Neice

I mentioned my neice being tills she has coeliac disease recently. Well she seems to be coping really well...no complaints so far. At university. I'm just really surprised and of course really happy. But I'm very surprised that she's finding it pretty normal got used to it so quickly..I'm thinking do we all do that and then it hits us! Or do some of us find it difficult later on?

[Rmichelle]

I found it easy too, i don't mind😊 the only difficulty is eating out otherwise im ok with it.😆

[Hidden in reply to Rmichelle]

Lucky you

[Rmichelle in reply to Hidden]

I think I found it easy and was eager to feel better as I was very poorly , we are all different and have different coping mechanisms .😀 I get the sense from you and your other posts that you have not found it as easy but just lately I think you are finding your feet😀

[Regalbirdy]

Hi,

Physically I adapted to eating gluten free straight away. Of course I had to learn to read labels all the time and what was on the 'banned ' list. I have a good family and circle of friends who also had to adapt to my new diet and for a while agreed to go for drinks instead of meals out (eating gluten free in restaurants is getting easier because of an increased choice and awareness of need - so I do occasionally go out now).

For me personally, I hit a mental wall at around 6 months. I am arguably not alone in this, as I know of someone else who experienced something similar at the same stage of diagnosis. The realisation that this Coeliac Disease was for the rest of my life was something I found difficult to get my head around. I was still exhausted and slightly depressed because I was still in the process of healing - so I sought NHS counselling, which helped enormously (I subsequently found out months later that I was vitamin D and magnesium deficient). Counselling helped me make sense of my new Coeliac identity, my new relationship to food and helped me accept the changes I had had to make socially. For example at work, someone would bring cakes in for their birthday and offer me one. How I wanted to be able to accept it! They would then apologise for forgetting about my diagnosis - but it didn't change my emotional response of quietly grieving that I couldn't have foods like that anymore.

Even though I had all this going on I never once intentionally deviated from the diet, nor have I ever since that time. I have always known that it's just not worth it!

Of course everyone's experiences are different and each will cope differently with their diagnosis. I really hope that your niece continues to do well at university and with her new diet.

Best wishes,

R.B.