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I am a teenager who is starting her first Whole30 alongside her mom in 2 days. I have struggled with digestive problems my whole life, but they were getting way worse about a year ago. I got an upper/lower endoscopy, I was negative for a celiac panel, negative for any bacterial infections or anything, my GI doctor didn't diagnose me with IBS and my food allergy test came back with all negatives. The only thing I got out was that I am Vitamin D and Iron defecient, and I started some appointments with a nutritionist (which I've had to stop doing due to bad insurance). I cut gluten out of my diet 5 months ago and that greatly impacted me, but my anxiety and depression has been getting worse. I started medication and that hasn't seemed to help, but I'm reluctant to up my dose because I don't want to become dependent on meds. I am on several new medicines and thought it might be affecting my health (especially the iron supplements since those can irritate stomachs, even though I take mine with meals and only once a day). My diarrhea was improving through cutting gluten out and I was in a really good place, but recently with the COVID-19 crisis and being away from my friends, my anxiety has increased even more and I can't handle it anymore. I've been staying up trying to research the benefits to try to convince myself that this will 100% be worth it, but I honestly want to know the side effects of the first couple of days. I'm probably going to have diarrhea due to me eating like crap all the time. But in the end, will the diarrhea ever stop? Does anyone have any related experiences or advice? Sorry that I word vomited, my mom doesn't like talking to me about this stuff all the time since I never know when to stop talking and my anxiety affects her as well too. I guess I'm just looking for people with similar struggles or people that experienced the withdrawal symptoms but got through it. It seems that even when I try to make healthier choices, nothing seems to work. I just want to do this Whole30 to hopefully help me come to a realization that I should be eating to live, not living to eat. And hopefully once I physically feel better, I'll mentally learn how to love myself and my body that has been through so much crap all these years. Thanks for coming to my hormonal teenage Ted talk, Abby

I’m on day 23 of the elimination phase. I’ve done my share of whole30ing over the last 7 years but have always neglected the reintroduction. At 16, I decided gluten was an incarnation of the devil himself and am regrettably in the category of people who will liberally use the c word (celiac) in restaurants. Sorry. Having recently read Food Freedom Forever (thanks Melissa) I am determined to follow through with the thoughtful reintroduction it deserves. With all the GF options available, I haven’t touched gluten for years. I’m actually a little scared of it. Previously I attributed it to unshakeable sleepiness and intense despressive episodes, dark enough to make quitting a lifelong love for toast surprisingly straightforward. I don’t miss it, but there are some glutenous things (namely French pastries) I’ve never had that I might want to experience, if I knew they was worth it. For science, I feel that I should check if this fear is still valid. But I also really don’t want to trigger a nasty psychological response, nor would I want to regularly include gluten in my post whole30 life even if it has no effect. To reintroduce or not? Your thoughts would be much appreciated. Thank you

Hi everyone, so I’m on day 14 and I have an itchy, red rash/hives on my face, upper neck, and randomly on my back. My face is warm to touch. They started on day 2, and I thought it was just my body withdrawling from sugar... now I’m slightly nervous it’s something else. I haven’t been eating anything new and I even made sure I’m using the same shampoo, conditioner and body wash. Has anyone else had this issue, it doesn’t seem to be going away and it’s not only unpleasant looking but also unpleasant feeling. Looking for some advice/help! Thanks!