Eating when Anxious

[GreenDoor]

Hello,

I am going through a bit of a tough time at the moment with anxiety. It's been about 2 weeks and I feel I have the mental symptoms under control (turning negative thoughts around) but not so much the physical. 

It started when I was on holiday in Asia and got sick from the heat. This led to a few days in bed and into feeling miserable.

I cut my trip short as a began to feel really anxious and have been back for about a week now. 

Whilst I was sick I wasn't able to eat much and I still can't. I feel this is what is holding me back now from a full recovery.

Does anyone have some tips of foods to try and eat?

The thought of eating makes me feel anxious and I just sit there with food in front of me staring at it. So far I am managing to eat a couple of bananas a day and a few crackers. Usually eating is my favourite thing!

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

[Zeal]

Hi GreenDoor,

It's a shame you became unwell on your holiday. Now that you've been back for a week and still have trouble eating properly, it's a good idea to check-in with your GP. They can offer you practical advice. It's possible that something you ate in Asia made me unwell. The heat may have contributed to your sickness, rather than being the cause.

Your GP may take a urine sample, for example, to make sure your system is healthy. Sometimes foreign food, which is suitable for the locals to eat, makes tourists sick. This is often just because the water may be of a different quality and/or composition, and so on. If there is some bacteria in your system from your trip (which made you unwell), your doctor will prescribe antibiotics or another medicine to remedy it.

If you haven't been physically sick for more than several days, I think it's very unlikely you will get sick from eating regular meals. Anxiety about eating may make you feel a bit nauseated, but you should be fine if you start reintroducing meals, and eating good quality food. I am definitely not a doctor, but family members have experienced illness from travelling to foreign countries, so I've heard about the effects and what their GP suggested.

I hope you are able to start loving food again!

Take care,

SM

[vixstar]

Hi GreenDoor,

If your lack of appetite is from anxiety and not from an illness overseas, I can totally relate, when I feel anxious I can barely eat a thing and just eat enough to keep myself alive.

Some advice - bananas are awesome - good job I can eat these when I'm anxious they are easy to eat and they provide energy, yoghurt I find good too as it's easy to swallow and sits well in the stomach.

I find nibbling is the best when anxious - crackers like you said, I couldn't think of anything worse than sitting down to a big meal, so I nibble on little things throughout the day to get me through and so your not actually thinking about the eating.

I also let myself eat anything and everything even if its junk food, I let my healthy eating go out the window and eat whatever I feel like, for example hot chips, I always eat these when I'm anxious, you can nibble on them and they are a basic easy to eat food. I'm only eating very small amounts of things so I figure why not? I know its good to eat healthy for your mental well being, however when I get anxious I'm just happy I can eat anything at all so I figure "who cares what it is at least I'm eating."

You will feel weak but just make sure to keep hydrated that's the main thing, our bodies can get by with little food if they are hydrated, Gatorade or water I find the best.

I don't know about you but one positive I take away from my anxiety is a little weight loss from limited eating, I know it's not good but for someone who needs to lose a few kgs it's the only positive I can think of.

I hope this helps you, and hopefully it is just the remainder of a bad overseas bug and things get better soon, you are however not alone, eating when anxious is very difficult as anxiety causes that nauseous stomach feeling.

All the Best!