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i always experience a change in personality. and it changes from time to time. if i havent been exposed for awhile , when i do get glutenized, i feel almost euphoric. like , wow i feel so much better and seem to be more forward,and impulsive. then if i keep being exposed and dont find the source, i become very irritable, negative in my thinking, people get on my nerves easily ( usually i can just make irritated mental notes and not insult the person) then i can become depressed and anxious and feel like it's too hard to go on. and i know this isnt me and have to figure out where it is coming from and then be patient enough for it to pass. seems like forever sometimes. i try to be very careful not to get glutenized but last summer i was trying many different gluten free foods that i didnt tolerate either. i am worn out from the experience and am trying to just stick to what i know works. i used to wonder what the personality of the day would be. 
--------------When I was going through the diagnosis stage I would have onversations with people that I don't remember having. Now, I just become very depressed and I can't seem to put a sentence together. There are a whole group of people who think I am flighty. My eight year old son has just been diagnosed with a wheat allergy. His symptoms mimic ADHD. It's hard to get the school to understand the impact wheat has on his personality. I enjoyed your story. It's nice to know that others share our problems.
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Oh my gosh, I thought it was just me. I can tell when I’ve eaten something that I shouldn’t because I either get extremely depressed (extreme as in, I shouldn’t have any kind of weapon nearby or I’d seriously think about killing myself) or I get really angry over nothing. Sometimes I’ll scream at my kids over stupid things. It’s usually really difficult to get me angry. Most of the time I can tell myself it’s the gluten and not me and I can control it a little. My kids also understand that if I get really angry or sad for no reason that it’s the gluten.  It’s almost like Jekyll and Hyde, the changes are fast, from normal to raging to hopelessly sad and back again. I’ve probably done things that I normally wouldn’t do when I’m like that, but I don’t think it’s ever been as extreme as you described. I probably buy things that I normally wouldn’t but not big things.
I think my usual reaction to gluten is like this, the intestinal problems are the extreme reaction for me.
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There is some literature that speculates that gluten damage to the small intestine interferes with the body's ability to re-absorb serotonin, a neurotransmitter often implicated in depression.  It is possible that this is part of your situation, particularly if you were diagnosed late (and probably more susceptible to damage).  I will have to see if I can find some research about this to support what I am saying.Celiac just plain...stinks sometimes :(
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Yep.  When you are going through a bipolar phase you do impulsive things like that too.  Imagine what my life is like if I get gluten during that time...boy am I sunk!  I have done many things that would make you feel like those situations were mild (well, except for the orchestra one :)!).
[Believe me, I only posted about the mild things!  I don't dare make public some of the horrid things I've done under the influence.]
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Valarie, I have a very dear friend, who recently died, always said the longer we are away from gluten the more we react to it. It seems to be true or we are more aware of what is happen to our bodies. My daughter Denise wrote into list server about her reaction when someone cooked a pizza that had double thick crust in her home. Her writing was very scattered as I know how much better she can write. Of course, people did not see the reaction factor and nailed her to the wall; not only because of her subject but because of her writing skills. I could tell right away that she was still under the major gluten exposure in the air of her home. I wish we could be more tolerant of one another but I guess this is a reflection of this society.
 
Sometimes I am so embarrassed and frustrated about how my brain will function. I am trying not to beat myself up about it because there doesn’t seem to be much I can do about it.
 
My friend who died was an extremely capable person with a type A personality. She said she constantly made poor money decisions, I know that she wasn’t normally that way, (I, too, have made poor decisions just not as expensive as hers.)  What has more most concerned about her, is that her body started giving out on her. Her daughter is a juvenile diabetic. Pam was a very diligent Mom checking her blood sugars twice a night as well as trying to manage a celiac diet. After many years of sleep depravation and her body just said no more. She finally committed suicide. I listened as her whole mental patterns changed and she wasn’t eating as well. (She had no teeth as she was starting implants--her ears became extremely sensitive to sound.) Finally she just couldn’t stand it anymore – lost hope. Yet, through all this she was the most giving women I have ever met.
 
Valarie, what concerns me, is how many of us can end up in her situation or stop participating in life. This disease is still not totally understood, I don’t think.
 
Dr. Joseph from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota (who used to work for the U of Iowa) spoke at our city-wide support group. I asked him about brain function. Of course, he blew me off saying it gets better once you are diagnosed and are on a gluten free diet. Well, I have been waiting 23 years! I just sat there thinking how much the doctors know and yet how little. I suppose their field of study isn’t about the brain so therefore all is well. If only they knew. I think about Pam and how she reached out for help—begging for help from doctors—and how she was ignored. No doctor wants to touch a person they can tell are heading for suicide. I also think about people who resist the change to a gluten free diet. Just think of the damage they are doing, damage we have no idea about. I keep telling people that 64% of our menus are gluten free. Aren’t we lucky!
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