"Average" Gastritis Sufferer – All Clear!

This post is meant for those of you suffering with gastritis who have previously never had stomach problems.

TLDR: A year and a half ago, I was in the trenches of this subreddit, and was fully convinced that I was doomed to suffer with gastritis for the rest of my life. As soon as I felt better, I stopped posting here. Be aware of the reverse survivorship bias on this sub!

My Story:

At the time my symptoms started, I was living in a foreign country and was under a lot of stress. Two heavier-than-normal nights of eating acidic food and drinking beer later, I was keeled over the hotel room toilet with the worst burning sensation I'd ever felt, about 5" up from my belly button.

The ER gave me a short-term PPI prescription after describing my pain, but didn't really give me a diagnosis. This meant I made some fatal dietary errors over the next week, including eating acidic foods, drinking coffee, and laying flat after meals. I was in gastric hell and had no idea what was going on with my body.

After profuse Googling (again, was in a foreign country so primary care doctor wasn't an option), I self-diagnosed with gastritis. I guess that the stress/acidic food/alcohol combination whipped up a perfect storm to throw my gut out of whack. Over the next month, I did seek medical treatment and ruled out H. Pylori, ulcers, and other explanations. I ended up paying for an endoscopy which confirmed gastritis. [Side note: the out of pocket cost for all this was around $300 USD, which blew my American mind.]

I started PPIs, turned to a bland diet, and.... still was suffering. I spent lots of hours on this subreddit doom scrolling. I spent many nights crying in pain feeling defeated. It felt like so many people with this condition were doomed to suffer with it for the rest of their lives.

So, what made me get better?

Honestly, I don't know for sure. I know that I didn't start to feel better until I was super strict about my diet. I'm someone who suffers from cravings, which caused me to "cheat" on the diet at the beginning (especially since I wanted to make the most of living abroad). Eventually, I kept an informal food journal for a week and eliminated anything that I felt I couldn't tolerate. I eventually stopped the PPIs and lived off of Gaviscon packets when I had a flare up.

Slowly, I started to feel normal. BUT I waited at LEAST 2 weeks of feeling "normal" before weaning off. One thing that was really important: don't be afraid of eating new foods. Whenever I felt nervous about a meal, it subconsciously caused me to hold my abdominal muscles tighter than normal, which for me caused reflux. It's ok if you flare up! Just start smaller next time. I had gastritis for about 6 months total, and didn't start feeling better until 3 months in.

A huge part of my recovery was that I suddenly became much less stressed due to outside factors. I got the news I had been waiting for and went on vacation, and that quite honestly kicked the last of my symptoms. Stress was a HUGE factor in my case, but I was very convinced that it wasn't and heavily downplayed the psychological aspect for the first few months.

Takeaways:

1. There is a "reverse" survivorship bias on this sub. If you no longer need help/support (like I did), you stop posting. I completely forgot about this sub until it randomly popped up on my home page. Don't be discouraged by the lack of "healed" people on this sub.

2. For many cases, like mine, gastritis comes and goes without any true rhyme or reason. I never had stomach problems before, and haven't had any problems since.

3. I recovered without any special supplements or treatment plans. I just kept track of what foods made my stomach burn and avoided them + took my PPIs as directed + took Gaviscon as needed. Exercise also seemed to help.

4. I'm rooting for all of you! I'm not here to say that every case can be cured, or that my path to healing is the One True Path, just that people DO recover and lead a completely normal life.