Mind the GAPs – why healing my mind has to start with my gut

Today I started something positive. In fact, it’s been going for a few weeks. I have been busy getting better, or, at least, trying to. Fed up of feeling sick and tired, and looking rough, and feeling powerless, I’m trying and trying to get to the root of the problem that has been plaguing me for so long. Whatever it is, it started in my gut, and spread round my body like a cancer. Some people would say it was. But not western medicine, although it’s interesting how many in the field will now acknowledge that alternative practitioners – who have been beating a drum for gut health for a decade –  might not actually be wrong.

Whatever it is, it has spread. The rash round my neck feels as though it is strangling me. My hair is shedding, and whenever I eat my skin itches, from my nose to my backside, and I feel my health teeters on a fragile kilter where one late night or glass of wine too many throws me back so far I have to start all over again. It’s been getting worse since Christmas. A family festive feast over several days resulted in rashes round my eyes, which spread. Food is the culprit, but trying to work out which ones has been tricky. I blamed wheat, then gluten, then sugar then histamine. The list of what I can put in my mouth has shrunk to a flaccid minimum and I’m irritating myself with my own restrictiveness. At a wine and cheese party, hosted my new workplace, I ended up in tears, what with both wine and cheese, as well as chocolate, avocado, spinach and tomatoes now on the binned list. And people, I feel, can more often are judgmental than helpful.

But then again, I know how it feels to be on the other side of the fence. The problem with restriction is, eventually, you will only rebel against it, and this weekend, I got stuck into the red wine like there was no tomorrow. But to be honest, the stress I was under last week had already done a number on my face, and there’s nothing I can put in my mouth that can make up for that.

Given I’ve been doing the rounds of gastros, dermatologists and thankfully, last night an osteopath, who unleashed a crack so almighty from my spine I might have also screamed and farted at the same time, it feels high time to step my healing up a notch, and go in for full blown GAPs to try and knock whatever’s ailing me firmly in the gut.

GAPS, which stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome, is essentially a diet protocol that believes that psychological symptoms, including depression, autism and other conditions that affect the mind begin in the gut. Given how paranoid and anxious I feel on a red wine hangover, and how clearly my son’s autistic behaviours increase when he eats bread and sweets, I’m more and more inclined to agree. Even my gastro, when we talked through my symptoms, and I gave him my history of long term antibiotic use, stress, depression, auto-immune conditions and autism in the family, admitted my nutritionist friend, who’s been pointing the finger firmly at my guts for years, despite having no real gut symptoms at the time, might not be wrong in advocating some sort of cleanse and long term diet plan to alleviate my symptoms – and more complicatedly, my son’s, who is diagnosed ASD and was conceived when I was taking antibiotics.

I say that because, for me, I’m resigned to a life without much sugar, carbs, even alcohol most of the time. I can clearly see the benefits in how I look, feel, think and am. For him though, a life without bread feels like a life sentence. Skinny as a rake, it’s often quicker and easier to feed him carbs – and certainly with the amount he eats right now, for all he’s wafer thin, I sometimes need to be economical and carbs are nothing if not cheap. Forcing him to go cold turkey on the GAPS diet is most likely to have us both dead by Christmas, so instead, I aim to lead by example, and take baby steps to help him, by helping myself as far as possible.

GAPS take several stages, and works like many other diets that aim to reduce stress on the gut, starve parasites and fungi that feed off sugar, and carbs, enable the gut to heal, before re-seeding it with good bacteria that can help fend off some of the bad stuff. It starts with a rather intense broth stage where chicken or fish broth, which all contain healing enzymes, is taken with probiotics for several days, followed by a gradual introduction of vegetables, meats, and eventually some fruits and dairy. I won’t go into the full diet here – click on the link above to find out more. But right now, I feel like if I know too much what I’m up against, I may cave before I get there.

However, a friend of mine@mummytries, who blogs and vlogs over at mummytriesgaps has done the whole protocol, has managed it with her kids, and has blogged about the experience, which she swears by, so I take my met

In any case, with my new found mobility following the first of several trips to an osteopath (thanks AXA – it’s been worth it so far), I feel in a much better place to survive on soup for a couple of weeks. And broth for breakfast – which both Jonah and I enjoyed this morning) certainly feels like it is getting up to something helpful, both in my tummy and around the rest of my body which has been rebelling against me for so long.

I’ll keep you posted of the results – although, with summer in full flow, it may be harder to stick to than I hope – but as far as I can see right now, I don’t think it can do any more harm than not trying it at all.