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Avatar universal

Feel Hungry all the Time

Hi All,

I've been dealing with anxiety for about 3 years now. It started when my father got very sick and my grandfather passed away at the same time. Ever since then when things are stressing me out the anxiety and panic attacks start back up. I do go through periods where the panic attacks are gone, but at some point they always come back. It's always been manageable though. Not pleasant, but manageable.

My question has to do with always feeling hungry. As long as I can remember I've always felt hungry, like I needed to eat every couple of hours. I would eat and feel fine. I never gained weight, and it never interfered with my life. But recently it's gotten a lot worse (about the past month). I'm constantly hungry. Like starving.  My stomach hurts so bad - there is an intense gnawing hunger pain at the back of my stomach, and gurgling hungry bubbles on top. This pain is located right under my ribs and down to my belly button. Then I start to have anxiety attacks. I start freaking out that it's low blood sugar and I'm going to pass out or something, so a panic attack starts. Sometimes after I eat I feel better, but sometimes I don't. Sometimes I'm just as hungry as before I started eating. If I do feel better, the feeling of satiety only lasts two hours at most.

I also wake up during the night with intense hunger pains and anxiety, and I'm usually sweaty. This usually happens 1-3 hours after going to sleep. And I do eat a snack before going to bed. Usually some whole wheat toast with peanut butter and a glass of skim milk. I never needed to do this before. When waking up at night, I eat a granola bar or something and usually fall back asleep for about 5-6 hours. But when I wake up in the morning I'm instantly in a state of anxiety and my stomach hurts. I eat right away, but it doesn't help. I've also gained weight because all I do is sit around all day and eat. I've stopped exercising, because my stomach pains start when I'm exercising and then the anxiety attack starts and I need to eat something. I've stopped doing my normal activities because I'm afraid my blood sugar is too low and I'll pass out. I'm also bloated and have gas (sorry!). My anxiety is just getting worse and worse over this. It's stopping me from having a normal life.

I guess my main question is, could I have hypoglycemia? Or is my anxiety making me feel hungry all the time and making me believe I have hypoglycemia? As far back as I remember I have always needed to eat often, but it never ruined my life like this.

I thought maybe it was an acid problem because of the anxiety, so I tried Prilosec OTC. I took it for about 8 days and stopped because I felt like it was making my anxiety worse and it did nothing for my stomach. I've been taking 40 mg of Pepcid AC every day, but that doesn't seem to help either.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to include as many details as possible. Please help! I appreciate any comments.
8 Responses
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1042487 tn?1275279899
Hello there,

While anxiety and depression is known to have impact on your eating habits i think it would be a good idea to get tested for hypoglycemia.

Here's the list of anxiety symtoms http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Mental%20Health/What-are-the-symptoms-of-anxiety/show/124?cid=60

Once you know you anxiety is not related to a medical condition you can start working on ways to cure your anxiety.

Since you mention that everything started when your father got very sick and the lost of your grandfather at the same time, i wouldn't be surprised if you are suffering from depression which is highly related to anxiety and it is called an anxio-depressive mood.

There are many treatments available to treat depression/anxiety. The first line treatment should be a therapy.

Keeping good lifestyle habits like physical activity and healthy diet ( good nutriments, vitamins and minerals intake ) are also important. There are also a lot of natural remedies that are proven to be efficient in the treatment of depression and anxiety.

Finally there are antidepressants drugs.

Please consider that I'm not a doctor and those are all issues that must be discussed with you doctor ( including verifying if you are suffering from hypoglycemia too ).

Best regards,
M4
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi,

Thanks a lot for getting back to me so quickly. I've thought about depression, but didn't think I had it because until recently (the past month) I've always been happy. Even when things were rough, I would have anxiety, but no sadness. But recently, since my anxiety has been getting so bad I have been more depressed. I feel so down and upset that I'm letting my life get so out of control. I used to be such a fun person and now I don't want to do anything because I'm so afraid of having an anxiety attack.

I do want to get tested for hypoglycemia, because then I would know for sure, but unfortunately, part of my anxiety is a fear of going to the doctor. It's not the doctor in general, but I'm really afraid of needles, blood, etc.

So I'm really torn, and I think that's making my anxiety worse right now. I'm sick of my stomach being in pain, I'm sick of being afraid of passing out due to low blood sugar, and I'm sick of eating all the time....but I'm also afraid to go to the doctor.

Oh, what a life!

Helpful - 0
1042487 tn?1275279899
You need to be tested for hypoglycemia and forget about that fear of going to the doctor. Personally i opted for private medical clinic which can be less overwhelming than an hospital and it might be a good choice for you since of your fear of doctors. I don't have any fear of going to the doctor but i had extremely good success with the private clinic in contrary to my experience of seeing a doc thru the use of the ER. I think doctors are less stressed and have more time for you in private clinics which is a good thing and might in someway help you overcome your fear of doctors. Anyway, finding a good, careful, passionate doctor might be relatively hard and you must not stop to try finding a good doctor until you find one nor limit yourself based on previous experiences.

That's my opinion and i do really hope you go to the doctor.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I bought myself a gluclose monitor on Amazon  (make sure you get the test strips, control solution  and lancets plus monitor- they sometimes sell things separately so it can be confusing).  I wanted to rule out hypoglycemia also.  Remember it can be a low reading AND a quick drop from high to lower.  It has helped me to notice a pattern and reassure myself that for me it is mainly anxiety causing it.  I do eat something every 2 hours because I feel better when I do.  I avoid like the plague sugar, white starches and the like.  I focus on high protein and good fat snacks with a whole grain carb thrown in.  Hope that helps  Eating correctly will help with anxiety .. there are a lot of good books that outline this.  Living Well with anxiety ..what you need to know that your Doctor wont tell you.. is one of my favorites.  Also the anxiety and phobia workbook by Edmund Bourne is very comprehensive in many ways.   Hang in there : )  I am in the middle of a bad episode myself for the past 3 months so I understand.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I'm getting this same feeling, I think. I didn't realize I had anxiety until recently. I have been sick a lot and just started university. Any advice to keep down my anxiety and hunger? I can't really sleep soundly without sleeping pills because of my stomach. Btw, I eat a lot (like 4000 calories a day) and lift weights regularly, if that is of any relevance. I've gained about 40lbs (on purpose - bulking) in the past year and I have always felt satiety after meals but for the past couple weeks, and especially few days, not so much. I wonder if it could be a pork tapeworm or something? I don't know if it's physical or psychological. Maybe I will figure it out after my midterms!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I deal with the same exact thing myself always Hungary, I've been tested for hypoglycemia and my test came back fine my blood sugar was perfect this was a fasting blood test which made me super anxious cause I couldn't eat in the morning that's why I put off dong a physical because of the blood test. I can totally relate I always have a fear of passing out because of le blood sugar I even bought a blood glucose meter and checked my blood first thing in the morning and it was fine I believe it was around 90 something,I always carry food with me it's so annoying I do know that when I don't have any anxiety I don't get that Hungary feeling all the time just the normal Hungary feeling that u would get I bring my lunch to work cause I don't wanna have to wait in line at a deli cause it makes me anxious waiting for my food
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
The same here. I am carrying food in the bag all the time. It's so annoying. I don't really know when I am hungry for real... Also, there is a fear of passing out, sweaty palms etc. After eating I feel fine.
Avatar universal
I had a panic attack in 2015. I was at work and hadn't eaten since I was fighting an after-birthday hangover. LOL.. Rushed home and had something to eat. Ever since that day I feel like my whole body has gone upside down. Constant hunger and low blood sugar. I always needed to eat otherwise I'd have hypoglycemic episodes. It's weird how after something traumatic, our bodies just change. But I need to tell you this, since we both have digestive problems. Check if your anxiety has caused a Candida overgrowth. Because I suspect this the cause of the stupid hunger at odd hours. Also do a blood glucose tolerance test (just to be sure you're not hypoglycemic!) I've come to realize that my panic attack caused a whole lot of underlying problems. And I don't know how to get rid of the bacterial overgrowth. Doctors don't even know what Candida is!!
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
I'm having almost the exact same problem with extremely high anxiety. My stomach tightens up during the daytime and I don't eat very much I try to eat as much as possible. In the late evening and during the night when my anxiety subsides for a while now only till about 6 a.m. usually I am hungry all night and can't satisfy my craving for food. I can eat the sandwich and a couple cereal bars and then an hour later after not being able to fall back asleep I'm hungry again and I'll begin eating 3 or 4 times all night. This is created lack of sleep further the exasperatingly anxiety.  I talk to my psychiatrist about it and he suggested seeing my regular doctor to rule out any medical problem but I know it's the anxiety. I am pre-diabetic and usually have high fasting blood sugar haven't been active lately and usually my blood sugar is high during the day. When I have borderline panic attack level anxiety my blood sugar raises that's what happens. However I have noticed when checking my blood sugar during the night it has been lower than I've ever seen it in years it's spiking up and down. Went to the doctor today and he didn't have an answer did some labs. Also talk to my therapist who's a doctor of psychology and ask him this question if it could be the anxiety and he wasn't sure either. So I'm running in circles trying to figure out what is causing the problem because it's created a spiral effect the less I sleep the worst my anxiety gets where's my anxiety gets the more I eat at night.  Also I did some research and found that low serotonin levels can have an effect on the body in this way and can affect the hormone that actually tells your brain that your stomach is full to not function properly. So no matter how much you eat your brain doesn't realize that you don't need to eat anymore. Also I think part of it is my body craving for nutrition and food because I don't eat enough during the daytime and have recently lost weight do to erosive gastritis couple months ago and 10 pounds prior to that due to anxiety after losing my job. So now I'm very underweight 25 pounds less than I was 5 months ago. Getting an appetite is good in one way from the anxiety if it was only during the daytime but during the daytime anxiety so bad I can't eat hardly. I force myself to eat for the most part unless I go a long time then I'll just naturally get hungry enough and we'll get the urge to eat but usually it's more a matter of eating because I know I should eat. I was testing my blood sugar and it was actually going below 100 which I've never seen it that low in years. And this was in the middle of the night actually couple hours after eating. So I am speculating that it's also spiking insulin levels for the continued eating every couple hours.
Avatar universal
Hi I feel same way and they checked my sugar also and came back normal I have anxiety and panic attacks but one thing that has helped me is the word of God no lie read the Bible pray go to church god loves you please give it a try and don't give up god bless you!!!
Helpful - 0
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