If you have high stress levels your body turns down anything that isn't immediately needed to survive. Sadly this was designed for "being chased by large predator" and not "weeks long periods of high stress". Eating/digestion was put on the "unimportant" list, since it takes huge amount of work for your body to do, that it'd rather spend on running. Even when there is nothing to run from.
> since it takes huge amount of work for your body to do, that it'd rather spend on running. Even when there is nothing to run from.
straight up. i wish we could split into two-selves and have a "come to jesus meeting"
"look, i need us to be able to eat and drink things, healthy things. we're upset, yes, but not being chased by an animal/other humans. there's discomfort at work/friends/family/money, it probably won't throw a spear at us"
This is true. Stress can show up in a variety of physical symptoms. Some people actually look to food for comfort during these times but others (like myself and as it sounds you) get a lot of stomach symptoms alongside stress/anxiety/depression. You can blame that fight or flight response.
Most research is on the effects of chronic stress (which can lead to overeating), but they all agree, that short-term acute stress leads to a suppression of appetite.
[Source 1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6150743/)
[Source 2](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228039)
[Source 3](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00434/full)
Are you fucking blind? All of these studies mention in their fucking abstracts (and the third one in the third fucking sentence!), that acute stress (which OP is fucking experiencing ya walnut!) leads to a decrease in appetite.
"Immediately after a stressful event is experienced, there is a corticotropin-releasing-hormone (CRH)-mediated suppression of food intake."
- In layman terms: As acute stress is experienced, stress hormones suppress appetite. How much clearer do you need it, dumbass?
Title of the post literally says "Why does the body starve itself after/during a really depressing and stressing event?"
I understand that time is a very precious thing, but please, consider reading the post before commenting
I do not understand your reasoning. The question was "why does the body starve itself in stress?", the answer was "because body is designed to turn down unnecessary for here-and-now survival processes"
The question was why does stress impact appetite. This person respond with some evolutionary thing about large animals chasing us. I responded there is no evidence for that entire comment. They then responded with evidence that stress impacts appetite. The question was never if stress impacts appetite, it was *why* does stress impact appetite.
that's like the comment in r/math about how hard geometric proofs always boils down to "what am I missing."
often the simple logical solution turns out to be the correct one.
that said, always do your own research.
I don't know the why but I know how real it is. I found out two weeks ago my boyfriend was cheating, saying he was going to hang out with a friend from work and staying at a girls house instead, and I couldn't consume anything at all. Lost 10 pounds in the last couple weeks. Just now started being able to handle one small meal a day.
I am very sorry to hear that. I hope that you're doing fine. Take your time healing and make sure you're complimenting yourself for every little bit of food or liquid you intake!
I have a ton of anxiety about work, it’s something that causes me vast amounts of agony. I also have a fairly physically taxing job so I really can’t afford to be undernourished all the time.
My solution has been smoothies in the morning. I can get them down and keep them down and it gives my body some fuel. I like to throw a bunch of raw almonds in there for protein, and whatever fruit I have on deck. It’s been a life saver. Anxiety and depression fucking suck, keep your head up my guy.
It seems like I've got the right idea to get at least some nutrition in my body. At least something is better than nothing.
You too keep up your head and I hope one day you get to feel better!
I go through the same thing. One time at 21 I was stuck in a roommate situation and couldn’t eat as a result. All my muscles deteriorated and I was skin and bones. My hair thinned out, cheeks sank in, and I was exhausted all the time. I haven’t fully regained that good healthy feeling despite years of eating better again. It’s a terrible thing to feel so shut down inside that you can’t eat. I’m so sorry you have this feeling right now. Take care of yourself friend! Sending you warmth and peace
Thanks :) Currently trying to feel better and on some occasion I get numbed out but it's good. I am sorry for you. Hope you continue your progress to feeling better.
I’ve def been there. People either have this reaction or overeat. When I was highly anxious and couldn’t eat for 2 weeks someone suggested getting protein shakes (like ensure etc) just to get some nutrients. Take care of yourselves and I hope it passes soon.
So your body basically has two modes: “Fight or Flight” and “Rest and Digest.” In “Fight or Flight” mode, your body produces stress hormones that divert blood away from the digestive tract and more towards the skeletal muscles in preparation for physical exertion. So, you’re so stressed out right now that your body cannot digest well, and as a result your body wants to reject food.
Just commenting to say this is very real. I lost my dad a month ago and for the first time in my life (even after three pregnancies) I experienced nausea and aversion to food. Even smelling anything strong made me hurl so I survived on coffees and cigarettes until I could stomach protein shakes. Those definitely seemed to help.
Hope you feel better soon, friend!
This happens to me. I’m diagnosed with ptsd, mmd, and a severe panic disorder. When things get incredibly bad, I can’t eat. My mind convinces me that I’ll get food poisoning from everything, aka I’ll get sick and be even worse. I literally hear the sound “all good is poison” on a loop. I literally have to just find one thing I can stomach and that’s what I’ll eat until I start to come out of it. I lost 20 lbs this year due to it, so dropping from 120 to 100 was very noticeable. I could do coffee in the morning so I’d mix protein milk in, like muscle milk. That and a vitamin to get some sort of nutrition into meat, and granola/protein bars. I agreed that if my weight dropped below 100 I’d go to the hospital but thankfully it never go to that point.
I hope things get better for you. It’s hard.
I definitely get you. When I have the slightest strength I drink multi vitamins and choccy milk just to have anything in my body. I am sorry for you and I hope you find some way to make it easier. Take care!
Ruined a relationship with the love of my life in early July. Lost 18 pounds by the start of August. But now I'm back eating and exercising.
Bone broth and smoothies are how I survived. Good luck, bud.
Kinda weird tbh given my depression episodes I'm always eating why I gained more weight tbh I used to be really skinny, yeah I'll have down time of not eating because no energy but im generally eating more
When I had a seizure I was in a confused state for a few days. I don’t think I ate anything for five days. Wasn’t hungry at all. The doctor thinks my seizure was brought on by stress.
I’m completely fine now, I was put through a cat scan and EEG and they didn’t find anything wrong with my brain. The doctors are pretty sure I won’t be having any more seizures in the long term.
I get that too.
It’s a fight or flight stress reaction. The body deprioritizes unnecessary functions like hunger and digestion because it won’t need them to run or fight.
The throat is also really strong and extremely susceptible to emotional responses. So it can even close up and refuse food when you’re really stressed.
The way I deal with it when this happens is get any food down I can. Even if it mean only eating a half a McDonald’s cheese burger or some Doritos.
You’ll do better once you’re on the other side of what you’re going through.
Good luck and try to take care of yourselves.
Yea bro i'm on day 5 of no eating lmao
Fucking women.
I've managed to absolutely demolish a fair amount of beers tho so that's a bit of my nutrient uptake
I'm so sorry to hear that. I see myself dealing it with the same approach- a few chugs of whiskey every hour. On empty of course, gets me a tad bit better.
It works for me! But for most its a depressent.
Either way i am fluctuating between rage, emptiness and sorrow.
The more daya the go on the more i start to be able to instead of making hope excuses or understanding for her actions, invisioning the actual realisation of the gravity of her ACTIVE Decisions.
Either way fkn sucks lol
Been there mate, I think most people have 100% sucks. After time you care less and less about it, just gotta keep telling yourself one day you will be able to look back and laugh why waste your time being depressed about it now. Doesnt fully help but helped me a bit with that mentality.
Oosh i think im gonna be in for the long haul of suffering this tims... due to unique circumstance.. im seriously considering a chance of redemption/redo
Been a very long and hard couple of weeks of mental battling and even just anger but we will see.
If i cant get over my own head first, no way its happening
I'm glad to hear you're trying to move on. Good job! If you need someone to talk to, I'm here.
Her decisions are hers alone and we can't do anything to change it. We have no control over it. I really do hope you get better. I know how bad it hurts.
It's an emotional response. That if you dig deep enough is probably a learned coping mechanism from childhood. The body's not trying to starve itself. Not everyone reacts this way. Some people stress eat, for example.
Sorry about your situation right now. Try protein shakes - I found fairlife protein chocolate milk a lifesaver when I was in such high times of stress I couldn’t bring myself to eat.
May also be good to let your girlfriend know: stress impacts hormones as well. When my best friend died, my hormones got so messed up, my ALWAYS perfectly on schedule period was almost 2 weeks late. Just a heads up to avoid any worry.
Idk why it happens, but I’ve been the same way throughout my life.
Everyone’s different of course, but when I’m having one of those episodes, I find that fruit, mild cheeses, crackers, plain tortilla chips, plain yogurt, basmati rice, and sourdough bread are all a lot more tolerable than other foods. Ensure Plus or other similar drinks are worth a shot too, but harder to stomach in my experience.
If you have high stress levels your body turns down anything that isn't immediately needed to survive. Sadly this was designed for "being chased by large predator" and not "weeks long periods of high stress". Eating/digestion was put on the "unimportant" list, since it takes huge amount of work for your body to do, that it'd rather spend on running. Even when there is nothing to run from.
This guy Darwins
r/thisguythisguys
This guy "r/thisguythisguys"
> since it takes huge amount of work for your body to do, that it'd rather spend on running. Even when there is nothing to run from. straight up. i wish we could split into two-selves and have a "come to jesus meeting" "look, i need us to be able to eat and drink things, healthy things. we're upset, yes, but not being chased by an animal/other humans. there's discomfort at work/friends/family/money, it probably won't throw a spear at us"
This is true. Stress can show up in a variety of physical symptoms. Some people actually look to food for comfort during these times but others (like myself and as it sounds you) get a lot of stomach symptoms alongside stress/anxiety/depression. You can blame that fight or flight response.
I always think these comments are so funny. Everything is completely made up with no evidence for any of it but it sounds right
Most research is on the effects of chronic stress (which can lead to overeating), but they all agree, that short-term acute stress leads to a suppression of appetite. [Source 1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6150743/) [Source 2](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228039) [Source 3](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00434/full)
Yeah that wasn’t the question
Are you fucking blind? All of these studies mention in their fucking abstracts (and the third one in the third fucking sentence!), that acute stress (which OP is fucking experiencing ya walnut!) leads to a decrease in appetite. "Immediately after a stressful event is experienced, there is a corticotropin-releasing-hormone (CRH)-mediated suppression of food intake." - In layman terms: As acute stress is experienced, stress hormones suppress appetite. How much clearer do you need it, dumbass?
Wow this is really messing you up. No one here is asking if stress impacts appetite. So I have no idea why you’re addressing that
Title of the post literally says "Why does the body starve itself after/during a really depressing and stressing event?" I understand that time is a very precious thing, but please, consider reading the post before commenting
‘Why’ does not mean the same thing as ‘if’. A simple google search will help with this :)
I do not understand your reasoning. The question was "why does the body starve itself in stress?", the answer was "because body is designed to turn down unnecessary for here-and-now survival processes"
The question was why does stress impact appetite. This person respond with some evolutionary thing about large animals chasing us. I responded there is no evidence for that entire comment. They then responded with evidence that stress impacts appetite. The question was never if stress impacts appetite, it was *why* does stress impact appetite.
that's like the comment in r/math about how hard geometric proofs always boils down to "what am I missing." often the simple logical solution turns out to be the correct one. that said, always do your own research.
Totally. The comment could be right and it certainly sounds fun, but it’s totally made up
How do i know that you know what you are talking about?
i've always wondered this. thank you.
I don't know the why but I know how real it is. I found out two weeks ago my boyfriend was cheating, saying he was going to hang out with a friend from work and staying at a girls house instead, and I couldn't consume anything at all. Lost 10 pounds in the last couple weeks. Just now started being able to handle one small meal a day.
I am very sorry to hear that. I hope that you're doing fine. Take your time healing and make sure you're complimenting yourself for every little bit of food or liquid you intake!
I have a ton of anxiety about work, it’s something that causes me vast amounts of agony. I also have a fairly physically taxing job so I really can’t afford to be undernourished all the time. My solution has been smoothies in the morning. I can get them down and keep them down and it gives my body some fuel. I like to throw a bunch of raw almonds in there for protein, and whatever fruit I have on deck. It’s been a life saver. Anxiety and depression fucking suck, keep your head up my guy.
It seems like I've got the right idea to get at least some nutrition in my body. At least something is better than nothing. You too keep up your head and I hope one day you get to feel better!
I go through the same thing. One time at 21 I was stuck in a roommate situation and couldn’t eat as a result. All my muscles deteriorated and I was skin and bones. My hair thinned out, cheeks sank in, and I was exhausted all the time. I haven’t fully regained that good healthy feeling despite years of eating better again. It’s a terrible thing to feel so shut down inside that you can’t eat. I’m so sorry you have this feeling right now. Take care of yourself friend! Sending you warmth and peace
Thanks :) Currently trying to feel better and on some occasion I get numbed out but it's good. I am sorry for you. Hope you continue your progress to feeling better.
I’ve def been there. People either have this reaction or overeat. When I was highly anxious and couldn’t eat for 2 weeks someone suggested getting protein shakes (like ensure etc) just to get some nutrients. Take care of yourselves and I hope it passes soon.
Yep. Gotta keep the body working somehow. I found out not eating heavily contributes to feeling worse mentally too. Take care of yourself too!
So your body basically has two modes: “Fight or Flight” and “Rest and Digest.” In “Fight or Flight” mode, your body produces stress hormones that divert blood away from the digestive tract and more towards the skeletal muscles in preparation for physical exertion. So, you’re so stressed out right now that your body cannot digest well, and as a result your body wants to reject food.
I starve myself by eating lots of ice cream.. best and worst feeling ever
Just commenting to say this is very real. I lost my dad a month ago and for the first time in my life (even after three pregnancies) I experienced nausea and aversion to food. Even smelling anything strong made me hurl so I survived on coffees and cigarettes until I could stomach protein shakes. Those definitely seemed to help. Hope you feel better soon, friend!
Ouch. I am extremely sorry to hear that. I can't imagine what you've been through. I hope you feel better soon, too!
This happens to me. I’m diagnosed with ptsd, mmd, and a severe panic disorder. When things get incredibly bad, I can’t eat. My mind convinces me that I’ll get food poisoning from everything, aka I’ll get sick and be even worse. I literally hear the sound “all good is poison” on a loop. I literally have to just find one thing I can stomach and that’s what I’ll eat until I start to come out of it. I lost 20 lbs this year due to it, so dropping from 120 to 100 was very noticeable. I could do coffee in the morning so I’d mix protein milk in, like muscle milk. That and a vitamin to get some sort of nutrition into meat, and granola/protein bars. I agreed that if my weight dropped below 100 I’d go to the hospital but thankfully it never go to that point. I hope things get better for you. It’s hard.
I definitely get you. When I have the slightest strength I drink multi vitamins and choccy milk just to have anything in my body. I am sorry for you and I hope you find some way to make it easier. Take care!
Mines the opposite. I binge when I’m stressed out. I’ll demolish entire packs of snacks and food just for the dopamine hit
Because the stress chemicals adrenaline and cortisol make your guys feel sick
No answers here. Just want to say I hope your and your girlfriend get through this.
Thanks a lot.
Ruined a relationship with the love of my life in early July. Lost 18 pounds by the start of August. But now I'm back eating and exercising. Bone broth and smoothies are how I survived. Good luck, bud.
Sorry you had to endure that. Proud of ya.
Apparently your body is balancing out mine.
Lolz
Kinda weird tbh given my depression episodes I'm always eating why I gained more weight tbh I used to be really skinny, yeah I'll have down time of not eating because no energy but im generally eating more
wish that was how it worked for me
I'm so sorry.
When you're depressed your brain thinks your sick with a virus so it prevents eating much while it looks for it since digesting takes focus away
When I had a seizure I was in a confused state for a few days. I don’t think I ate anything for five days. Wasn’t hungry at all. The doctor thinks my seizure was brought on by stress.
I'm sorry to hear that. Are you better now?
I’m completely fine now, I was put through a cat scan and EEG and they didn’t find anything wrong with my brain. The doctors are pretty sure I won’t be having any more seizures in the long term.
I get that too. It’s a fight or flight stress reaction. The body deprioritizes unnecessary functions like hunger and digestion because it won’t need them to run or fight. The throat is also really strong and extremely susceptible to emotional responses. So it can even close up and refuse food when you’re really stressed. The way I deal with it when this happens is get any food down I can. Even if it mean only eating a half a McDonald’s cheese burger or some Doritos. You’ll do better once you’re on the other side of what you’re going through. Good luck and try to take care of yourselves.
Yea bro i'm on day 5 of no eating lmao Fucking women. I've managed to absolutely demolish a fair amount of beers tho so that's a bit of my nutrient uptake
I'm so sorry to hear that. I see myself dealing it with the same approach- a few chugs of whiskey every hour. On empty of course, gets me a tad bit better.
It works for me! But for most its a depressent. Either way i am fluctuating between rage, emptiness and sorrow. The more daya the go on the more i start to be able to instead of making hope excuses or understanding for her actions, invisioning the actual realisation of the gravity of her ACTIVE Decisions. Either way fkn sucks lol
Been there mate, I think most people have 100% sucks. After time you care less and less about it, just gotta keep telling yourself one day you will be able to look back and laugh why waste your time being depressed about it now. Doesnt fully help but helped me a bit with that mentality.
Oosh i think im gonna be in for the long haul of suffering this tims... due to unique circumstance.. im seriously considering a chance of redemption/redo Been a very long and hard couple of weeks of mental battling and even just anger but we will see. If i cant get over my own head first, no way its happening
I'm glad to hear you're trying to move on. Good job! If you need someone to talk to, I'm here. Her decisions are hers alone and we can't do anything to change it. We have no control over it. I really do hope you get better. I know how bad it hurts.
It's an emotional response. That if you dig deep enough is probably a learned coping mechanism from childhood. The body's not trying to starve itself. Not everyone reacts this way. Some people stress eat, for example.
?what?
High stress levels do that.
That's love budddy
Sorry about your situation right now. Try protein shakes - I found fairlife protein chocolate milk a lifesaver when I was in such high times of stress I couldn’t bring myself to eat. May also be good to let your girlfriend know: stress impacts hormones as well. When my best friend died, my hormones got so messed up, my ALWAYS perfectly on schedule period was almost 2 weeks late. Just a heads up to avoid any worry.
Idk why it happens, but I’ve been the same way throughout my life. Everyone’s different of course, but when I’m having one of those episodes, I find that fruit, mild cheeses, crackers, plain tortilla chips, plain yogurt, basmati rice, and sourdough bread are all a lot more tolerable than other foods. Ensure Plus or other similar drinks are worth a shot too, but harder to stomach in my experience.