elimination period

[snapdragons]

Has anyone had trouble with depression or anxiety during the elimination period? 

[MindyK]

Yes, my anxiety was triggered when my body started responding to the diet. I believe that my anxiety was triggered because my thyroid started responding to AIP, which meant that the level of thyroid medication I was on was overmedicating me. I also experienced some depression when I realized how restrictive the diet was (I had to combine AIP with extensive food sensitivity restrictions). But that has passed for the most part now that I have been doing AIP for a while. Many people experience some emotional withdrawal to food so if that's what you're experiencing, you're not alone.

[snapdragons]

Thanks MindyK! I think I have a perfect storm of stress going one. I think a main contributor to a lot of my issues is lack of stress management. I need to get back to yoga!

[saragrambusch]

Another cause of emotional problems during elimination diets can be the lack of carbohydrates. That's just one more thing to be aware of. It's important to find a starch source that you tolerate, especially if you are coming from a higher carbohydrate diet.

[gutsybynature]

You aren't alone. I had a powerful bout of depression during the first two weeks of elimination when I first went grain-free (it wasn't AIP yet, but still a major change in my diet). Thankfully, by week three I was feeling "normal" and by week four I felt better than I was before I started. For whatever reason, my body seemed to need to go through that huge valley to get to the peak on the other side!

There is so much science just doesn't understand about how the gut and brain are connected, but I'm starting to think that many (if not all) mental illnesses have some kind of digestive or gut component. Check out this recent article in Psychology Today: www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201404/the-gut-brain-connection-mental-illness-and-disease

[xyz]

I took it very gradually. First I quit with gluten. But I couldn't just quit, because I got so abstinent it was terrible. So I gradually lowered it during one week before I quit completely. 1,5 week later I quit milk. I was still a little abstinent from gluten, but it was quite okay. A few weeks later I realised gluten free wasn't enough, so then I quit with grains and cereals. Since then I gradually lowered the carbs until I ate LCHF. I felt good all the time. Then I also went to AIP but that was not so much different from what I was already eating. It took 3 months from when I quit gluten to when I started AIP.

[alisongregory]

My dietician told me that the emotional nobadwordsplease storm I experienced for about a week could likely also be related to detoxing estrogen. The liver was overwhelmed so it stored the estrogen, to be dealt with later. only the poor thing had so much work given to it by my terrible diet, it never got around to it, so when it "cleared it's desk", so to speak, i got heaps if excess estrogen floating around for processing by the now free liver. If more than a couple weeks in though, could be something else as already suggested...

[snapdragons]

FYI after a few weeks it got much better.