How Changes to My Diet Helped to Relieve Anxiety

When people ask me why I don’t consume gluten, dairy, caffeine, or alcohol, the short answer is - I feel bad when I consume these things so I don’t consume them.

And the long answer - Throughout my anxiety journey I learned that gluten, dairy, caffeine, and alcohol were all contributing to my struggle with anxiety and panic. I thought that many of my symptoms were just due to anxiety and panic, but some of my symptoms were actually caused by things that I was consuming.

A huge anxiety trigger for me was if I felt physically sick or off. If I felt physically sick, my mind would start racing and it would ALWAYS lead to panic. So I set out to figure out why I was feeling sick all of the time.

I learned...

Dairy - It caused stomach pain, cramping, made me run to the bathroom, caused bloating, and just general discomfort. I removed it from my diet for a couple of months and then tried reintroducing it back into my diet… It did not go well. I instantly experienced all of the above symptoms, which of course triggered anxiety and panic. After removing dairy from my diet completely for months, I also learned that it was the cause of my back pain. I would experience mid-back pain fairly frequently, and this went away after eliminating dairy from my diet.

Gluten - It caused all of the same symptoms as dairy and also fatigue. Gluten doesn’t affect me nearly as severely as dairy does, but it still caused symptoms that I’d much rather live without, especially anxiety! I also discovered that I had more energy (and sustained energy) once I removed gluten from my diet.