IT WAS WHAT WAS EATING ME, NOT WHAT I ATE

People have been conscienciously seeking to eat a well-balanced diet for decades, as well they should. Consuming roughage-laden grain products and vegetables helps digestion and intestinal motility. Cooking unprocessed food also provides more vitamines and minerals than packaged food does. But even the best diets can be counteracted by what's eating you.

In the autumn of 1981, I began having cramps. The pain became so bad that I was given sick leave from work during the month of September. After seeing my general practicioner, I went to a specialist. I underwent a variety of tests, including a barium X-ray and a colonoscopy. The doctor said one test showed  a positive indication of a parasite of some sort or other in my stool and gave me medicine for it.

The symptoms gradually subsided and I was able to return to work in October. The question still remained in my mind about why I suffered the cramps in the first place. As happens with illnesses, I heard no shortage of unsolicited advice. Friends From Crohn's disease to a lack of roughage, everybody had their own opinion about what was wrong with me.

The elders at the house church I attended at the time were particularly criticle in their judgements about my cramps. Sister Roberta ceised upon the opportunity by firing question after question at me about what I had been eating. Others sitting around the table after Sunday service also gave their dietary pronouncements.

Since I'd been eating whole grain bread and brown rice, Sister Roberta assumed that I must have a demon afflicting me. People gathered around me to  lay their hands on me. As they jabbered in tongues, Sister Roberta rebuked the demon and commanded it to come out. Afterward, when I felt no different, she admonished me to keep my faith up.

At an appointment in December with my specialist, he told me that I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome. A fair number of people suffer from that malady, according to him.

Though my doctor didn't say so, I believe my cramps were brought on by the stress of my job added to the stress of trying to work up my faith to be healed of my poor sight. I haven't had any serious problems since leaving the church and being put on disability by the government in 1995.

I wrote extensively about that house church in my newly-published memoir, How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Please check it out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm.