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My youngest son, age 22, tested negative for celiac, but decided on his own 
at age 16 to try the GF diet after seeing the hell CD put his older brother 
through.  The improvements in his health, academic achievement, behavior, 
social interactions, etc. were undeniable, so now 6 years later even as a 
college student living away from home, he still follows the diet pretty 
closely, all things considered.  He wants to succeed & be his best & knows 
he can't do it w/o the diet.  He had an interesting experience the last 
week.  He spent several hours studying with a group of classmates at a 
friend's apartment.  When offered snacks, he declined explaining that he's 
celiac.  One girl in the group said, "I have that, too,"  but ate the snacks 
anyway!  She said that her sister "really" has celiac because her sister 
gets "really" sick, but she doesn't, so she's okay to eat bagels now & then. 
  She later complained of chronic headaches.  I told my son to explain that 
chronic headaches are a common symptom in gluten reactions.  I wonder if it 
will make a difference for this girl?

I think we who follow the diet religiously are a unique bunch.  I never had 
life threatening sympoms or diarrhea, I just had debilitating fatigue, 
depression & chronic infections for many, many years.  The relief I 
experienced on the GF diet is enough to motivate me to follow the diet.  I 
hate being sick.  I hate pain.  I hate depression.  I hate fatigue.  I'm a 
total baby.  I would rather die than live with any of these symptoms, if 
that makes any sense.  In fact, all those years I was sick, I sometimes used 
to wish I could just die & get it all over with rather than continue life as 
I was experiencing it.  I want to live life to the fullest as enjoyably as I 
can.  I guess other people have the ability to enjoy life even though they 
are tired, hurting or depressed.  I can't, or at least never learned how, so 
I don't understand them.

I realize that some day, I may not be able to control my well being like I 
can now.  I'll admit that this thought is frightening.  Maybe I'll be more 
of a grown up then & accept things I can't change.

I'm not soliciting any specific responses, but open discussion is wellcome & 
will be posted in a summary.  [I'm not as slick as Mary in analysis & 
summarizing, so I'll leave that so someone else!  ha ha ha!]

Valerie in Tacoma

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