Published on 12, July, 2020
I have been doing a lot of reading about this recently, and I am finding more and more that there are potentially significant links between people with autism and people who have gastrointestinal (GI) issues such as gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
I am a 32 year old male. I have suffered from acid reflux my whole life due to being born with a hiatus hernia. I am medicated for it, and I have been told that I will always be on medication for it due to the severity of my condition. It gets worse with stress, sleeping in a different position, changes in diet... all sorts of things can trigger it to be worse.
Does anyone else, formally or self-diagnosed with autism, have any issues like this?
I have Coeliac's Disease also. I despise it. It's robbed me of all energy and ambition.
As a fellow Coeliac, I agree 100%.
Hello Nemo. I've only had it about 5 years but it has added to my problems exponentially. I had severe problems before all this ,of course.
I am sorry to say I know of his existence only, nothing else about him
I'm sorry to read that. Do you like Francis Bacon?
Don't get me started on mental health issues
Red82 (Formerly Mellowjian) said:I'm very, very tormented and miserable.
I relate to that. This is me...
I haven't had a drink in years so I don't have that issue anymore.I've had more general problems my whole life, as I have been Autistic my whole life. I've also developed Mental Health issues. Coeliac disease has left me weak and never wanting to leave the house. I'm very, very tormented and miserable.
Hello Red82, For how long before your Coeliac diagnosis did you have problems? Coeliac disease has nothing to commend it, in my opinion. The food is expensive and bland. I also have chronically low vitamin B12 levels.
I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease, aged seven, back in the days when not much was known about it. I spent much of those seven years in various hospitals being tested for various maladies as I failed to thrive because on nutrient malabsorbtion. As a consequence, I didn't start school until I was eight years old.
I started drinking when I was eight years old. That Christmas I got drunk for the first time! By the time I hit my teen years I started drinking more to help with my social anxiety. It didn't help. I would start drinking and continue drinking until I had passed out. Then I would wake and be violently ill, vomiting everywhere. Let me tell you that being a vomiting drunk is not socially advantageous. I realized once I started I had no "off" switch. I could never recall the drinking only the waking and vomiting. Once, after an evening's drinking and vomiting I returned home. On the way I stopped and laid in the middle lane of the A4 in London and waited for the end.
The next day I realized I had a major problem -one of many. My new year's resolution that year was to stop drinking. It didn't help with my social anxiety. I was 15 years old and I have kept that resolution through some very dark times.
A couple of years later my alcoholic mother died in a pub! The North Star - the star that guides one home.Oh, the irony.
I can empathize with your Coeliac situation and your alcoholism.
I was diagnosed with ASC earlier this year aged 65.At this stage of my life I am back in the middle lane of the A4 in waiting for the end, figuratively speaking. As that sage Bobby McFerrin one opined, "Don't worry, be happy"
There's a line from a song I like that resonates with me: "Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny"...but not yet, in my case.