Weight Loss

[Frankie123]

At the moment I have been having some very stressful situations. Although I am eating normally, I have lost about 7lbs in weight over quite a short period. Because of my health anxiety of course I think I have some serious disease. Can anyone else tell me whether anxiety has caused them to loose weight even if they are eating normally. Thank you for helping.

[Coppernob]

Yes, I lost several pounds over a period of weeks of fairly normal eating, even including a holiday when I usually put weight on, until I was put on mirtazapine which increased my appetite to such an extent I'm half a stone up now!

[buckeroo]

coppernob is bang on, i was 9 stone 2, and went on mirtazapine and im now 11 stone 2 in 2 months, im chuffed to bits

[Edie]

Oh yeah, stress or anxiety will definitely do that.

Stress has evolved as a healthy method of giving you the means to escape life-threatening situations such as being faced with a sabre-toothed tiger. It takes resources from parts of your body such as the digestive system, to help you run away. This is a good short-term measure, but becomes unhelpful in the face of long-term stresses, and will make your digestive system less efficient.

Weight loss is a very normal reaction to stress. I hope your stresses will be resolved soon, but if they are likely to be longer term, then any support to cope with it will definitely help you. So seek support if you haven't already, and keep on eating. You're going to be OK.