jonz
01-05-2009, 11:58 PM
This is a post I just left over at http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/727338
I just started, a mere three days ago, a 100% gluten-free diet to deal with me finally addressing the fact that I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease (aka inability to eat wheat).
I'm only posting this here because that I've found that EVERY SINGLE STUTTERING CUE IS GONE NOW, after just three days. I can tell jokes, I can speak directly from my thoughts through my brain then use my mouth to express those thoughts.
Please, get yourself tested for this debilitating disease.
"Hello all,
please allow me to introduce myself. My question won't make any sense at all without at least a general background story of the last 24 years of my life.
My name's Jon, I'm a recent college grad and am working in a tight knit IT operations department for a decent-size corporation. I like guitar, love music. I'm extremely spontaneous. The thing my brain leans towards most is Intuition and Associations between ideas when dealing with mental cognition.
Now let me tell you about my past. When I was really little, or so I'm told, I was really... umh... unpleasant. I'd cry all the time, and generally be a pain in the a** for my parents to raise. Also, I had really bad bowel movements which they eventually decided to attribute to diary intolerance. They put me on this alternate formula, and that seemed to make the symptoms go away so "all was well".
Fast-forward to somewhere around age 5 or 6. It's all extremely fuzzy, so I don't know the intentions, but I was taken a couple times for IQ testing / etc. The results, looking back now, are really interesting. Let me explain, in certain tasks I tested at a 12th grade level. On others, I was terrible in terms of performance. I don't know what sort of theorizing they did, but it seems to me like they just left it be.
It was right around 6 that I first remember feeling "different", which correlates strongly to when I first realized that I spoke differently than others. I stuttered, quite a bit in fact now that I look back. Now segue forward 4 years, I have a "Moderate to Severe Stutter"... my family was not well off, but my parents were willing to pay for stuttering therapy for me. This particular therapist didn't work at all, well, maybe a little bit. But not the results.
This was unsettling for me, mostly on a subconscious level when I look back, I just go back to business as usually stuttering and sounding like a fool. Two years later, I'm 12 and starting to feel self conscious about it. I approach my parents and ask if we can try it again... Somehow, we were able to get Peter Ramig (amazing therapist btw, he also taught at the University I attended) to try to help me. He used a different technique, which I've only now in the last month or so figured out was: Passive Air Flow Technique.
It worked like a charm, but looking back now, it really feels like what that did was move the language "center" of my brain away from the parts that just weren't working right. The effects of this shift? I have no idea. But what I do know is that it took two years of intensive therapy (starting at twice per week), along with an hour of practice a day. After two years, I was left to my own devices to finish the Technique. I've been practicing it with a passion ever since because it was the ONLY thing that kept my severe anxiety about stuttering at bay and kept me at around 95% fluent.
That's my first question. It feels like I only think using metaphors and really obscure connections. For example, when I woke up this morning I had a realization: I was 'thinking' through 'Kaleidoscope' eyes. I'll explain that later. I promise (hope) that this will all make sense.
My Mom, who passed away several years ago, had a plethora of Thyroid based Auto-Immune problems. She was on prednisone/etc until she passed... but in the process of that whole diagnosis, us kids were checked. I was the lucky one who inherited an Autoimmune disorder: Celiac Disease. An endoscopy was performed which confirmed the diagnosis, it was noted as level 4 or something, but I don't really know what that means...
Being 14, I was highly resistant to the diet that is (as I realized 3 days) completely necessary to treat this condition. It feels like a cloak has been slowly lowered over my head since that day due to my irrational decision to not follow the diet. "Hey, that also means I can eat the most unhealthy food possible and not gain weight!" I think was my general feeling at the time.
This very slow decline continued until Jan 2. I understand that Jan 1 is a hangover day (lol), but I awoke on the 2nd just feeling completely terrible. No energy at all. In many ways, looking back it almost like I was subconsciously torturing myself because I was 'afraid' of the restrictions of a 100% Gluten Free Diet. After laying there for an hour trying to build the moment to even go get something to eat, I had a watershed moment. "Stop being so stubborn and just follow the diet your doctor advised a decade ago!!!"
I still had my doubts, but I figured that life cannot in any way continue this way. I'm not going to allow it to happen. Thank god my roommate had some yogurt on hand, I ravenously scarfed down three of them and headed over to the grocery store to pick up what I knew for a fact could never contain gluten. Namely fruits, yogurt, chicken.
I've been on the diet for a mere 3 days, and I feel like a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON. My behavior has changed pretty drastically (meaning that I actually feel happy -- I didn't realize that I had been so massively depressed/fatigued for so long). My cognition... oh my god. I don't know what to say or how to describe it... as I type I'm still having a really hard time not over-focusing my eyes. It feels, to me, like I've awoken from a life-long state of purgatory.
Finally having energy, and being able to think straightly (even when I get drunk, like I did off Vodka last night, I feel 100x more sober than before) I decided to do some research. This article stood out to me, which led me to another article (that I can't find at the moment) which relates to a "SCENT" scan or something (5 letter scanning technique that starts with S, lol)
http***brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/123/10/1985/
This leads me back to my Kaleidoscope eyes. What affect of not having my brain working together has happened here? I feel almost excessively focused now, sleep 3 hours a night since I started the diet and FEEL AMAZING. One would think that 3 hours of sleep would leave me in a comatose state... but I think that's all just relative. I am kinda hoping that eventually my metabolism will slow down enough to let me get into REM sleep, but at this point I don't even need it.
My brain associated me feeling "Tired" to "Lack of Sleep". Whereas, I now realize that there is a different between "Fatigue" and "Feeling Sleepy". And trust me, "Feeling Sleepy" is way better.
I'm finding now that my musical tastes are changing. I like life. My attitudes towards things are changing. In some ways, when I look back to the bad times I think I was developing forms of paranoia/anxiety/depression/etc and not even realizing. Only letting those settle into my battered mind in terms of "well that's just how things are".
Whew, you made it! Sorry this is so long winded, but it's an extremely complicated series of events. My question: What is the affect of Celiac disease in this situation? It seems like it affected completely random parts of my brain that are just now awakening.
And the overarching question: What happens when someone learns to speak using a non-standard/weird method of bypass what I now understand to be 'broken' regions of the brain, then regains the ability to use the part of the brain that was bypassed with 10 years of practice?
Thanks so much, if anything getting this all out of my head has been quite therapeutic.
Jon"
I just started, a mere three days ago, a 100% gluten-free diet to deal with me finally addressing the fact that I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease (aka inability to eat wheat).
I'm only posting this here because that I've found that EVERY SINGLE STUTTERING CUE IS GONE NOW, after just three days. I can tell jokes, I can speak directly from my thoughts through my brain then use my mouth to express those thoughts.
Please, get yourself tested for this debilitating disease.
"Hello all,
please allow me to introduce myself. My question won't make any sense at all without at least a general background story of the last 24 years of my life.
My name's Jon, I'm a recent college grad and am working in a tight knit IT operations department for a decent-size corporation. I like guitar, love music. I'm extremely spontaneous. The thing my brain leans towards most is Intuition and Associations between ideas when dealing with mental cognition.
Now let me tell you about my past. When I was really little, or so I'm told, I was really... umh... unpleasant. I'd cry all the time, and generally be a pain in the a** for my parents to raise. Also, I had really bad bowel movements which they eventually decided to attribute to diary intolerance. They put me on this alternate formula, and that seemed to make the symptoms go away so "all was well".
Fast-forward to somewhere around age 5 or 6. It's all extremely fuzzy, so I don't know the intentions, but I was taken a couple times for IQ testing / etc. The results, looking back now, are really interesting. Let me explain, in certain tasks I tested at a 12th grade level. On others, I was terrible in terms of performance. I don't know what sort of theorizing they did, but it seems to me like they just left it be.
It was right around 6 that I first remember feeling "different", which correlates strongly to when I first realized that I spoke differently than others. I stuttered, quite a bit in fact now that I look back. Now segue forward 4 years, I have a "Moderate to Severe Stutter"... my family was not well off, but my parents were willing to pay for stuttering therapy for me. This particular therapist didn't work at all, well, maybe a little bit. But not the results.
This was unsettling for me, mostly on a subconscious level when I look back, I just go back to business as usually stuttering and sounding like a fool. Two years later, I'm 12 and starting to feel self conscious about it. I approach my parents and ask if we can try it again... Somehow, we were able to get Peter Ramig (amazing therapist btw, he also taught at the University I attended) to try to help me. He used a different technique, which I've only now in the last month or so figured out was: Passive Air Flow Technique.
It worked like a charm, but looking back now, it really feels like what that did was move the language "center" of my brain away from the parts that just weren't working right. The effects of this shift? I have no idea. But what I do know is that it took two years of intensive therapy (starting at twice per week), along with an hour of practice a day. After two years, I was left to my own devices to finish the Technique. I've been practicing it with a passion ever since because it was the ONLY thing that kept my severe anxiety about stuttering at bay and kept me at around 95% fluent.
That's my first question. It feels like I only think using metaphors and really obscure connections. For example, when I woke up this morning I had a realization: I was 'thinking' through 'Kaleidoscope' eyes. I'll explain that later. I promise (hope) that this will all make sense.
My Mom, who passed away several years ago, had a plethora of Thyroid based Auto-Immune problems. She was on prednisone/etc until she passed... but in the process of that whole diagnosis, us kids were checked. I was the lucky one who inherited an Autoimmune disorder: Celiac Disease. An endoscopy was performed which confirmed the diagnosis, it was noted as level 4 or something, but I don't really know what that means...
Being 14, I was highly resistant to the diet that is (as I realized 3 days) completely necessary to treat this condition. It feels like a cloak has been slowly lowered over my head since that day due to my irrational decision to not follow the diet. "Hey, that also means I can eat the most unhealthy food possible and not gain weight!" I think was my general feeling at the time.
This very slow decline continued until Jan 2. I understand that Jan 1 is a hangover day (lol), but I awoke on the 2nd just feeling completely terrible. No energy at all. In many ways, looking back it almost like I was subconsciously torturing myself because I was 'afraid' of the restrictions of a 100% Gluten Free Diet. After laying there for an hour trying to build the moment to even go get something to eat, I had a watershed moment. "Stop being so stubborn and just follow the diet your doctor advised a decade ago!!!"
I still had my doubts, but I figured that life cannot in any way continue this way. I'm not going to allow it to happen. Thank god my roommate had some yogurt on hand, I ravenously scarfed down three of them and headed over to the grocery store to pick up what I knew for a fact could never contain gluten. Namely fruits, yogurt, chicken.
I've been on the diet for a mere 3 days, and I feel like a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON. My behavior has changed pretty drastically (meaning that I actually feel happy -- I didn't realize that I had been so massively depressed/fatigued for so long). My cognition... oh my god. I don't know what to say or how to describe it... as I type I'm still having a really hard time not over-focusing my eyes. It feels, to me, like I've awoken from a life-long state of purgatory.
Finally having energy, and being able to think straightly (even when I get drunk, like I did off Vodka last night, I feel 100x more sober than before) I decided to do some research. This article stood out to me, which led me to another article (that I can't find at the moment) which relates to a "SCENT" scan or something (5 letter scanning technique that starts with S, lol)
http***brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/123/10/1985/
This leads me back to my Kaleidoscope eyes. What affect of not having my brain working together has happened here? I feel almost excessively focused now, sleep 3 hours a night since I started the diet and FEEL AMAZING. One would think that 3 hours of sleep would leave me in a comatose state... but I think that's all just relative. I am kinda hoping that eventually my metabolism will slow down enough to let me get into REM sleep, but at this point I don't even need it.
My brain associated me feeling "Tired" to "Lack of Sleep". Whereas, I now realize that there is a different between "Fatigue" and "Feeling Sleepy". And trust me, "Feeling Sleepy" is way better.
I'm finding now that my musical tastes are changing. I like life. My attitudes towards things are changing. In some ways, when I look back to the bad times I think I was developing forms of paranoia/anxiety/depression/etc and not even realizing. Only letting those settle into my battered mind in terms of "well that's just how things are".
Whew, you made it! Sorry this is so long winded, but it's an extremely complicated series of events. My question: What is the affect of Celiac disease in this situation? It seems like it affected completely random parts of my brain that are just now awakening.
And the overarching question: What happens when someone learns to speak using a non-standard/weird method of bypass what I now understand to be 'broken' regions of the brain, then regains the ability to use the part of the brain that was bypassed with 10 years of practice?
Thanks so much, if anything getting this all out of my head has been quite therapeutic.
Jon"