A woman in our local support group was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic and was told that it would take her 18 months strict gluten free before her mental symptoms would resolve. She said she got some better before 12 months but that it did seem to take her a good year and a half before she felt her old, pre-symptom self.

I'm asking this because I'm 7 months out gluten-free and 6 weeks casein-free without much mental improvement. My GI symptoms were much better within a few weeks gluten-free, but there's no change with mental symptoms.

Am looking for some hope!

In my case, they were right about on target.

It took me about 18 months to finally get a handle on my anxiety and to a lesser extent, depression.

Thank you! In the middle of waiting, with depression and anxiety as symptoms, some days I can't see the light ahead. I feel like I've worked so hard for so little at this point. I'm glad gut symptoms are better, but I'd happily take back the Big D (got better within a couple of weeks) in exchange for the head stuff.

Your feedback is encouraging.

I honestly felt the same way as you do at that point in my recovery. I'm glad that you are feeling encouraged, and I hope that yours resolves even sooner!

Hi Laurie, sorry you're in such a pit....

My recovery was much shorter - but came in fits and starts. I did really well for a few months, then plummetted, then better, then plummetted deeply last summer....and now, I do have my moments, but seem to be holding steady. January of this year was one year gluten-free. And I absolutely know what you're saying about exchanging the D for some mental rest - - - the stomach stuff was easy compared to the depression.

I am wondering, are you eating any processed foods? things w/ MSG, hyrolyzed proteins, hydrogenated oils? because I have cut out almost all but the purest foods. When I lapsed over teh summer, and went into the pit, my eating was becoming very sloppy and more processed. Just a thought.

Hang in there, I absolutely do think you'll get better.

Blessings -

I was 'lucky' the depression lifted fairly quickly for me. Within a couple of months my periods of depression and anxiety were gone unless I was glutened. I should mention that my depression was off and on. It seemed to be more like bi-polar (actually a prediagnosis diagnosis until they decided it was seizures), I was either full of energy and lots of plans or so depressed and anxious I could barely get out of bed. I find now that depression hits me about 24 hours after I injest and leaves just as suddenly about a day after it comes with anxiety hanging on a bit longer.

It's tough for me to say exactly why my depression and anxiety stopped when they did (there were a lot of really stressful, awful things going on in my life for a while), but I definitely felt like a completely different person at around 10 months.

Thanks for the responses and encouragement ...sorry I'm late acknowledging them (my hard drive crashed and I just got my 'puter back yesterday).

I can't begin to tell you how much it means to come here and find that others persevered and finally found recovery. This place is a haven from frustration!

I am going through the same thing. I get anxiety/nervousness symptoms that really began after the first few weeks of being gluten-free. I guess my body really "misses" that stuff. I am getting better - I can function at work now, despite the anxiety, but I also cannot WAIT until that glorious day when the mental stuff lifts away and we are back to normal. It definitely is a process...I also lost a lot of weight after going gluten free and found that I had other food sensitivities/allergies in addition to the gluten, that may have contributed to the anxiety/nervousness. When your immune system is constantly on the "alert" mode, it's going to cause anxiety. I have had to take on tai chi and meditation to manage the anxiety... and even some anti-anxiety DVDs. I wish there was a booklet that explained the mental health changes that accompany dietary and allergy discoveries so that we would not have to see this in isolation, but just what it is... a body-transforming process that affects the mind.

Oh thank the Gods. I thought it was me. Eighteen months? Then I have - pulls out fingers and toes - NO, SEVEN MORE MONTHS? That's a long time. Every time I feel the anxiety or depression I start trying to figure out if I glutened myself somehow. So perhaps that's not the case.

With regards to feeling like my pre-Celiac self, I don't think I know what that will feel like. I don't remember really what it feels like to not have the depression off and on and the anxiety. It's gotten much better in the last eleven months, but I had kind of accepted that this was as good as it got. So maybe not, maybe it gets better? That would be nice.

Violet

ugh, so I also have about 7 months to go? well not completely gluten free though because I had a few unfortunate glutenings that of course were not intentional, but let me tell you I would have the worst anxiety when i got glutened. Now I'm on Clonazepam for panic attacks and in like a month I'm going to see a psychologist I am happy about that though and have good expectations that it might help a bit. but im so tired of being depressed, its been so many years and anxiety too of course, now its better than it used to be a year ago before i got diagnosed but still my mood swings up and down so much even my family talks about it, one minute i'll be so energetic and happy and the next i'll be pissed off or completely depressed to the point i want to give it all up, and today is one of these days... i just want to cry and go to sleep just for no reason, ugh...

VioletBlue,
I feel that way too. As a child my friends called me moody. I have been dealing with this for 22 years!!! I don't really know who I am entirely without out being poisoned. I guess time will tell. I'm okay with it as long as it keeps getting better. I have only been gluten free for 7 weeks, but I can already tell the difference during my pms time. I am more emotionally stable then then I use to be. The one time I think I got glutened off hershey kisses and hershey hugs and kisses, it was horrible. My worst symptom was my mood. It was a nightmare. But then it passed after 2 days.

P.S. I LOVE the name Violet. That was to be my son's name if he was a girl.

Try cutting out more foods. I cut out gluten, dairy, etc, and still felt horrible. I had to resort to only eating veggies, rice, and white meat and my symptoms went away within a day.

It takes a while for your intestines to be able to handle certain foods, so that may be why it takes so long for some people. If I ate beans right now, I'd get horribly depressed and tired, just not as severe as when I eat gluten.

A couple simple things that have helped me, on top of all the other good suggestions: taking a vitamin B complex, and eating food rich in good fats. Think sardines, leafy green veg, cold pressed rape seed oil (better ratio of the different fats than olive oil), avocados... a favourite of mine is making a salad with all of the above, so a green salad with sardines and avocado and a lemon juice and rape seed oil dressing.

Pauliina