u/AlbertDrug

Over a year ago I had a pretty bad episode of food poisoning with very intense vomiting. Since then, my digestion and mental health have felt completely different.

In the meantime, I have been diagnosed with a hiatal hernia, which seems to have been caused by the vomiting during that episode. Since then I have had symptoms that feel very physical and nervous-system related, not just normal anxiety.

The most confusing part is that certain foods seem to trigger very intense psychiatric/autonomic symptoms in me. Foods high in FODMAPs, lactose, and gluten/wheat seem to be the biggest triggers. After eating them, I can get intense dread, brain fog, intrusive thoughts, panic attacks, a sense of doom, and a feeling that my nervous system has been hijacked. Sometimes this lasts for hours, sometimes longer.

I understand that a hiatal hernia can cause reflux, chest pressure, palpitations, shortness of breath, vagus nerve irritation, and anxiety-like symptoms. What I do not understand is why my triggers seem so specific to fermentable foods, lactose, and gluten/wheat.

My current theory is that these foods might be causing fermentation, gas, bloating, reflux, or stomach pressure, which then aggravates the hiatal hernia and sets off a vagus nerve/autonomic response. But I am still trying to understand whether this points more towards the hernia itself, post-infectious IBS, SIBO, lactose intolerance, histamine issues, gluten/wheat sensitivity, or some combination of all of these.

Has anyone here had a hiatal hernia that seemed to cause panic, dread, brain fog, intrusive thoughts, palpitations, or fight-or-flight symptoms after specific foods?

Did treating the hernia/reflux help? Did diet changes help? And did anyone find that gas, bloating, or stomach pressure was the thing triggering the nervous-system symptoms?

Over a year ago I had a pretty bad episode of food poisoning, and since then my digestion and mental health have felt completely different.

Before that, I could eat more or less normally. Since then, foods that seem high in FODMAPs, lactose, and gluten appear to trigger very intense psychiatric symptoms in me. I am not talking about mild discomfort or just feeling a bit off. I mean intense dread, brain fog, intrusive thoughts, panic attacks, a sense of doom, and feeling almost like my nervous system has been hijacked.

The pattern seems to be that after eating certain foods, especially things like wheat/gluten-containing foods, lactose, onions/garlic, legumes, or other FODMAP-heavy meals, I can become anxious and foggy for hours or sometimes days. It feels very physical, not like normal psychological anxiety. Sometimes it comes with gut symptoms too, but the psychiatric symptoms are the part that scares me most.

In the meantime, I have also been diagnosed with a hiatal hernia, which seems to have been caused by the intense vomiting during the original food poisoning episode. I know that hiatal hernias can potentially cause reflux, vagus nerve irritation and all sorts of autonomic/nervous system symptoms, but what I do not understand is why the triggers seem so specific: FODMAPs, lactose and gluten.

I have tried cutting things out and I do seem to feel a lot more stable when I avoid gluten, lactose, and high-FODMAP foods, but I am still trying to understand what is actually going on. I am wondering whether the food poisoning could have triggered something like post-infectious IBS, SIBO, histamine intolerance, microbiome changes, gut inflammation, vagus nerve issues, or some kind of gut-brain axis dysfunction. I am also wondering whether the hiatal hernia could be amplifying the whole thing.

Has anyone here experienced something similar after food poisoning or a gut infection?

I would be especially interested to hear from people who developed anxiety, dread, panic attacks, intrusive thoughts, or brain fog that seemed clearly linked to specific foods. What helped you? Did you find a root cause? Did it improve over time?