Gluten Free diet

Today was one of those days when I did a couple of things that cause me anxiety, though I did them, I think, with fairly good grace and composure, which makes me proud of myself. Anticipation is the worst part of anxiety.But it was a good day--I went to the library, went by the office and found they were in the midst of a staff meeting so I listened quietly (well, okay, for the most part). Had lunch with Susan and Melinda, which was great fun because I've missed them. And then we went to get our new i.d. cards--that intimidated me because I'd never been in the new student center--it's called BLUU, though I can't remember what that acronym stands for. The building intimidated me, because I imagined soaring staircases out in space or escalators. I needn't have worried--it's really a beautiful building. We got our i.d. cards and were out of there within 15 minutes.
My friend Elizabeth (Beth to others) Knudson has started a new blog: http://www.cowstoquinoa.blogspot.com/ about restrictive diets because of food allergies. Her husband, Weldon, was diagnosed with celiac disease about seven months ago, and they've gone gluten-free. Elizabeth had seizures, though I didn't know it for the 15 years since she was a work-study student in my office. She recently tried an experiment going off gluten-free and eating half a cupcake. She quickly had a strong aura, though she fought her way through it and did not have a seizure. Then she did a lot of online research about the link between neurological disorders and gluten and found it's strong. So it seemed reasonable to me that there might also be a link to anxiety. I emailed her and instantly got back websites to check out. So I'm thinking I'll try gluten-free for a bit and see how I feel--not hard for me, because I'm not a bread eater, etc., though gluten lurks in places you wouldn't think about. She also found a neurologist who said dairy products are poison for people with neurological disorders but I'm not ready to give up those. As Elizabeth always says, start with baby steps. I've been encouraging Colin to go gluten-free because of his Crohn's, and he has said recently that the foods he handles best are chicken, fish, and rice.
Gluten-free may not be a cure for a long life filled with anxiety, but I'm more than willing to give it a try. Tonight I had tuna, tomatoes and avocado with a nicoise dressing (checked the anchovy paste label and it only has anchovies, olive oil, and salt). Hope I can keep this up!
Dairy free? Ooooh, hard. There's my morning cottage cheese, and the sour cream dips I love, although I'm not a milk drinker and in general don't eat a lot of dairy. But as I said, baby steps.