Panic Attacks

[jemms]

I have been off gluten since May 19th. I have felt okay but yesterday I freaked out. At night, I had a HORRIBLE panic attack and it lasted for about an hour. Basically, my heart was racing, my blood pressure went up, I felt like I was going to die and couldnt deal with people coming near me. It was very frightening. I still feel weird tonight even though this happened yesterday. This has happened to me before after I drank 2 Guinness when I was still on a gluten diet. Last night I ate some popcorn from Trader Joes and some mixed nuts. Nothing I ate had gluten in it that I was aware of. I got off my anti depressants about 2 months ago because I felt changing my diet would make things better but it hasnt seemed that way. Has anyone else felt this way? Thanks for listening!

[Jenniferxgfx]

I've heard TJ's is a cross contamination nightmare for some folks.

[Korwyn]

I have gotten so that I can't don't anything from Trader Joes but cheese. I've had a horrible time with CC for me, plus they share their lines with soy products too which I also fear CC from.

[RL2011]

Don't read this if reading the rants of a 50 year old guy will piss you off...

Oftentimes the road to healing of any part of the body inclusive of the intestinal villi is not always in a straight line of getting better. There are times when your body feels like it is having a setback when it is not. This can be from your body being a little more run down yesterday compared to a few days before that. As a soon to be reformed adrenaline junky with a number of bones and various injuries I have found that it takes concentration to keep yourself calm and relaxed no matter how bad the injury. I have taken this same approach in dealing with my gluten issues. I recently (one week ago) stopped eating gluten. This past Friday I was out with a few friends and ate some salmon and mixed greens. Within 30 minutes of eating I had a major bathroom issue starting and it really pissed me off. I left the bar I was at and as often happened rode my motorcycle fast but calmly to the nearest bathroom to deal with defecation business. This gluten issue that affects us is really frustrating but we have no choice but deal with it.

Learn your own biofeedback and try not to get anxious about anything. Don't allow anything, anyone own your emotions without your permission. As you get better at dealing with issues of any kind in a calm manner you will be better at recognizing the difference between normal healing and another potential problem. This way you can become a better advocate for your own health when dealing with doctors and such.

These words are from a guy with a lot of bumps and bruises from an active life.

Rich

[ladymiss]

sorry to hear about the panic attack. not fun stuff! hang in there!

also- i wonder about possible new food sensitivities/allergies. i experienced this from nuts out of the blue one afternoon after a thai food lunch. it turned out to be an allergic reaction. for me these always start with an anxiety attack (the rush of histamines, as i understand it). followed by feeling freaky, tightening throat, out of it and shaking- until the benedryl sets in.

[Hawthorn]

Hey

I was horrible mentally for quite a while after coming off the gluten - suicidal even at points. You also have coming off the anti depressants to contend with. Not sure how long you were on them but in my own experience it takes quite a while for your body to return to normal again.

I came off mine veeeery slowly since I was on them for a long time. I have not been taking any at all for about 3 months now, and I still get 'brain shivers' which are slowly getting less and less frequent.

I found a bland, easily digested diet much better in the early days. Rich food would leave me kinda feeling like my heart was going to break out of my chest and very shaky.

It might be worth trying an elimination diet for other suspect foods. I found that dairy is not good for me (removed for two weeks, had a glass of milk and inflated like a balloon) soy doesn't give me that reaction, but it does make my heart race for a while after eating it.

So yeah, for me at least panic attacks and other mental health issues are very much linked in with food. Even if I get glutened in a very small way, I can say within a week I will be lethargic, weepy, often with suicidal thoughts and high anxiety. It passes much faster than it did in the initial period of gluten removal.

[Fire Fairy]

I have what I'm guessing are panic attacks sometimes when I get gluten. These are a totally new experience for me. I explained to the message board what it felt like and they gave me some good suggestions. First here is how I describe it. For no reason my fight or flight response kicked in. I knew there was nothing to fight or fly over so I had no clue what to do which completely panicked me. The recommendations I got were drink a lot of green tea to flush the gluten out of your system quicker. Exercise to make your body think your doing something to fight or fly.

When I was diagnosed in November my MD put me on Prozac (generic) and when I came in for my 6 month and told him about the panic attacks or whatever they were he gave me xanax (generic) to take when I get an attack. I too have a lot of neurological issues with gluten. Migraines have been my chief complaint for well over a decade. So many other symptoms I actually had but between the migraines and the brain fog I didn't care enough about the other symptoms to complain to my MD.

[tea-and-crumpets]

I have had a diagnosed anxiety disorder since I was a child, but I had two or three of the worst panic attacks of my life after I went off gluten. I was being very careful and know I wasn't getting CC'd. After a couple of months they went away and haven't come back and I feel like overall my anxiety is maybe twenty percent of what I suffered before. Hang in there!

Also, be very careful with Trader Joes. They are really good about labeling, but some things like beans that you might not guess are made on lines with wheat.

[angel9165]

Don't read this if reading the rants of a 50 year old guy will piss you off...

Oftentimes the road to healing of any part of the body inclusive of the intestinal villi is not always in a straight line of getting better. There are times when your body feels like it is having a setback when it is not. This can be from your body being a little more run down yesterday compared to a few days before that. As a soon to be reformed adrenaline junky with a number of bones and various injuries I have found that it takes concentration to keep yourself calm and relaxed no matter how bad the injury. I have taken this same approach in dealing with my gluten issues. I recently (one week ago) stopped eating gluten. This past Friday I was out with a few friends and ate some salmon and mixed greens. Within 30 minutes of eating I had a major bathroom issue starting and it really pissed me off. I left the bar I was at and as often happened rode my motorcycle fast but calmly to the nearest bathroom to deal with defecation business. This gluten issue that affects us is really frustrating but we have no choice but deal with it.

Learn your own biofeedback and try not to get anxious about anything. Don't allow anything, anyone own your emotions without your permission. As you get better at dealing with issues of any kind in a calm manner you will be better at recognizing the difference between normal healing and another potential problem. This way you can become a better advocate for your own health when dealing with doctors and such.

These words are from a guy with a lot of bumps and bruises from an active life.

Rich

Biofeedback was a Godsend for me in learning to deal with my anxiety. It really does help!

[Googles]

When I get glutened one of my symptoms I get is anxiety or depression. I'm just waiting for the time I get glutened and I have both at the same time. They are both much worse than what I usually deal with, and my psychiatrist actually said it was okay for me to take my anti-anxiety meds that I am supposed to take to help me sleep when I need it to deal with that anxiety.

[Marie1976]

Anxiety and panic are hell as far as I'm concerned. I never had much success with medication. The only thing that really helped me are coping techniques I got from books, such as trying to calm yourself down when you're having a panic attack by telling yourself something along the lines of "I'm OK. This is just a panic attack. It can't hurt me. It will pass." Or distract yourself with a funny movie or take a walk, or whatever. Two books I like are "From Panic to Power" (Lucinda Bassett) and "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" (Susan Jeffers). Hopefully our anxiety will lessen after we've been gluten free long enough. Fingers crossed...