unexplained weight loss...

ok i am pretty worried now.after several tests and stuff from the hospital, it turns out  i have severe health anxiety and have had all sorts of problems ranging from panic attacks, constant breathing problems, extreme fatigue, numbness, tingling, electric shocks, swaying feeling....literally been and still am going through hell with it, im under a severe amount of mental stress for over a year now. over the past month i feel i have lost weight, even though i have been eating more, and more fatty foods than normal;basically it is not my diet....i am eating well....according to the scales my weight is pretty much the same, and my body seems similar, its just my face, particularly my cheeks i feel i ahve lost weight. can you lose weight simply from stress and anxiety or is it just because you dont eat when you're stressed that stress is linked to weight losss......what i am asking is if this unexplained weight loss can be due to anxiety.....i see photos of myself from 6 months ago and im sure my cheekbones are less prominent and i can feel them now.....is it anxiety....

[Ariesdawn]

Yes stress can effect ur body in many ways. If you have anxiety like I do, I also lost alot of weight in the past. I don't know if you have the same symptoms that I had but I also attached my weight loss to my anxiety. With the way my heart was always pounding I was burning more calories....I was always haveing to keep my self busy to keep my mind off all the stress. I also had dierrea, and suffered from night sweats. Hope this helps..

[cj29]

Anxeity can cause everything that you are describing.  When I was in a deep state of panic, despite reassurances from multiple tests and doctors, I lost weight because of the stress on the body.  Panic and anxiety both mentally and physically taxes us and, in my personal experience, I tended to feel worse physically as time went on because of the continued stress and lack of sleep.  When I started to feel better mentally through the help of counseling and medication, my weight started to come back because I was lessed stressed and ate healthier.  With my anxiety back, I am trying to keep the weight on and also remember, that with health anxiety, we tend to catacstrophicsize our thinking and view things as much worse than they actually are.

[jpjr1989]

thanks for that. you're right tho i am am bias with my attention of symptoms, i see thtwhen i look back sixmonths or so ago and consider what i generally thought was wrong with me on certain occasions.

[suzi-q]

Yes, I lost a tremendous amount of weight when I began with my anxieties.  Even if I was eating, it would come out as quickly as it went in. I had a terrible stomach and had constant diahrrea.  I am sure yours is due to your anxieties also.