Anxiety & eating . advice? Tips ?

[hippieebbbz09]

Hi

I have such a ridiculous issue with eating , I love to eat though. I love food . But it's a struggle to eat. I have acid reflux too which makes it a struggle to eat , but anxiety adds on stress. For example, I ate some pasta earlier with tomato sauce & basil , with chicken meatballs. While eating , I'm already burping like crazy & the back of my head is aching , like it would if it was tense ..& in this case I'm guessing it was . It had me all panicky , I winded up throwing my dinner away :/ . Anyone else have eating issues, caused by their anxiety &/ or acid reflux. I'm not sure if a post is already on here discussing this , either by me or someone else . If so , feel free to let me know , as my anxious mind does get the best of me lol . Like post the link if you do know of a post similar to this lol. But I posted this simply for advice & support for me & im willing to , of course , send kind words to anyone else who has issues with this . It sucks . Lol

[Twinkle333]

Yes my issue with eating is the fact that once I've eaten my heart races and it makes me panic because of that so much so I've lost a lot of weight and hardly eat anything I do try to eat but anxiety makes it so difficult for me

[Hidden]

This is a new symptom for me. Iam scared to eat smh. It sucks i eat and after i do my heart starts to race and makes me sick to my stomach it makes me very nauseous. Health anxiety sucks!!!

[Bramwell]

I too love my food but now I have the tight throat problem.

As food goes into my mouth and I chew my throat tightens and I struggle to swallow properly. I get a cramp/pain from the tight muscles as the food goes down which makes me more tense and the cycle goes on.

Sometimes I feel fine and I don't have any problems but as soon as I think about it back comes the wave of tightness.

I've had it before but not this bad, and at the moment my life is very stressed, so the two do seem to go hand in hand.

[anxiousamber83]

Yes I have been there! I lost 20 lbs and couldn't eat more than two bites. My stomach burned intensely and I thought I had a gallbladder issue or an ulcer. I burped all the time. The burning started around lunch and wouldn't stop till I went to bed. Like heartburn but in the stomach. I tried everything. Nothing helped. I lost so much weight that people were making comments and that made it worse for me. It scared me. I became so scared of what was wrong with me that it made things even worse. I would throw my dinner out too. My heart raced all the time! I also suffered from an entire list of unbelievable symptoms (trembling, weakness, night terrors, panic attacks, etc.) but the stomach one was the most painful.

Are you seeing a counselor? I would recommend a counselor and doctor if your anxiety is really getting in the way of enjoying life. I say both, because they keep each other in check. The best thing I ever did (which I never thought I'd do) was see an acupuncturist! It was amazing. My symptoms would stop in session! I also did cognitive therapy and a bit of nuero-feedback. All was helpful. Through my experience I learned a lot. Each specialist (yes even the doc) made it clear my body was tapped out from anxiety. A tapped out body is a tired body and digestive problems can follow. It took me a long time to accept that , but after I came to terms with the fact it was anxiety, I got better. I also got on an anti-anxiety. It brought me back. The sever daily burning finally disappeared and hasn't returned. I am back to eating normally. Which I never thought I would be saying that.

Take a log of what you are eating every day. Count the calories. Are you not eating enough right now? It took me doing that for just a week to logically realize I was starving myself from the anxiety, but the anxiety wouldn't let me eat! I was eating about 500 calories a day. And I was breast feeding. Real smart, huh? So I kept a log and forced myself to eat 1500-2000 calories a day for a week. I ate a lot of carbs. It was soooo hard! I thought I would puke. Then after 3 days I felt like a new person. Peanut butter was the best thing. If I couldn't stomach anything I took two spoonfuls of peanut butter every couple of hours. Getting enough calories, sleep, and taming the anxiety will do a lot of the indigestion. Also realize that you have nerves that run through your digestive track. So many anxiety sufferers have some type of digestive issue. It's a powerful connection. Tame the mind and you'll tame the gut.

Also with the burping, you're most likely swallowing air without even knowing it. I know cause I was. I hated it because I never burped like this before this past year. Slow down and take small bites. Stay away from soda from now and try to eat without fluids for now. And after all that, if you burp, you burp. DOn't worry about it. Get the calories and the body in check first. Then you can practice not swallowing air. Which by the way is a common anxiety suffering issue. I was able to stop by closing my mouth and pressing my tongue against the roof of my mouth while breathing through my nose. This made me burp less.

Anyways, just telling you my experience. It all does play into anxiety. Hang in there and listen to your body.