I had symptoms from a young age. When I was little I always had trouble with the food I ate. I had patches of eczema all over my face and would projectile vomit whenever I ate. I probably looked like the exorcist child; my mother just waiting for my head to start spinning. I’ve been told that I could throw one heck of a tantrum too. I would scream bloody murder and bang on anything that got in my path. I had horrible night terrors and would wake up shrieking in fright. I was told that that’s when my mom knew I’d have problem with food.

I was on a gluten and dairy free diet for a small time when I was a child. My symptoms seemed to improve but then my parent’s got divorced when I was four and my food options changed. My dad would feed me the real stuff, and you know once you’ve tried real bread and cheese that’s not rubbery , there’s no way you’re going back. So life went on as it does, and I went back to the foods that where unknowingly poisoning me.

Life seemed to be moving along just fine until the age of nine, that’s when everything started. I began having fainting episodes that escalated throughout the years. I battled with severe migraines and headaches that I couldn’t rid myself of. When I started 7^{th grade I began to have major problems. I would be passing out right and left and experiencing extreme chronic dizziness. Still to this day I can’t describe the strange neurological sensation gluten had on me. I suffered from chronic panic attacks, multiple times a day. My throat would get tight, the room would pull in, and my head would spin. I couldn’t make it through a full day of school without collapsing. It was difficult for me to leave the house because the world would feel like it was moving, information wouldn’t register right in my brain; I always felt like I was going to fall over and pass out. Daily life became extremely difficult. I suffered from extreme fatigue and I always felt weak and tired. I always felt bad because I didn’t have the energy to hang out with friends, talk on the phone, socialize, and be a part of anything. It was literally all I could do to roll over and grab the remote; it was exhausting. My head felt like it was going to explode and there were little construction workers drilling into my brain. I couldn’t sleep, ever. As long as I can remember I’ve never enjoyed a good night sleep. It would take me at least two hours to fall asleep, if I was lucky, and I’d wake up three or four times a night. I couldn’t dream, I couldn’t sleep. As I got older the symptoms kept growing. My fainting spells would be accompanied by a mild seizure. My stomach hurt all the time. I would roll over and curl up because the pain was so bad. My stomach pain only became worse and worse, and continued to follow me till this point.}

Let me tell you, if there’s a test out there, I’ve had it. I stared visiting all kinds of specialists. I saw a neurologist, cardiologist, GI specialist, ear specialist , natural path, acupuncturist, pretty much anybody that might be able to help. I’ve had four straight years of test, after test, after test. I’ve had an EEG, EKG, MRI’s, CAT scans, I wore a heart monitor for a month, I’ve had an endoscopy, colonoscopy, fructose test, and let me tell you the list keeps going on and on. You hit a point after four years where enough is enough. You’re tired of being sick, you’re tired of tests that don’t tell you anything, and you’re tired of not having answers. I started eating a wheat free/ dairy free diet about a year and a half ago because I knew as a child I had some problems with food. Going on that diet helped some, but I still didn’t feel 100%. I went from a 40 to maybe a 60. As a lot of us know now, wheat free and gluten free are much different. I didn’t know that then, and I didn’t know to what lengths one must go to protect themselves from gluten.

Since I started eating differently, my biopsy’s came up negative and I was still stuck in this vicious cycle of unknowing. I was running out of places to look, and the pain and the problems where still ever present, knocking on my door. Salvation finally came though, just in a very unconventional way.

We had seen a new neurologist several months earlier (the first one I saw when I was younger was horrible! He wanted to put me a seizure medication…thanks, but no.) and he had been talking about me having low serotonin levels in the brain…..right. I’m a very natural, organic person, and I don’t believe in shoving medication down your throat to solve unknown problems. Of course, I wasn’t going to take any high intensity drug to regulate my "serotonin problem" if I didn’t even know I had one. My dad went on this whole kick about, "you need to do this" and "you’re serotonin that". Let’s just say drugs aren’t up my alley. Finally we came to an agreement and I told him I would consult with a natural path and see if I could improve serotonin levels with different foods I ate. Of course, being my wonderful self, I had another fainting episode right after spring break and got to go to the doctors…again. Yeah. We went and saw my pediatrician and my dad started on his serotonin kick again. My doctor gave me a referral to a nutritionist to see if I could get help managing serotonin levels with food because I was being deprived nutrients from the wheat and dairy I was eliminating. Needless to say it was the nutritionist who diagnosed me, without all the tedious poking and prodding.

Since my diagnosis I’ve been making remarkable improvements. I’m awake and alert, my stomach and head don’t hurt, I’m not falling over all the time, and most importantly, I feel better than I’ve ever felt before. I hope that all those teens out there see their diagnosis or intolerance as a positive thing. Gluten is something we can control. By changing the way we eat we can live a better, happier, and longer life; feeling the best we’ve ever felt along the way. A gluten free lifestyle can be challenging at times, but at the end of the day, it’ll be the best decision you’ve ever made.