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When You Know It's Something, But It's Not Depression

Finally-45

By Finally-45
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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Finally-45 Contributor
Finally-45
Posted

I had heard about some people being relieved of depression when going gluten-free and/or fructose-free...I even saw the episode of Mystery Diagnosis where the little boy had seizures from gluten. However, I've never quite heard of anyone having exactly what I used to experience. I thought I'd share this with others on this forum in case it helps someone else.

I used to get really frequent repetitive thoughts about things people had done were wrong. It was never major things like physical harm, more like minor jealousies, back-stabbing, gossiping, teasing, etc. I'd never be crippled by the thoughts, but I'd have episodes where they wouldn't stop and I'd feel very frustrated. No crying spells, thoughts of suicide, but a lot of laughing through the pain. Other people seemed to think I was too sensitive or I just needed to forgive and forget. Some people, even counselors, would flip the situation back on me and think I was just having a poor, poor me pity party. I felt there was no help.

Well, along came Celiac a year ago. When I looked down the list of symptoms and saw mild depression, I thought, "I wonder if what's been happening to me would fit that?" I also read that for many women, the symptoms of Celiac are most apparent or amplified after pregnancy, and that is exactly when the repetitive thoughts started. (However, I've had Celiac symptoms all of my life.) So I waited.

After the first couple of months, it seemed as if the symptoms were subsiding, but I wasn't sure.

About maybe 3-4 months into the gluten-free diet, I had a real bad crosscontamination of gluten and for anyone who's supersensitive, you know what I was going through. My joints ached for 2 weeks straight, nausea, diarrhea, you name it. But worse, the repetitive thoughts of people doing wrongful things came back LOUD and clear. So that gave me more than enough incentive to not take chances.

Then in June, I started having crazy signs of corn intolerance. Again, it had always been there, but I must have been reached another level. I also noticed a mild amount of repetitive thoughts, but ignored them because they really weren't that bad. About 2 weeks after going 100% corn-free, those subtle thoughts went away.

I think that proves that when we say "Listen to you body," that includes your thought patterns.

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kittty Contributor
kittty
Posted

The repetitive thoughts and focusing on negative things sounds more like anxiety and/or OCD than depression. When I get anxious I can't stop focusing on negative things and blowing them out of proportion too.

Since going gluten-free the anxiety has mostly gone away, but it still lingers sometimes. It's definitely something that Celiacs deal with, and is probably linked to malabsorption of vitamins and minerals.

It's really tough to stop focusing on the negative, and playing those thoughts over and over in your head. I've found that watching movies or keeping busy keeps the thoughts away. And every time those thoughts poke through, I've learned to become aware of them and try to push them back. It's not easy though. I've had no luck with therapist or counselors either - other than making a big hole in my pocket book.

Finally-45 Contributor
Finally-45
Posted
  • Author

Glad to hear that diet helped someone else too.

I agree, it's probably more anxiety than depression, both have been studied in people with Celiac and IBS.

I've come to understand that we know very, very little about the brain and psychology, let alone the influence of relationships and diet on the brain or .... hormones! (Which have their own set of dietary influences--the repetitive thoughts were no doubt worse just before my period and absolutely nothing would take them away but sleep.)

I could kick myself for not reading more about Celiac years ago. A LOT of wasted time in my history waiting for the medical industry to suggest something that would treat what they saw as unrelated symptoms.

All I had to do was cut gluten and corn to turn off the faucet of thoughts. Happiest I've EVER been, and that is so sad to say. It's literally like I'd been living in construction noise and I finally got to move away to the country. Crazy to have to metaphorically yell louder than my own thoughts.

:lol::lol:

  • 2 months later...
kater Rookie
kater
Posted

This is really interesting - I have anxiety and those cease-less thoughts as well, and I am hoping they will get better off gluten. I've only been off gluten for a month and I'm not really feeling any difference, in belly or mind, but I've heard it can take a while! My thoughts usually center around some incident that happened that I play over and over in my head, or my brain will make up morbid scenarios that I can't stop thinking about.

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