Q: When is drug withdrawal not drug withdrawal?

A: When it is food withdrawal instead.

Earlier this year I had serious stomach trouble and after a test found out that I had seriously elevated antibodies for legumes, cocoa, yeast, corn and oats. After months of avoiding these foodstuffs I got tested again and all the other antibodies had gone down except for oats. This would explain why for the last two months my symptoms have gotten worse with the return of eczema and constant increasingly severe stomach upsets, but it doesn't explain how, because I haven't eaten oats for six months!

One explanation for the result may be that my body is reacting to some other food protein that is close enough to "fool the test". This puts all cereal grains under suspicion, and as it is, I've decided to remove them from my diet for a couple of weeks to test this. The problem is, if they are the cause of the intolerance, what is likely to follow is a withdrawal. Symptoms-wise withdrawal from a food is very similar to drug withdrawal. So simultaneous Diazepam withdrawal and cereal grain withdrawal. Sounds fun, huh? As if life wasn't awful enough already.

Right now it's too early say anything. The fact that I feel worse than usual might be a good sign, but because the symptoms are no different from Diazepam withdrawal, it's hard to tell. It might just be another wave of Diazepam WD. It seems that the only thing to do right now is to grit my teeth and wait it out. If I manage to eliminate the source of my symptoms, life in general could get a lot more tolerable, but since I can only guess at the source of the "phantom oats", I have no idea what sorts of hoops I may yet have to jump through.

Anyway, to the point: I'm not feeling too good right now, and may not be active or respond to messages for a while. If things go well, that while might be no longer than five to six days, but from experience I know to prepare for the worst. Expect to hear from me once things clear up a bit. That's all.

P.S. It's starting to seem that this far more complex than just leaving out cereal grains. My condition is fluctuating wildly, so I have bad and good moments each day, so I may be able to be a bit more active than I thought, but I doubt I'll be able to finish anything worthy of an upload.