The connection between celiac disease and depression. Beth’s story of depression, celiac disease, and finding hope in the midst of despair.

Treating my autoimmune disorder and Celiac disease at its roots has given me the space to create deep energetic healing in my life that I never thought was possible. It has brought me to a level of wellness I wasn’t always sure could be mine.

My name is Beth and I hope you find my story inspires you to greater healing.

I was diagnosed with Celiac disease when I was 16. Every time I ate my stomach would get upset. After the diagnosis, I was given pills and told to stop eating gluten. Naturally, I continued to eat gluten because who would be WILLING to give up waffles? I lived in an average town in Texas where nutrition wasn’t valued so had little motivation to believe that what I ate could have any sort of impact on my life. I justified that I could handle an upset stomach. Not knowing the ramifications of what was actually happening to my health.

There was a lot more than an upset stomach going on in my life. When I was a child I often felt sick and struggled with depression and anxiety. By the age of 8, I was experiencing full-blown panic and anxiety attacks. When I was in junior high and high school I was taking anti-depressants, self-mutilating and toying with the idea of ending my own life. I was hospitalized at 15 for severe depression and suicidal thoughts.

When I was 21, I was sexually assaulted and was hospitalized once again for more of the same. The continued trauma, self-hatred, and hospitalization, kept my mind and body feeling broken. Despite being in therapy all my life, I was constantly struggling with self-love and self-worth. I kept trying to have a self-care practice. I always desired to be off medication and to treat my depression, trauma, and anxiety naturally with exercise and diet but it felt too big. Being in my body felt awful. I used substances like alcohol and nicotine to assuage the pain. My life often felt unmanageable.

Throughout all of this, I desired to fight for my well-being but I didn’t always know where to start. The cloud that covered my life kept me rooted to the spot. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to live and live well. What then was my next step toward happiness?

By the time I was 22, I moved to Colorado and that was where I started to get an education about different ways to take care of your body and soul. At the time a nutritionist explained to me the effects that gluten can have on your body and also on your mind.

After years of Celiac denial, I finally decided to give up gluten and see what would happen.

I felt better than I ever had in my life. I experienced a layer of clarity and happiness I never thought was possible for me. I could move and be present in my body in a way I had never imagined before. Deeper energetic healing was starting to occur.

When I was 25, I got Mono and I desperately needed an additional layer of healing. While giving up gluten felt amazing, I knew more could be done because I was still always getting sick. I started to consider hidden sources of gluten and cross-contamination. I decided to give up dairy and coffee since they were potential “cross-reactors” to gluten. I experienced an additional layer of healing in my body and mind but still knew more could be done. I now had proof that nutrition directly affected how I felt.

By 27, I was researching the relationship between mental health and Celiac and decided to follow a Paleo anti-inflammatory auto-immune diet and get off of medication for depression and anxiety.

Because your immune system and mental health are directly linked to your gut, I learned that Celiac is often considered a neurological disorder instead of solely a gastrointestinal disorder.

I started to dabble by taking out a few ingredients here and there such as grains, nightshades, legumes, corn and soy. I discovered that the medicine I was taking had ingredients like lactose, potato starch and corn in it. I was at a crossroads, I had to give up Western meds to be fully compliant with my Paleo healing program. By April of that year, I was off of medication. I am still medication free to this day.

My mental health is better than it has ever been. I have so much clarity and the ability to really explore self-love in a way that didn’t seem possible before. 

It doesn’t mean everything is always rose petals. I can still struggle with mental health, have days when I don’t want to move my body and get pretty foggy. The difference is I now know I can have that peace and that there is nothing wrong with my spirit.

I now have the fuel to seek and experience what I want and deserve in this life. 

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship,” Louisa May Alcott

The post Celiac Disease and Depression. A Journey to Find Healing and Self Love appeared first on LoveSelf.

At LoveSelf, we write about inspiring people healing with the power of real food and self-love. We believe that together we create a beautiful future for each other and ourselves.

It is time to tell the happy stories!

Do you know an incredible person with a healing story? Let us know! They may just be featured in our Inspiring Stories!

A Little Girl and Her Mother Navigate the Challenges of Celiac Disease
A Story of Celiac. A Little Girl. And Her Mother’s Love. Learn the Symptoms of Childhood Celiac Disease.

Celiac Disease and Depression
A journey to find healing and self love with the power of spirit and real food.

Healing from Rape, Injury, and Obesity. A Self Love Story
A woman’s journey of forgiveness, healing, and wellness. Her five wisdom tips to self love may change your life.

Bees, Healing Chocolate, and the Power of Spirit
A story of (quite literally) falling down, getting back up, and following your dreams on even the hardest days.

Cancer Survivor Becomes Healing Chef
A man’s journey of surviving cancer to become a healing chef and passionate inspiration for wellness.

Adoption and the Spirit of Food
An unbelievable story of two families, an adoption of a teenage boy, and the healing spirit of food.

A Woman’s Story of Healing an Eating Disorder by Growing Her Own Food
Wisdom Tips for Overcoming Eating Disorders and the Healing Power of Growing Your Own Food

The True Faces of the Hungry. They Look Like You.
The man the feeds the hungry and teaches us about forgiveness.

A Mom’s Journey to Healing Her Body Image
For the Love of a Mom and Her Baby. Healing the Pain of Body Image Issues

Ritz Carlton Chef Partners with Organic Farming Grandpa!
Learn how to create a perfect gluten free wellness feast from a Ritz Carlton chef and his sidekick Farmer Starkey.

Healthy Fast Food and the Mom Who Makes it Happen.
Find gluten free, paleo, non-GMO, dairy free, organic TO GO at Snap Kitchen!

Mongolia. Meditation. And the Heart of an Explorer.
How meditation and organic food inspired a young woman’s life in Mongolia.

The Beach. Self Love. And Healing Your Inflammation with Juice.
A story of healing from inflammation and leaky gut symptoms. How self-love can inspire you to follow your dreams. Wisdom tips and the restaurant designed for love and healing.

The Love of A Mother and the Joy of a Salad
The love of gardening and a salad. A young woman honors her mother and the mom is all of us.

A Tiny Organic Farmer, Fairies, and the Art of Saving a Seed.
How our food system has depleted over the last fifty years and the organic seed you can save. Steps you can take to save our produce and how a fairy may be the love that finds you.

Goddess of the Soil
Faith is a soil scientist and plant research goddess. Did you know healthy soil has the same microbiome as your gut. How healing the soil can heal your leaky gut and autoimmune symptoms.

Cook Like a Ritz Carlton Chef with Farmer’s Market Ingredients
A Ritz Carlton chef’s story about organic food and caring for his mother with autoimmune disease. Get inspired to create a stunning gluten free meal from farmer’s market ingredients and learn in loving others we love ourselves.

The Joy Bus of Tragedy to Triumph
Creating a Joy Bus. One woman’s journey to support cancer patients with love and organic meals.

Clean Your Liver. Change Your Life.
A healers story. Learn how cleansing your liver is an amazing step to healing physically and emotionally.

Raw Food Passion
Introducing Elaina Love – A raw food story of decadence, beauty, and health. She lost her child to cancer. The story of how her son became her angel and the raw food she creates to heal others.

A Vietnam Vet, Agent Orange, and Non-GMO
The story of a Vietnam era couple whose exposure to Agent Orange changed the way they look at GMO and chemical farming practices today.

Healing a Gluten Sensitivity with Wheat!
The story of gluten sensitive man and the organic heirloom wheat that healed his leaky gut symptoms and inspired a new dream.

Traveling to Malaysia for Organic Recipes
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One Dietician’s Work to Change Hospital Food From Unhealthy to Organic
Winneshiek Medical Center introduces an organic vegetable garden. How to bring an organic garden to your hospital. Tips from the dietician that made it happen!

Bees Have Feelings Too! A Bee Education
Saving the bees! Learning from Liesa Helfen of Worker-B, bee keeper, and raw honey extraordinaire. Did you know bees have feelings? Learn about the amazing role of bees in keeping us healthy.

Afghan War Vet Grows Food For The Hungry
Meet Sonia Kendrick! Sonia is a mother, war vet, organic farmer and a true inspiration. She has turned her pain of food insecurity into a triumph of feeding the hungry.

Boston Ritz Carlton Partners with Foley Fish
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Global Volunteer Returns Home: Providing healthy food to rural communities
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94 Year Old Man and a Grass Sandwich
I have fallen in love with a man named Harry. Harry is 94. Witty, brilliant, kind, and endearingly cranky. Learn how Harry shares his love of raw food and how to make a grass sandwich.

The Colors of LoveSelf
Welcome to LoveSelf Magazine! We are on a mission to inspire loving choices for your body and the earth.

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