emotional impact of celiac disease

[rm]

While there are obviously other things going on in a lot of these comments, it's worth reading. A lot of the stuff people describe applies to me, and a lot of it doesn't, but what strikes me the most is yes, how much harder I have to work to not be a fearful person now. And amazingly, I'm largely managing it.

http://community.livejournal.com/celiac/408827.html

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

celiac is an inability to properly digest gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, barley, spelt and many many other common grains. It means that eating foods that contain gluten (most packaged goods, many processed meats, all traditional breads, anything made with undistilled white vinegar) or that come into contact with it make me seriously ill.

When exposed to gluten a celiac's body basically tries to destroy itself ulcerating the intestine 9which heals when gluten is removed fromteh diet) and destroying teh vilii (which do not regrow) permanently harming the celiac's ability to absorb nutrients.

celiacs suffer extreme pain, diahrrea and intestinal bleeding if they eat gluten. Celiacs also tend to suffer from rankiness and mood disorders, an inability to gain wait, skin, hair and teeth problems, neurological disorders and are at increased risks for certain types of cancers. While being gluten-free means being largely pain free, those other issues do not go away.

Most celiacs are diagnosed in childhood. Some people have the disease as "adult onset" but in reality they just had a milder form of it until some adult triggering event, like food poisoning (this is what happened to me).

Technically I am "presumed celiac" -- to get an official diagnosis I would have reintroduce gluten into my diet for six months, have an intestinal biopsy, remove gluten again and have another -- I would be to ill to work if I did this, and therefore I won't -- since there's no treatment, there's little to gain from a more complete diagnosis than I have.

[blu-22.livejournal.com]

What were the milder symptoms you had before the trigger? The reason I'm so curious is that a lot of this sounds like stuff my mom has had to deal with, except for the excruciating pain really. I'm wondering if this might be something she has.

[rm.livejournal.com]

For me, nothign that looked like symptoms.

I've always beeen cranky and irritable, have dealt with depression on and off. Very weak teeth that doctors always accused me ofhaving bulemia (apparently, this is a common thing in celiac's teeth), oily skin (the ability to process fat correctly is sort of teh first thing that goes), some random nerve pain and numbness that had emerged over the last two decades.

The good news, such as it is, is that if your mom stops eating gluten for two days and this is what she has -- she'll know because she'll feel so markedly different so quickly.

[blu-22.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The only other thing that doesn't match up is that we're a family of heavy people. Thanks for all the info. =0)

[rm.livejournal.com]

I do know some celiacs who are heavy. Does she tend to have eally extreme food cravings? Not weird, just intense? I ask because until i stoped eating wheat I suffered from that CONSTANTLY, and then once I stopped and was able to get nutrients better I ate a lot more normally.

[blu-22.livejournal.com]

Umm...yeah I'd say so. I mean not all the time but it happens. She plans on mentioning it to her doctor when she speaks to him next.