Terrified I will never get my regular appetite back

[rachlexis13]

Hi,

Recently, I have not had much of an appetite lately and I'm to the point I have been crying over it. This started on Thursday of last week and has been going on officially for a week now.

I noticed this started happening when I started studying for midterms over the weekend. So, initially, I thought that this might be stress causing me to lose my appetite. I was practically in my room most of the time studying and I didn't allow myself much break time.

Over the week, I have had an appetite for things, but when food is in front of me and I actually put it in my mouth, it does not taste as well as I imagined it would. As a result, I still haven't been eating much. I had my last midterm today and I still don't have much of a regular appetite.

I'm so scared I will not get my regular appetite back and even worse, I am so scared this is a sign of something much more serious than stress. I've never heard of anyone losing their appetite like this due to stress.

Should I be concerned? :weep:

[ankietyjoe]

Should I be concerned? :weep:

Nope

[blueingreen]

I have had so many symptoms caused by anxiety that eventually went away, and lack of appetite is one. For me, it lasted 4 weeks. I could barely bring myself to eat anything. Thinking about eating tasty foods no longer made me excited, and nothing tasted that good anyway during that time. I lost a bit of weight.

Eventually it went away, only to be replaced by plenty of other anxiety-related symptoms (what a fun journey!). I eat treats all the time now, because I had previously been so scared that I would never enjoy them again...

Remember that loss of appetite is a classic symptom of being worried before a test, performance, interview, etc. and this is just your body being stuck in that state because you continue to be anxious over it. I'm sure it was brought on by the stress of your exams, and because you're already an anxious person (I'm assuming, since you're on this forum), it has become "chronic." But you will get your appetite back, promise. Stop worrying about it (I know...) and eat something so you don't feel worse! :)