We've talked about this and Kailey agreed to share it here in hope that it might save another family from going through the hell and heartache we've been through over the last few years. This info might possibly help those of you that are in the educational field that are dealing with behavior (and/or possibly learning  disorders) with certain students.

As a few of you that I'm close to on the VS know, as sweet and wonderful as our daughter can be when you see her in person, we've also gone through some issues with her over the years that many people would chalk up to being "the teenage years." God knows, I've read book after book, talked to friends and family members that I admire how their kids turned out, and most importantly, I took her to a a physchologist for over a year that diagnosed her with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, which is a pattern of diobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures.

This diagnosis never sat well with me because she has always been loved by her teachers, coaches, and the parents of the numerous friends she's always had! We're not talking about a wallflower, we're talking about a kid that is loved by everyone! Even the physchologist said, "she is honestly the nicest kid that's ever sat in my office!" Okay, well that sure has helped us a lot!

I then took Kailey to a Christian Counselor after having to call her Pastor to come here to calm her down after midnight a couple of nights on a school night when her temper began to get completely out of hand! We felt like we had been invaded by an alien. We knew (or at least felt confident) that she wasn't on drugs, or drinking. Her behavior/anger was completely beyond anything I had read about with a normal teen. I'm talking about a kid that was VERY involved in sports, SGA, asked to babysit by her teachers that had small children, that could have just about every teacher in that high school standing behind her in support of her of anything, even though she always struggled with her grades! Nothing was adding up!!

Okay Mom, things aren't better, they are getting worse, what next? I started taking her to a family counselor that came highly recommended. Again, she absolutely loved our daughter, and was wonderful with her. After many visits, nothing added up to her either, so she sent her to a Phychiatrist. He came up with the solution that her ADD med was bottoming out in the afternoons, so he gave her a mini dose to take in the afternoons. I guess that was mind over matter, because for a few days we thought things were better. After one of her "rages", she vowed to never take another pill, and threw all ADD meds away. That was that.

Fast forward to the past year, and I've posted briefly about this on the VS in the past, I took her to our Chiropractor one day (after a couple of previous visits), due to her back hurting after a bad fall in volleyball. She had been in a fit of rage with me before we went into his office. He picked up on her hostility, knew she had been having the constant back ache, and daily headaches, so he started questioning her more. Once he found out about her ADD, and other symptoms, along with questioning her about her anger issues (no doubt he saw my facial expression about the anger problems), he told her he wanted to have some blood tests done, to test different vitamin and mineral levels, as well as, "I want you tested for gluten allergies, I have a feeling we're going to find that you're allergic to gluten." BINGO DR!!!!!!!!

When we got the results of the blood tests in, she freaked when he told her she was allergic to gluten. "NO MORE PIZZA?!!! NO MORE BURGERS???? NO MORE PASTA????? CRACKERS?? PRETZELS??" He told her if that's what she was used to eating, it was no wonder she's been suffering from the allergic affects.

Little did she know, there are alternatives, but it takes tons of research, and more work as a home cook. (This will be part of my POV in my cookbook Mud!!!)

After Kailey freaked, I told her I would go GF with her, so she wasn't the only one in the house on the diet. ( Another long story short, I've suffered from stomach problems for almost 25 yrs.........those problems went away within 2 days! I love you Dr. Smith!!!!!) Even better, within a week or so, Kailey turned into a completely different person. The only way I can explain the difference in her demeanor is that her personality became completely opposite. This is no exaggeration!!

Kailey stayed gluten free for most of the summer and things were wonderful with her. She was so pleasant to have around.

When Kailey went back to school for her senior year, she lost complete control of her GF diet. Even though she knew her daily headaches had gone away, felt that she could focus better (after having ADD her entire life), and knew her anger issues were under control, she couldn't keep her GF diet under control. I could tell you without a doubt when she was eating gluten again on a daily basis because of her lack of anger control. She jumped right in and was eating all of the gluten products that her friends were eating. I found McDonalds wrappers, Subway wrappers, pretzel bags, dorito bags, (reg. Dorito's aren't GF), etc. every time she became out of control! She became increasingly more verbally and physically violent.  When I would blame her behavior on eating gluten again, I even had close friends that accused me of using that as "just an excuse", "I think she's bipolar."

Kailey's guidance counselor knew that Kailey always struggled in school, yet she chose to give her aerobics the first semester of her senior year (that she didn't need!!), and Physics the last semester. Kailey is very intelligent, but has never been a good student. In part to her ADD, she has always struggled in certain areas of school. The girl busted her butt to make up credits her senior year to be able to graduate, and succeeded at that, yet her grade in physics teetered on her final exam. She failed the final, so fell 1/2 a credit short to walk with her class. At this point, all she had to do was take the last half of the class to get her diploma.

Instead of diving into the online class to get her diploma, Kailey chose to ignore what she needed to do, and desided to mask her pain by gorging on gluten products. (I've been reading where it's like a drug to people that have the allergy or who has is gluten intollerant.) She fell into a major depression, not getting out of bed until sometimes 2-3pm each afternoon. She was as hateful to all of us, especially me. When we would point out that we knew she was eating things she shouldn't eat, we would get a "f...u". That was actually kind compared to many things she had said recently.

Finally, to get to where we are now.......and the point of this post.

We had been talking to her about Baker Acting her if the behavior continued, Nothing she was doing made sense, it was as if she was determined to screw up everything in her life! Finally, after a completely out of control episode one night, she asked if I would drive her to the hospital for her to admit herself. That was at 3am on a Sunday morning. It was honest to God, the hardest thing I've ever done in my life!!!

Once the Dr. and Counselor found out she tested positive for a gluten allergy in the past, and after finding out she had been eating nothing but gluten for the past few months since she got depressed about not graduating, they stressed the importance of being GF, and of course we have too since she got home.

I can't express enough the difference it makes in her personality as long as she's not eating anything with gluten in it!!! Now she's pleasant, doesn't cuss, offers help, and just seems so full of joy all of the time!! The difference in her personality is unbelievably different!!!! Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde!!!!

AND, I'm happy to end this with the fact that once she became gluten free again, she got her act together enough to finally finish her Physics class online and get her diploma today!!!!

Let me make this clear just from my own personal experience, you DON'T have to test positive for a gluten allergy, (I was tested for Celiac 15 years ago, but the Dr. never told me gluten could still be causing my problems even though I didn't have Celiac!), you CAN BE GLUTEN INTOLERANT to have it not only affect your physical health, it can affect your mental health as well!!!

In case any of you want to read further, do some searching on your own, but this will get you started (keep in mind, gluten isn't the only allergin that can cause problems like this!)....

http://www.glutenfreedietbook.com/articles/index.php?article=21

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/89383/gluten_intolerance_may_play_role_in_certain_mental_illness

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/brainallergies.htm

http://www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp?id_Content=1676