I do the opposite. When I am really anxious, I eat something healthy, and then my anxiety goes down. Not eating can make you feel anxiety symptoms.

You're right about it being a vicious cycle. If you don't eat enough, your body gets low blood sugar, and then the signs of low blood sugar are the same symptoms as anxiety. I read about this, decades ago.

Try your best to eat. Protein shakes will work. Eat something healthy (not sugar or caffeine though), a few times a day, and you will probably find that your anxiety gets better too. And make sure you are drinking enough water every day. I really think you will feel a lot better if you try this.

Yup, I have this problem in spades and a vicious cycle it is. All the folks who wish they had my problem seem to forget that starvation is a lethal condition. My most intelligent conversations on this subject have been in Spanish with people who have seen starvation culture wide. "First World" doctors seem to be as caught up in anorexic problem envy as the bimbos on the fashion ads.

I've given up on ever having a "Normal" hunger cycle and have been treating nutrition on a purely intellectual basis. My damaged memory makes it all too easy to forget to eat. My first signal that I have forgotten to eat --AGAIN-- is anxiety spikes. I leave my psychotherapy books on the shelf until I have addressed that physical need. I am ever more convinced that physical hunger disables my brain function far enough that I'm kidding myself on being able to absorb books until my brain function has been restored. When I am not eating, I have the intellectual capacity of a drunk or a junkie in need of a fix.

Then we get to the impact starvation has on the digestive tract. . . Kick starting a digestive tract which has shut down is no justy affair. It takes a while to get past the nausea and diarrhea of an incapacitated digestive tract.

Sigh. . .

Gentle emppathy, Needs. A vicious cycle it is, indeed. You **can** control it, and that control makes a huge diff in emotional stability, but that control is far from justy. I wish I could take more comfort in my fashionable figure. I wasn't able to find comfort there when I was young enough to qualify for those fashion model shoots.

As a person who had this particular anxiety symptom, and does NOT have it now, I can successfully state that as Arfie puts it "control" in the sense of ensuring adequate food intake provides energy.

I had to significantly change the way I look at food in order to break the pattern of thoughts, emotions, feelings, words, and choices that surround this situation.

In keeping a private journal, I was able to reset my food anxiety balance to a better level. Each person's experience is individual, so what works for one may create a boomerang for someone else.

The goal for me was specific in that I needed to be able to 'eat' without 'worry' and to be comfortable at the table in a group of people.

That's several separate goals, with a mutual connection, Sitting at a table with a group of people with food present, conversation present, and choices present, is actually more than a single moment of decision.

Taking the time to work through each part, I found what was really creating the 'anxiety' for me was just expressed with 'food' anxiety symptoms.

Here's to finding what works to bring you calm in the moment of 'eating'.

Yes. I struggle with a loss of appetite when my anxiety is really bad too. How long has this lasted for?

I eat a lot with my anxiety. I went from 134lbs to 158lbs to 190lbs. I was on medication for anxiety and depression which increased my appetite. I eat because I think it will give me positive energy, and it never does. It makes me gain weight. I cut out the junk food and I stopped gaining weight. I wish I had a loss of appetite. My weight is bad for my kidneys and metabolism. Thanks for sharing.

I am so sorry for all all of on this forum. I just found out on 4/27/2021! I am also experiencing all the above: anxiety, panicking, cloudy-brain, no appetite, poor sleep, nausea, diarrhea, etc. It is due to the shock one feels when you realize how betrayed you were!

I force myself to eat something with protein at least twice a day. I have gone back to taking medication that I took for vertigo. This medication is mainly used for stress and anxiety. It is starting to help with sleep and clearing the fig in my head.

I just can't accept this is my new reality.

I too forget to eat, that has always been an issue. Combined with anxiety it sometimes takes the form of self sabotage. But in those cases it rarely lasts more than a day or so.

Thank you all for the comments. It helps so much knowing other people know what you are feeling. (((Hugs))) I was back to the dr today. She has started me on different meds to try and calm the anxiety down. She doesn’t feel that my weight loss is that significant but I do. I’m a small person anyway and when you keep losing, it’s scary. The life is sucked out of you. This is the first time that I’ve ever had this happen with anxiety. My anxiety has anxiety and I worry that something else is going on to make me lose weight. I’m just going to try and push myself to eat and drink as much protein as I can. She gave me a goal today.. to gain one pound when I come back in 3 weeks. I also made my first step for counseling today. I start June 1st.

Good for you for talking to your doctor and seeking counseling!

I've struggled with anxiety-related lack of apatite before. It really sucks because then my body is running on adrenaline and it just make the anxiety worse and becomes a vicious cycle. I can think of one situation where this happened in particular where I simply had no apatite due to anxiety and stress for over a week. I was living with my mom at the time and thankfully she believed me and let me just be with my anxiety and stress without making food into a huge issue. It helped a lot just having her understand that I was not intentionally not eating I just had no apatite. I did make a point to have my absolute favorite food around through it even if I could only nibble on even them- I found if it was something I really liked? I'd push myself a bit harder to eat. But really the only thing that helped was once the whole situation abated and then? I was STARVING!

It's happened a number of times for me but that particular instance does stand out.

For me? I've found that the best thing I can do when I have a lack of apatite due to stress and anxiety is to not stress about it- to know that my apatite does eventually come back once I calm down and in the meantime to just keep offering my body food because even a few nibbles is better than nothing. I know everyone is different but, for me, that's what helped- to not add it on as an additional source of pressure and stress.

Best to you! *hugs*

I am having that problem now. Yesterday, I went grocery shopping and did not bother to buy the things I usually get for myself because I did not have an appetite. I have a lot of things on my mind. I try my best not to stress over things or even focus on them but I find it to be hard to do because of the stress going on around me; the sad part is that I have no control over the other person who is suffering from anxiety themselves. Because of the daily stress that is happening in my life, I do not eat, I don't sleep much, and I have not been doing activities that make me happy like reading a good book, listening to good old music. I work my but off.

So yea I suffer from that now.

All of this started in December when all of my sudden I began having these “quivering” feelings in my upper left area of my abdomen. It seemed to be worse when I ate so I stopped eating very much at all. My appetite plummeted from there. This feeling still happens. The dr isn’t trying to find out why this happening. They have related everything to anxiety. I have added a new symptom in the last few days and it’s that my head is feeling really crazy. That scares me. I woke up like that this morning. It’s hard to describe. It’s almost like an airy feeling in your head and not thinking right.

I know it's hard, but try your best to eat something nutritious (not caffeine or sugar, to start). At the very least, have 8 glasses of water or liquid such as fruit juice, per day.

A long time ago, I wasn't eating much, and I felt crummy all around, every single day. My doctor was saying I was going to have low blood sugar and that I need to eat 6 small meals a day. Well, obviously I can't eat 6 times a day, but I did start eating 3 meals a day, and it helped my symptoms so much. Helps with weakness, anxiety, foggy brain, insomnia, digestive issues, etc.

Not eating much will make anxiety worse.

Our bodies need fuel! Try your best to eat, and see if you don't feel so much better (I think you will!). And hydrate.