I forgot to say, what also helped was accepting this and also pushing myself to not be scared when trying new foods. That if a flare up happened, then I have my heating pad and sucralfate to help.

This is just as much a mental as it is a physical battle. I am by no means healed but have learned to recognize my signs.

You can very easily get trapped in a circle of anxiety over what you eat and analyzing everything your stomach does. Making you forever dependent on bland food which leads to unhealthy weight loss which can probably damage your stomach even more.

@Tos -- Good for you. Glad you are on the mend as you have lived with this long enough.

I think what a lot of us lack is confidence. I am now scared of many things, one of them being food....

yogurt will counteract the chemical that creates the spicy ting.
I gave up spicy stuff before gastritis diagnosis and being on meds.
.
its worse than alcohol for me.

I guess I spoke too soon. Started a flare up this past Saturday and it has continued to get worse. A lot of my old symptoms are back and what's even worse is that now even safe foods like bananas and crackers feel like glass shards to my stomach. I am hoping this is just a 1 month set-back.

It feels like none if my medication are even helping now.

hi TOS,

Did you do anything different to cause the flare? The good news is that it is a flare, and it will get better just like it did before. Just take it easy and avoid the stress.... you have told me this many times.... I think you know what to do... but do remember that it will pass.

I think the worst of it might be over. Still a little sore and crampy but I think the legitimate stomach pain I was feeling is over.

I think the stress of a heavy workload this week may have caused my stomach problems because I had been fretting about it since the 1st.

I think the hardest for any of us is moderation and pacing ourselves when we see big improvement. We either over eat or eat the wrong foods etc.
With regard to the spicy meals, are these home cooked? I made sure I could eat chilli and the hot things at home before I braved eating out. I know how hard it is as I too made boo boos along the way. Will keep doing that as long as I'm human I guess.
You mentioned stress. This can unleash untold horrors of pain. I'm sure losing even safe foods will be short lived. I have experienced that several times.
I felt as though I'd lost everything I worked so hard for.
I pray this flare up is short lived.

I think it is, today and yesterday I had eaten a banana and it no longer felt like glass shards. Same with certain cooked chicken and veggies.

I unfortunately did not with the spicy cooked meals. My Mom has a sensitive stomach, imagine that, but no gastritis or anything so she is careful with spices and seasoning so you could say she was always prepared for something like this.

I sadly think stress was the biggest factor in this developing. Just unrelenting for over 6 months. You can't escape it but you can choose how to react to it and unfortunately I made the big mistake of dwelling on it rather than being reactive or even pro-active.

It sounds cheesy but positive affirmations help like I told myself this weekend will be better and it was and I know next weekend will be even better.