Okay so before gastritis, I genuinely did not think about my stomach. Like at all. I ate whatever, whenever. Things like fast food, spicy chips (like Takis), coffee, sweet snacks, energy drinks, eating at 2am at night, you name it. I could go out with my friends, eat at a restaurant, laugh, and just move on with my day like any other normal person. I never once wondered if a meal was gonna ruin the next 48 hours of my life. And really I took that for granted. I didn't even know how much of a privilege that was until it was gone. My gastritis didn't just show up on a random day. It started during probably the most stressful season of my life. I had just moved from Jamaica to France, and on paper that sounds exciting, but it was a lot (maybe too much). I had to handle a new country, new people, new culture, new food, new everything, ON MY OWN. And I didn't have my family there, so for a long time I felt lonely in a way I don't even know how to put into words. I was obviously stressed but I didn't call it that back then. I just told myself "this is life, I'll be fine" and kept pushing through (gotta thug it out as they say lol). And because I didn't know how to actually process what I was feeling, I coped the easiest way I knew how: EATING FOOD. Fast foods, Skittles, ice cream, coffee, gummy bears, pizzas, juicy seafood and so much more. Anything that gave me comfort in the moment, I went for it (literally ate the whole thing). But slowly my stomach started fighting back. First it was just random bloating here and there. Then this burning feeling. Then nausea, then pressure, then this heavy, irritated feeling that basically never left. And the more it happened, the more scared I got. Food went from being something I enjoyed to something I had to mentally prepare for (horrible feeling btw). I'd eat and immediately start wondering if I'd made a mistake. Sometimes I'd be hungry but the thought of eating made me anxious because I knew the burning or bloating could come right back. I lost my appetite. I lost weight. I lost a ton of energy. And little by little I lost the version of me that used to just feel normal. That's honestly one of the hardest parts of gastritis that people don't get. It's not just stomach pain, it completely changes how you live. You start avoiding restaurants. You stop looking forward to food. You cancel plans because your stomach feels off. You sit there while everyone else eats whatever they want, and you're just wondering why your body can't be normal again. And when people haven't been through it, they don't always get it. Some think you're exaggerating, some think it's "just anxiety," some think you're being dramatic. But when your stomach feels like it's literally burning from the inside, and you're scared to eat, and you're losing weight, and you wake up already worried about your symptoms, it doesn't 'just' feel dramatic. It feels EXHAUSTING. I went to doctors, I took the meds, I tried to do what I was told. Some stuff helped a little, some didn't. Some doctors explained things, some barely said anything at all. Honestly there were times I felt like I was just being handed pills without actually understanding what was happening in my own body. So eventually I had to start figuring it out for myself. But even then I made so many mistakes. I'd feel better for a few days and think I was fully healed, so I'd go right back to eating like normal. I tried random gut health trends because I was desperate. I would Google every single symptom until I scared myself half to death. I stressed about healing so much that I probably made my stomach worse just from that. And every flare-up felt like starting over from zero again. That cycle went on for years. Some seasons were better than others. Some weeks gave me hope, but other weeks made me cry because I genuinely wondered if I'd ever eat normally again. Or even 'be' normal again. But at some point I realized I couldn't keep treating gastritis like something one random remedy or one good week of discipline was gonna fix. I had to actually change how I treated my body, how I treated my mind, how I treated my life and so I simplified everything. I started paying attention to what actually triggered me. I stopped forcing foods my stomach clearly wasn't ready for. I got more consistent with bland meals. I started leaning on natural remedies. I took stress way more seriously, and I stopped pretending my mental health had nothing to do with my stomach. And slowly, things got better. Not overnight, not perfectly, but little by little my stomach calmed down. My appetite came back. The burning happened less. The bloating wasn't constant anymore. I had more energy and stopped thinking about my stomach every second of the day. After years of ups and downs, I FINALLY healed. Now I can go to restaurants again, enjoy food, travel, eat with people, and just live without feeling trapped by my own stomach. Do I still pay attention to what I eat? Obviously. Do I still get a little gastritis PTSD with certain foods? Lol, absolutely, sometimes I'll eat something and pause for a second like "please don't betray me." But the difference now is I'm not living in fear anymore.