Is this a medical issue or just anxiety?

[PoppyB]

Hi, I'm 17 and female and my health seems to be deteriorating. I'm having severe headaches which normal paracetamol will not touch and I cannot stomach anything. Any food makes me nauseous and I'm having huge fluctuations in bowel movement. I'm currently on gastro resistant tablets, and I have coeliac disease, but this has never raised an issue before. My doctor continuously puts it to stress & my anxiety but it's getting worse by the day. Any suggestions?

[PoppyB]

Thanks for your advice!
I don't see myself as stressed as such, but I've been through huge changes in my life which contributes. The thing I worry most about my health, it panics me.
I'm very good with my celiac diet, pretty paranoid about getting it wrong to be honest :)
But thank you very much for the advice, majorly appreciated.

[nursegirl6572]

Hello and welcome!

I guess a good first question would be, are you having anxiety or under a lot of stress?  More specifically, were you having stress and/or anxiety when these symptoms started?

What kinds of medical work-ups have you had?  At your young age, it would be unlikely that you had any significant big medical problems, but you could have some kind of fairly common chronic condition, like a thyroid imbalance, or other hormonal imbalance.

Also, the Celiac's may be worth looking into a little more.  While you may not have had any major problems with it recently, it isn't uncommon to experience an exacerbation of something like that.  Do you adhere to a Celiac friendly diet?

If you haven't been overly anxious when this started, or weren't under a great deal of stress during the onset of these symptoms, I would recommend asking for a more comprehensive medical work up and try to adjust your diet to see if that makes a difference (ruling in Celiac's as the culprit).

Please let us know how you're doing, hope you feel better soon!