To all the coeliacs who are starting their gluten free diet...
1) You're going to feel worse before you feel better. Things are going to get better, I promise you. You may feel certain things right away, like feeling less sick, or having less diarrhea, or sleeping regularly. In other places, you're going to feel worse because your body has finally been given a chance to flush out any gluten in your system. Up until this point you've been feeding it more and more gluten, so it has never had time to address the traces of it in your body, the damage it's done, etc. (I don't know much biology but I assume it's something like that) It's going to be working very hard to try to mend what's broken, and you may feel exhausted, sick, dizzy. But you're going to be okay, and don't give up just because you're not immediately better. Doctors say you're going to feel better straight away, but that's not true. It's a slow process and you need to let it do its work. 2) If you have time and spoons, track your progress. I've made a diary with dates, what I've eaten, drank, my symptoms, mood and even sleep. Not only is it awesome to see your improvement over time, if you ever need proof to show someone, are claiming benefits, or if you're just going to a doctor's appointment, I've found having a diary incredibly useful. It's something to keep your mind occupied too, because it's hard at first to be gluten free and your mind is probably screaming MY LIFE IS OVERRRR. Now you can feel productive and hopefully like this isn't all for nothing. 3) It's okay to be afraid of symptoms, but try not to fear the worst. I've already been terrified of not only this diet not working, but my bad symptoms coming back. Every stomach ache makes me think diarrhea is coming on, or constipation. I've had to try to tell myself that normal people get stomach aches too. Regular people get tired. Regular people are gassy. You will still feel these things sometimes, but if you're staying gluten free, it won't develop into that diarrhea or vomiting or whatever you're afraid of. Believe me, it's hard to trick your brain, because you've learned over time that stomach pain means you need to run to the bathroom as fast as physically possible. It will scare you. It will make you want to cry. But it is perfectly natural to have some stomach discomfort, especially if you're eating certain foods. Learning to accept these previously danger signs as normal occurrences will be hard, but it will also make you feel great when you can, because you'll realise how similar to everyone else you really can be. 4) It's okay to feel upset that you have coeliac, and that you don't deserve it, that you'd rather die than have this disease. Scream it out. Cry for hours. Punch a pillow or something. Feelings are okay, and the sooner you get all of this out, the better. Once the grief is out of your system (because you will grieve, this is the same as having any other disease. Don't feel invalidated by friends and family who think you're being dramatic, because they just don't understand) you will feel meh for a while. Try to get some GF snacks that you love. I like the macaroons and brownies. Find the happy parts of being gluten free. For me, that's the fact that I get to lose weight and feel healthy, and that I'm going to be feeling better physically soon. If you just push through the hard day's you'll break into a good day eventually and you'll laugh at yourself for being sad in the first place. 5) You will get tired of explaining what coeliac disease is to people. People are ignorant, forgetful, and you will have to explain what your illness is to people more than once. I've had to explain it to one friend four times, and she's acted like I've never told her every time. It grinds your gears, makes you wonder why you even try with people, you will be frustrated. Link them bookmarked pages, videos, if you feel comfortable enough you could even write a blog post or make a video about it. You will be asked a lot of questions, and irritating statements. My favourite is the whole, "I would kms if I got coeliac disease," before listing all their favourite foods. Great support there, friend. 10/10. You have to learn a lot of patience with people, which for me especially has been hard, but you get there. This was some very casual, maybe specific advice? If this doesn't apply to you or help you in any way, I really apologise, but I'd like to hear any advice you have for us coeliacs! My biggest piece of advice is to believe in yourself, because hope is the driving force to you living a happy gluten free life. If you have no hope for your future, you're basically cursing yourself. And I believe in you, and I know you can do it, so go out there and live life and eat all the gluten free food. :D
