So I have been celiac for about 8 years. Very positive blood test and biopsy and I have felt so much better once I switched to a GF diet. I don't know how common it is, but the slightest contamination of gluten will make me very sick. It's easy to be careful at home, and my own food never gets me sick, but restaurants and eating at people's houses scare me.

People get mad at me because I will only go to a handful of restaurants because I know they are safe and have things like a gluten-free fryer or separate prep areas. I wouldn't say these are my favorite restaurants, and if I had more choices I'd go elsewhere, but I don't want to get sick or go somewhere that doesn't take cross-contamination seriously. I'm very weary of going to a new place that doesn't have a gf menu or gf items marked. It's always challenging communicating my needs to the waiter, and often they don't understand and I end up sick.

going to people's houses is even more of a risk. I feel like a jerk refusing food because I don't know how safe it is. Sometimes people even try to go out of their way for me, and make something special, but have a poor understanding and do things like use the same knife to cut the gluten and gluten free version, or use regular soy sauce not knowing it has gluten, So I feel like I have to interrogate them, and often I'm just not comfortable eating their food and I will bring my own.

Maybe I'm being too sensitive about it. People tell me I'm so difficult, and that they don't want to include me because of it. I recently went to a gathering with some family that was hosted by some people I don't know that well, and they made a big embarrassing scene about how I was "too good" to eat their food.

It just pisses me off so much that people get mad at me when I don't particularly want to be this way. Do they think I like eating sandy gross gluten free products that cost 3x more than the regular version? That I enjoy going to the same handful of restaurants and ordering the same things every time because gf choices are always limited even at restaurants that take it seriously. I don't want this.