Trouble eating?

[anna_0range]

Have any of you ever had problems eating before?

Latley ive had a real problem eating anything that may cause my saliva to be thicker. It makes me feel like i cant breath and i start to feel anxiouse...So latley i havent been eating that much. Or in little praportions. Very little.

Has anyone had anxiety set off from eating before? Share with me. Please?

[square]

Oh yeah.

Once the anxiety turns my body "on" I won't even think about eating for at least a day. Then when I do eat, I get cotton mouth and can't finish a meal. Then it's at least a week of one meal a day of maybe 1200 calories.

Not good.

When I do feel like eating, I bulk the hell up cause I know it's coming off again sometime soon. Not a good way to deal with it, not healthy. And I have used meds solely to regain appetite and weight.

I'm working toward a sensible balance.

[punkgod94]

I can't say that I've had eating troubles while on medications, but here's an analogy for you...in World War II they would give troops amphetamines to keep their bodies and minds awake and alert so they could keep pushing forward. A side effect of amphetamines is loss of appetite. Your body gets SO worked up or focused on ANYTHING that eating becomes secondary to the "fight or flight" response you get from anxiety (or amphetamines in my prior analogy). It's easy to forget to eat when you've got other stuff on your mind. Food intake (weight gain/loss) can also be affected from depression and the medications they give you to help that. So no, it's not uncommon at all to have a less than usual appetite. Just make sure you eat something even if you don't want to because if you don't eat regular meals (even small ones) your blood sugars will go haywire and could potentially make you MORE anxious. So keep a log for yourself...it'll help see what changes you have and when they happen.

[anna_0range]

Its not i have a loss of appitite. I get hungry...It that i CANT eat.

Ill hungry, so ill go to eat. But if what im eating happens to make me feel like i have flem or thicker saliva i start to get anxiouse and i stop eating before i have an aniety attack.

[punkgod94]

Try eating foods that don't make your mouth feel as thick with phlegm. And take small bites. Nobody's saying you can't have a steak, but maybe it'll comfort you if you take very small bites at a time. And be sure to chew thoroughly. If you do that you won't choke. Also keep in mind that in general you DO get more saliva when you eat. It's possible that because you have anxiety now that you're REALIZING something that you never realized before. It's like walking into your bedroom. There's a LOT of things in your room but because you're in it everyday, you start to take it for granted and your mind says its no longer relevent to pay attention to anymore. You may just be noticing it more now because of the anxiety. Relax and eat slow and small and I guarantee you that nothing bad will happen to you.

[anna_0range]

yeah you make a very good point. Knowing that aspect will help me out alot. The more i know about where my feelings come from makes it easier for me to over come them.

I get very worried for my heath seeing as how im vegan. So i have to make sure i get all my vitamens aside from my multi v to stay healthy. And when it come time to at cereal in the morning and i dread it...It poses a problem. :?

[punkgod94]

There's nothing wrong with a vegan diet at all, and some people SWEAR that it makes them feel better healthwise (mental and physical). I'd definitely take multi vitamins though and make sure you're receiving the proper amounts of food. I'm sure PETAs website has plenty of information as well as recipes on there to help you. So being vegan can be very healthy if you get your other nutrients in foods that are vegan friendly. But you're right, the more you KNOW about something the easier it is to overcome the anxiety caused by it :)

[northstar]

hi anna_Orange :)

punkgod94 has given you excellent advice! taking a multivitamin is definitely a good plan. There is a liquid one you can take called Floradix that i'm pretty sure is all made from plants so it would suit you as a vegan. also because it's liquid it just goes straight down so you don't have to try swallowing a tablet since eating is so hard for you right now. you can usually buy floradix in health food shops, ask about it at the counter.

i must ask, have you always been vegan? or is it a recent thing? and have you suffered with anxiety a long time, or is it something that may have come along after you started on your vegan diet? it is possible that there is a link, but obviously i could be totally wrong about that too! if you're recently vegan and you haven't quite worked out the balance of getting all the right nutrients from your new diet yet then it could possibly be a source of anxiety for you. if our bodies are lacking in nutrients it can effect our nervous system and cause all kinds of things like anxiety and panic. but it's easily fixed by making sure you get all the nutrients your body needs through food and supplements :) it's possible, and i'm only throwing out theories here, that you first felt the anxiety/panic when you were eating. because it happened at that particular time you then associated the feeling of panic with eating and saliva production in your mouth and began to panic whenever you felt the same thick saliva feeling instead of knowing that it's possible the panic was just a normal physical reaction to a lack of nutrients. does that make sense??? i'm just theorising.

as far as i know vegan diets can be really great for you :) so i'm not saying don't be vegan, i'm just saying follow punkgod's advice and make sure you're getting all the right nutrients. make sure you stay away from sugary things and too much caffeine too, although being vegan your diet is probably pretty healthy :) i know it's hard for you to eat at the moment, but just remember that not eating is just as bad for anxiety as eating the wrong things. not eating can mess with your blood sugar levels and basically cause your body to produce adrenaline which can again result in panic.

so, i've wafflled a lot here lol. basically, do your best to eat. listen to what punkgod says about how saliva works and eating good food slowly and making sure you take a good multi vitamin. you may also like to talk to a counsellor about your fears, that can really help too.

i hope you begin to feel better soon, anxiety really sucks i know, but you have lots of support here :) at the bottom i've posted some nutrition links for you to look at if you like:

http://www.anxietynetwork.com.au/Treatm ... atment.htm (http://www.anxietynetwork.com.au/Treatment/Nutrition/treatment.htm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN-Cf2HGl9c

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 724ca5c8d6 (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.showvids&friendID=40586223&n=40586223&MyToken=d54dabb4-a8f8-47d2-8763-61724ca5c8d6)

[Robbed]

Here's something else to consider. NOBODY says you must eat three meals a day. If you are having problems eating a full meal, it might be better for you to eat more, smaller meals throughout the day. Also, if you have problems with eating foods that consist of lots of stuff mixed together, eating more frequent meals allows you to consume a variety of foods without having to eat them all at once.

[anna_0range]

No, being vegan has nothing to do with my anxiety issues. Ive been a vegitarian for the past 3-4 years. And pretty much vegan for about 10 months now..

My anxiety issues really started in about june or july...So there pretty new.

Im well aware of the diet i should be on, and yes i take a multi-v every day. Its a complete multi vitamen that supports energy metabolism just because i road bike multiple miles through out the week. And work out frequently. Also, i stay away from caffiene completly. My heart rate is healthy for my age. its about 60-64 beats per minuet.

I appreciate all of your concern and advice, its helpfull, although in this case I know it doesnt have anything to do with my diet. Its more of a mental thing that i need to over come. Im going with, sence my body is on high alert right now im NOW realizing that my saliva gradually gets thicker as i eat, and because i notice it, conimplate it, analyze it, and pretty much constantly think about it i trick myself into thinking its an issue, and feeling like i cant breath and that somthing is wrong.

Thank you robbed for the reminder. Ill try snacking more thought out the day. :)

[anna_0range]

By the way. Im 17, 18 in 3 months. ;)

[northstar]

well it's good news that you're taking such good care of yourself anna, getting all that biking exercise in too sounds great :D i'm sorry i tend to go on about diet an awful lot, only because my own experience with anxiety was solved by diet and i would have killed to get that information a bit earlier!

perhaps you might like to tell us a bit more about your experience with anxiety? it may give a clearer picture. what was happening in your life at the time that it started? did stress trigger it or were things realively ok? the reason i ask these things is because there are so many things that can trigger anxiety. i'm not sure i really believe that one day an anxiety disorder can just start out of absolutely nowhere, i believe there is usually a reason or a trigger of some kind that starts
it off, be it physical or mental, and once anxiety starts it practically feeds its self,draining our systems and wearing us down so we feel even more anxious or depressed.

i could be totally wrong, i'm just someone who went through it and has learned a lot, but i'm not an expert, i just try to share what i think and feel :)

my own anxiety was triggered by a reaction to birth control pills that i had been on for over 2 years and an illness where i couldn't eat very much for several weeks. to cut a long story short: over the 2 years that i was taking those pills i began to get anxious (although i had always worried a bit more than others, i wasn't an anxious
person) and depressed and started seeing a counsellor. when i got sick i began having panic attacks and major anxiety and everything went downhill really quickly. my doctor thought i was just suffering with a panic disorder, she wanted to put me on anti-depressants and have me hospitalised (i was suicidal and really very desperate). thankfully she was willing to let me try other methods before going on the meds! so i began a slow very tentative recovery, and eventually made my way back to a much happier, healthier life :)

i discovered, quite a bit into my recovery, that the birth control pills that i had been on for those 2 years can actually slowly cause something called adrenal fatigue. as far as i know it's not medically accepted that the pills do this, but SO many other women have had the exact same experience as me that it seems likely. the pills coupled with a very stressful job really wore me out. also birth control pills have a tendancy to deplete essential B vitamins in womens bodies, this is an important vitamin to keep our nervous system working, a lack of it can result in anxiety and panic. then the illness knocked me off my feet and i couldn't eat for a month and basically messed my whole system up. eventually i learned about something called hypoglycemia. it's a symptom of adrenal fatigue, and it fit me to a t! so i learned all about fatigue, hypoglycemia and how to eat properly to keep my blood sugars happy and made a really great recovery over weeks and months. me today compared to me a year ago is an unbelieveable difference!

i had to figure out all that stuff for myself, my doctors never once mentioned nutrition or diet or birth control, it's like they don't really know what to do with anxiety except to stick people on meds sometimes. my own dad has been on meds all his life, his doctor has never gotten him to try anything else like counselling or exercise programmes or nutrition (he has an AWFUL diet, i swear if he cut out all the tea and coke he drinks he'd feel miles better!). so now he depends on xanax to get through most days and recognises that he is addicted but feels powerless to do anything about it, it's so terrible to see someone i love so much suffer so badly.

i still have to be careful to eat properly, too much sugar or processed foods and i'm anxious again. but now that i know what the problem is, i don't panic when i feel those heart palpitations or the knots in my stomach. i just know i have to get back on the nutrition wagon and i'll be fine again :)

so looking back at your life over the last while may give you a clue about why the anxiety started. maybe it's best not to over-analyse it, but you may find clues you hadn't thought of before like the way those pills affected me. another good idea is to go to a counsellor and talk about it, it can help you to unravel why you're feeling anxious, i found it very helpful when it came to dealing with my stressful job and irrational worrying. it can also help to learn about how anxiety works, why it
affects your body the way that it does, i found that knowing about it really helped me to stay calmer when it came along.

ok i've gone on for waaaaaaaaaaay longer than i intended to lol! all i basically wanted to say was that it can help to look at changes in your life around the time your anxiety started. stresses, medications you may have been on, new things you might have started eating or any of that kind of stuff. i hope you start to feel better soon :)