What on Earth do we Need Gling for?

It’s been a rough week! One of those weeks where everything snowballs and you are left exhausted and empty feeling. The stress of life coupled with the complete inability to deal with anything emotional has left it’s toll.

It all started with a package of cookies. Part of my gluten free journey is my product reviews. I love to try new things and tell others about them. It’s almost a therapy thing, if I can focus on what I can eat, then I don’t worry so much about what I can’t. So, this package of cookies (conveniently placed in the gluten free section of the grocery store) was a new adventure.

I was quite a few cookies into this new venture when my curiosity got the best of me and I had to see what these delightful bits were made of. Ingredient number one: Organic Wheat. Oh no! Immediately I fell into the panic spiral. What had I done! How could I have been so careless?

It seems that gluten reactions differ from person to person. Mine come in stages. There is the initial “stone phase”, where it feels as if my entire mid-section has turned to stone and it hurts to move. After about the first 24 hours that fades off into the more subtle stages of cramping, nausea, and other not so great stuff. The worst part though, is the mental reactions. For years I struggled with brain fog, depression and uncontrollable cravings. Things I thought were just part of me, until going gluten free.

Well, the first few stages of this blunder have passed, but the mental part hangs on for awhile. I get angry every time I see a Subway commercial. I get depressed about the fact that I can’t have the McDonald’s double cheeseburger that I now desperately need, and I have a complete inability to control my emotions.

Here is where we get to the point of this story. Why do we need Gling?

When in the tailspin of the “why me” moments, it’s nice to be able to log in here and see the overabundance of foods that are okay for me to eat. It’s great to compare recipes and find out that there are a lot of places I can go that will understand my needs. Most of all, I love to see how many people are logged in and doing the same things I am.

The reason I am here, and the reason most of us are here, is that misery loves company, and joy needs companionship. We are all walking this road together. Here is a place where when people say, “I understand” they really do. We need Gling because Gling is like “Cheers”, and we all want a place where everybody knows our name.