What’s your experience with GI discomfort?

Post Reply New Topic

Personally, I live in constant discomfort, almost always nausea. As long as I can remember I have had GI problems. When I was in elementary school, it was suspected that I had abdominal migraines. My nausea is more severe when I am anxious (very, very often) or after I drink milk, coffee, or high sugar things and I always feel like I am car sick. My GI problems were a contributing factor in my ASD diagnosis. It made sense after that but that doesn’t effect the problem so I just live with it. Does anyone else have the stereotypical GI problems that associate with ASD? If so what is your experience? Have you figured out a way to relieve it without taking antihistamines with sedative side affects?

Does anyone think I should have put this in the health/fitness thread?

Hello, ScarletIbis.

My whole life I had terrible GI pain which did increase with stress or certain medicines, and chronic muscle pain.

Both my GI and muscle pain are much better now; down from a 7 every day to around (mostly) a 1 to 3, depending on how active I am.

I managed to improve the pain, because a doctor told me I might feel better if I tried a gluten free diet. I followed the normal GF diet, and did feel a small improvement. So I went on youtube, typed in, "gluten free, autism" and found a bunch of videos about people with autism who felt better on a Grain Free, Dairy Free Diet. I tried Grain Free, and really did feel better. So at my follow up, I asked the doctor if I might try dairy free, and he said it was worth a try. I said I didn't understand how gluten and dairy were related, and he suggested that I look up the term "exorphins".

Exorphins are elements of some foods which are opioids, similar to morphine, and some people are sensitive to them. They don't get you stoned, they make you crave them. That's why a lot of people say, "I could never give up bread! I love cheese!! !" I was bothered by them, and I did have some mild withdrawal symptoms for about three days when I cut them out of my diet.

Exorphin containing foods, as far as I can see, include: Gluten containing grains, Soy, Dairy, and Spinach. All Grains contain gluten, despite what they put on food labels in the store! So no corn syrup, no corn oil, no rice, for me.

I got rid of all of that stuff, plus a few other things that I seemed sensitive to. All beans, including chocolate and vanilla (but I haven't given up coffee, yet!), all nuts, some foods that contain salicylates like rosemary, spearmint, and cucumber - but not all of them.

I used to think that being in terrible pain after eating was normal, but it's not! I think that people all react differently to foods, and my list wouldn't be good for everyone. I can't explain, for example, why I only seem sensitive to spearmint, but other mints seem okay.

All I know is that I was advised for thirty years to exercise, and that never worked. What helped was changing my diet, so I'm sticking with it!

Take care.

was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis, and almost always feel discord in the intestines unless eating extremely carefully. with eoe, have to avoid wheat, soy, nuts, egg, and dairy... some can be had sparingly, but not daily aside from a little cheese. if to eat without minding such, in a few days, the pain feels like being murdered from the inside out as if a meat grinder is mincing the solar plexus into pulp, and dropping agony shoots throughout every reach within the body.

also have an unknown neurological problem, that at it’s worst is incapacitating and comes in cycles... lose depth perception, have difficulty speaking, get lazy eyes(brain won’t process sight as quickly as other senses.), blinding auras, migraines, and partial seizures. felt like another seizure was imminent recently, until deciding to throw what little sugars and carbs that were in the apartment out, to keep closer to a ketogenic diet(had read it’s a last resort when medications don’t work for epilepsy, but doctors have been glacial in their approach to treatments.), and the seizure warning signals, and the migraines backed off... so, probably going to stick with that, especially since it also seems to be fixing the intestinal discord, where as fiber and probiotics have done nothing.

More weird facts about my stomach, I never feel hungry. It may have to do with the constant nausea but I can easily forget to eat. If I didn’t have other people around me eating at certain times, I would forget. Other people preparing or getting lunch reminds me “hey now you should eat”. When I stay home by myself, if I don’t have some kind of timer for myself or think about food then I will forget to eat. Everyone I know makes comments after I said I forget to eat “ how do you forget to eat that isn’t even possible”. Another thing is I eat if food (within my food preferences, I am very picky) is in front of me, even if I am really stuffed after eating a big meal. If I am offered a second helping, of something I didn’t find repulsive, I will eat it even if every one of my conscious thoughts says, “no don’t there is no room, your stomach can rupture you know”. I don’t have an eating disorder and have no intrusive thoughts about my body image. I have a fairly high metabolism and burn off my food quickly; I have stayed relatively the same weight for a very long time (115-125). I am usually in the higher range of that when I have food constantly around me. When I am by myself a lot, I am in the lower range because of my whole forget to eat thing. I once went 2 days without eating because I was too busy indulging in one of my special interests so I couldn’t tear myself away to go take a break and eat. I only ate because it was almost thanksgiving 2014 and I had a lot of pies in front of me so I just ate. Does anyone else think that the forgeting to eat thing is because I can’t feel hunger if I am too busy feeling nauseous? I think the not having the will power to turn away excess food is psychological but I don’t know about the whole forget to eat thing. It always puzzled me when I realized other human beings didn’t forget to eat.

@plainjain I don’t think I would be able to cut things out of my diet because of the above comment. I wouldn’t be able to turn down the dairy and the gluten and the grain. Unless they were suddenly sensory unfriendly or my taste buds changed, I can’t cut thing out of my diet if they are in my vicinity.

Had some serious gi problems in the past. Usually don't now, but occasionally do.

Aw . . . I totally understand feeling like you couldn't cut things out because it's so difficult to eat in the first place!

I really suffered with nausea, and not caring to eat, as well! That went on for years and years, but eventually I had digestive discomfort that couldn't be ignored, and it turned out to be my gall bladder, which was removed. Having it removed reduced the nausea a little bit, so my eating habits improved. But it didn't help with the digestive and muscle pain. That only went away after changing my diet.

You might not be able to change your whole diet, but you may be able to identify one or two things that are aggravating your nausea and discomfort. To me, 'sensory unfriendly' includes the pain and nausea, so once I figured it out, there was a huge reward to getting rid of stuff. I love cheese and rosemary! Going into the bread isle at the grocery store smells soooo delicious, it's tough to pass it up.

I get that!

My diet is a pain in the rear end, honestly. I have to cook a lot, can't really eat out, and most of the stuff in the grocery store doesn't go on my plate. It's boring to eat potatoes every day! ha ha. You have to find your own way, but hopefully there will be a few ideas in this thread that will work for you. You don't have to change every thing to get a benefit, just find what works for you.

I think starting this thread is a great start! Good luck.

@plainjain Yikes, I think I want to keep my gall bladder (unless a doctor recommends removal as a health benefit).

Ooh I love potatoes, my favorite is golden Idaho, they taste pre buttered! When we have them, I just stab a few fork holes in it and microwave for 5 minutes, add salt and viola! Simplest meal ever, I am glad to hear that it lacks the things that may cause stomach upset. I’ll have no problem replacing many of my meals with them. My list of foods I like is already very bland. I already avoid coffee (it just makes my stomach so bad that I can’t ignore it, I only break my abstinence maybe once every other month) My main diet was peanut butter sandwiches on honey wheat bread and chicken flavored Maruchan Ramen noodles. I had to cut back on the sandwiches though because the peanut butter was giving me so many cavities (even though the sandwiches weren’t very harsh on my stomach). I still eat the noodles even though they don’t get along with my stomach (they are just too good), I just eat them and lay down to minimize the discomfort. I probably should eat them less often. I usually eat other things so sparingly that I can’t place right now what I should avoid. I will just pay attention next time I eat something. I already know to avoid McDonald cheeseburgers, ugh , (and they definitely don’t taste so good that I can’t say no) the discomfort that caused me today is what made me think “wow this is awful, I’ll go ask some other aspies”.

Isn’t there any easy way out of anything in life!? why can’t science solve my problems with a pill already (one that doesn’t impair my ‘driving/operating heavy machinery’ ability).

Edit: I just remembered that anxiety medication could help alleviate some of it seeing as it is exponentially worse when I am anxious (directly related to the level of anxiety). A headache is thrown in along with sweating at those times (which is quite often).

ha ha. I also loved maruchan noodles! they taste so good!

Yay we should start a maruchan noodles club! Just Kidding

Nauseous on a daily basis, struggle with chronic IBS(mostly IBS-D). Nausea is unaffected by anxiety but my IBS/stomach spasms are highly suspectible to anxiety. i have other problems, some stemming from a bacterial infection that was treated but never returned to normal, as well as chronic issues with malabsorption/maldigestion from reasons unknown.

Managing stress/anxiety/anger as well medical cannabis and high doses of doxepin seem to help the most along with lactase enzymes for any milk products. Still very far from normal but I will take what I can get.

@Noca wow you make me feel lucky with all my little bitty problems.

I have acid reflux on a daily basis and I have medication to quell it quite well but it causes diarrhea so I don't think I'm really getting anywhere. I'm in the process of getting a second opinion to fix this crap once and for all.

But, like most ASDs, anxiety is always a serious issue and I'm sure the REAL root of the problem and my therapist has classified my anxiety status as "inconceivable". Which is a nice way of saying "why aren't you in the looney bin right now?"

_________________
*** High Functioning Autism - Asperger's Syndrome ***

ADHD, OCD, and PTSD.

Keep calm and stim away.