!! I have two other people who witnessed this change as well. I used to get upset if I couldn't find a hair tie at times and other times panic because of someone not wanting to speak to me or something so irrational it wasn't even funny. The days or following day after eating gluten filled foods, make me more able to cry if someone says something that is hurt full. It is amazing how "normal" I act after trying to avoid gluten. Milk doesn't seem to have any effect on me as of yet when I do have it. If I eat a little gluten I can at times still control my emotions but I have to be so careful now with it. I think my Mother is gluten intolerant too. Not eating gluten has changed the darkness into light so far. I am about two weeks into this food restriction and feeling great!!! I was looking on a nutritionist Guru Gary Null's website www.garynull.com. It said that those with bipolar most likely need to reduce gluten and dairy if not totally cut it out of their systems. I have yet to try anything else yet. But this has helped me so far and I am slowly working up to adding the vitamins and minerals that I need to help this disorder. Just with these to things being carefully limited has made an incredible different in my life. I am just amazed.

eatmeat4good Enthusiast
eatmeat4good
Posted

Welcome! I'm so glad eliminating gluten is doing good things for you! It is important for you to know that once it is out of your system, you might become ever more sensitive to it. Many of us have had this happen. So limiting gluten may not be enough. You will need to watch for cross contamination and even a little speck of flour dust can make you have a reaction if your are truly gluten intolerant. Limiting it helps, but being really strict about it helps even more. I just wanted to warn you about this because it may not be obvious to you that it could be tiny cross contamination happening if you do start to react again.

Yes! There are people out here like you! I'm so glad you found out about gluten. It will change your life and certainly your emotions for the better!

  • 4 months later...
Sheriinwi Newbie
Sheriinwi
Posted

I wanted to reply to this post because for years I have been going back and forth about the whole gluten thing. First of all, I have been constipated for nearly all my life and it was detrimental for me as a child because I never felt like I was like everyone else. Things started to change at age 25 when I had my son. There were periods of time when I would eat and I would be so sick and nauseous that all I could do was rock back and forth to try and eliminate it. I finally headed off to the GI specialist where he told me I had IBS. I was always a very thin person up until I had my kids and now I am so much heavier and miserable. This brought me to try the South Beach Diet where I eliminated all carbs for 2 weeks. I felt really great up until I started adding in "healthy carbs." Immediately after eating a healthy bagel did I realize it wasn't going down so well. I did at one point get tested for celiac but was avoiding it and it came back negative. Overall, I have avoided gluten because it makes me feel so much better but every now and then I will fall off and eat gluten. You think I would learn by now but no. As of right now, I am going through terrible irritability and can't even stand myself and my throat and ear hurts. I can't wait until this is over. Also when I eat it, especially at night, I will wake up with the sorest tender stomach and I can't even touch it. My medical history also includes endometriosis (hysterectomy at 31) and thyroid nodules. I am wondering if anyone else suffers from severe PMS when on gluten. My daughter has really bad PMS also where she is paranoid, moody and it really affects her.

  • 2 weeks later...
Austin Guy Contributor
Austin Guy
Posted

I recently dealt with CC and while driving was paranoid that I would die in an auto accident. I was scared of every car on the road.

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