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Im depressed and have no appetite.

D

David88

Member
So, I hope i've put this in the right place.
But for the past week i've been so depressed I haven't eaten. I just have no appetite.

I've forced myself to eat because im feeling faint. I eat half an apple which will take me about 30 minutes to eat, maybe a granola bar and from time to time some noodles.
I don't know if its normal, but my belly is rumbling like crazy....I just can't eat.

Before I use to over eat when I felt down and I was fine the next day but now this is different. I've never felt depression like this before. I have no energy and find myself taking naps and going to bed at 9pm, sleeping till 8/9am.

Im seeing my GP soon but any advice on what to do, or eat?
 
I think that depression and not eating is common. I went through a 4-6 week depression once many years ago. Believe it or not a dream and some determination snapped me out of it, and I never went back to the realm of despair.
Use your alone time to determine what is causing the depressive state. Attack and change the cause to promote a different effect.
If you share some of the details of what is going on within you we may be able to advise you more but as it stands we have insufficient data to help you in any specific manner.
There is a broad range of experience and bandwidth on this forum, and some of us are intent on helping each other. You have reached out and we read you. Go the rest of the way and elucidate your issues. You have nothing to lose, and perhaps peace of mind to gain. Consider the risk and the rewards.
 
I'm sorry you're feeling so low. Depression is a terrible illness.
Good nutrition and diet is considered almost essential nowadays for good mental health. However, if you're struggling to eat it's not easy to maintain. Perhaps for now go for your favorite comfort foods if you can, if it's easier to eat than forcing yourself to eat foods you're not keen on.
I always watch a favorite TV program/DVD while eating because I need an incentive to eat. Is there anything you could do while eating to distract you?
I also find eating at the same time and the same meals on a weekly basis helps because then I don't have to waste energy trying to make a decision.
I'm glad you're going to see your GP as changes in appetite and sleep patterns are serious symptoms. You may be put on a waiting list for some kind of therapy. If so try to find a therapist who is experienced with working with people on the spectrum.
I really hope that you get the right kind of help. Please continue to post about your experiences as it may help.
 
David88 said:
So, I hope i've put this in the right place.
But for the past week i've been so depressed I haven't eaten. I just have no appetite.

I've forced myself to eat because im feeling faint. I eat half an apple which will take me about 30 minutes to eat, maybe a granola bar and from time to time some noodles.
I don't know if its normal, but my belly is rumbling like crazy....I just can't eat.

Before I use to over eat when I felt down and I was fine the next day but now this is different. I've never felt depression like this before. I have no energy and find myself taking naps and going to bed at 9pm, sleeping till 8/9am.

Im seeing my GP soon but any advice on what to do, or eat?
Click to expand...

When you say you are going to the doctor "soon," how "soon"?
What have you got around there to eat?
What sort of fluids do you have to drink?

There should be belly/gut/stomach sounds.
(Lack of sound is not good.)

The longer you go without eating, the less inclined
you will be to eat. Eating a little is better than not.


When I had goats and one would
lose her appetite after she had a kid, it was important
to get some food into her so she wouldn't fail entirely.
This would mean hand feeding her soda crackers and
offering her warm sweetened water or milk. Otherwise
I would have to get medical about it and use propylene
glycol---the same thing which many snack foods for
humans contain. It changes the chemistry in the brain,
and the goat would take an interest within 20 minutes
of having some of that.

So you sleep almost 12 hours and don't even
have to get up to go to the bathroom?
 
The eating part is pretty simple and just a symptom. If you don't maintain a basic minimum diet your body will not let you get a way with it for long and start messing you up. You can look up basic diets online.

The depression part is really the root cause and not normally what GPs handle. So when you go and see your GP be sure and tell about the depression and if they do not suggest it, ask to get a referral to a specialist for depression.
 
How 'bout some Cheerios? Fortified cereal does help get in some good vitamins and is at least healthier than noodles. Won't give you much energy though, Cheerios has even less sugar than it does calories. Perhaps another cereal.

Is it possible you're over-rested on top of the depression? I've found sometimes that when I am just plain tuckered out and sleep excessively it just wears me down worse. Goes back to that quality vs. quantity argument... Doesn't help my mood any either when I'm over-rested.
 
If I don't eat something quite quickly when I feel hungry, the hunger subsides & I will forget about it & go hours without but since I read that hunger can help feed the anxieties & stresses in general AS-living, I've paid more attention to my own slack habits of eating & so keep bananas on standby, as they are fairly undemanding to eat & I echo the advice above: that cereals can be an important fall back as they are a simple & instant food. Scrambled eggs are likewise easy to cook & consume.

Longer-term strategies to ensure regular include cooking up a storm when my energy & enthusiasm allow & freezing individual portions so that on my more down-daze, there is something available to eat that requires little thought & preparation. Same type of strategy as what was said above about the same-time meals-eating: it removes decision making & any associated stresses & becomes part of the routine daily management of AS-living.

Incidentally, I heard recently that many people are presenting at their Doctor's with extreme tiredness & a lack of energy which is actually down to dehydration & a lack of liquid intake: 1.5 litres of day MINIMUM for a generally at-rest person; more if active.
 
David88 said:
So, I hope i've put this in the right place.
But for the past week i've been so depressed I haven't eaten. I just have no appetite.

I've forced myself to eat because im feeling faint. I eat half an apple which will take me about 30 minutes to eat, maybe a granola bar and from time to time some noodles.
I don't know if its normal, but my belly is rumbling like crazy....I just can't eat.

Before I use to over eat when I felt down and I was fine the next day but now this is different. I've never felt depression like this before. I have no energy and find myself taking naps and going to bed at 9pm, sleeping till 8/9am.

Im seeing my GP soon but any advice on what to do, or eat?
Click to expand...

I had this happen to me. Normally i'm the type that will snack mindlessly whenever i'm depressed but rarely, very rarely, if life is just too much i'll lose my appetite. This happened to me a few weeks ago actually. For two weeks i ate a meal and a snack day and drank way too much diet soda and that was it. I finally managed to snap myself out of it by purposely spending way too much at the grocery store buying my favorite foods to eat for the coming week. Because even if i'm not hungry, i will still eat my favorite meal foods ever - pizza and nachos and amy's burritos.
 
i've been in some pretty deep depressions throughout my life (currently i'm going back and fourth in one now.. on a 1-10 scale i would say 6 -10 but it can change within the same day... everybody is right about a proper diet, stomach sounds and even just making that diet a routine (so long as it's healthy) so even if you're not hungry atleast your body wont get sick

but i also know that's not always the easiest thing to do... not wanting to do anything, is (for me anyway) literally.. not wanting to do anything. i know the "just do it" response is terrible and i hate it myself.. but if you can keep your body relatively healthy you'll be able to focus on your problems. i can't promise you'll find a solution to them yourself but if you can convey those problems to somebody (a psych can help... honestly, for me, this place helps more.... since we all live these types of problems, we all have different ways to manage them. even if all of those ways don't work for you, they may spark an idea for you that will work)

not everything can be "cured".. but atleast if you can manage them, you can go about life a little better.


i've been unable to do what i need to do to get myself out of my depression (family/work reasons)..... i generally know when it will happen and what will trigger it. what i used to do is just take a few days off of life. i wouldn't leave my room, i would force specific moods by listening to specific types of music (depending on what mood i felt i had to be in at that time) and within a few days i was OK again. i'm not saying i was happy go lucky and skipping around hugging everybody...... but i could go through the day without any severe depression so i could be "normal" (my normal anyway.. function at home and function at work)
 
Depression has many symptoms and loss of appetite is one of them. My mother had a clinical depression. She had been on Anti-depressants and Lithium and B12 supplements for years but that didn't help her. Surprisingly her change in diet to all-natural, therapeutic, non-processed food has helped her and she started feeling well. She added herbs like Ashwagandha, Chamomile, to her bedtime tea and it worked out really well. Since then we have all started to refer to Ayurveda for any medical conditions. We mostly referred to some books and other resources on internet.
 
David88 said:
So, I hope i've put this in the right place.
But for the past week i've been so depressed I haven't eaten. I just have no appetite.

I've forced myself to eat because im feeling faint. I eat half an apple which will take me about 30 minutes to eat, maybe a granola bar and from time to time some noodles.
I don't know if its normal, but my belly is rumbling like crazy....I just can't eat.

Before I use to over eat when I felt down and I was fine the next day but now this is different. I've never felt depression like this before. I have no energy and find myself taking naps and going to bed at 9pm, sleeping till 8/9am.

Im seeing my GP soon but any advice on what to do, or eat?
Click to expand...


I suffered a 10 year bout of serious as serious can be serious depression. The thing I learned the hard way is that depression is not sadness, it is a lack of hope. Medication can help tremendously, and I probably would not be here if I hadn't taken any, but it is not an exact science. If your dr gives you something you have to watch out for side effects that number in the hundreds. Some meds will give you no side effects, while others can give you bad ones. So if you do decide to take a medication for depression, please be on the look out for any side effects that may happen. The dr will probably not tell you what the side effects that you need to look out for are. They seem to assume that we will read the paperwork that comes with medication, or ask our pharmacist about them. So please read the paperwork that comes with it and ask the pharmacist if there are any you need to watch out for.

Aside from meds, here is the best nutritional drink I have ever found. You can get it on Amazon. It is $35 for about 2 lbs that lasts for 15 servings, which lasts me 2 weeks. But I was in physical bad shape when I started taking it and within 2 months I was full of life, feeling like a million bucks, sleeping less, waking refreshed, and full of energy. The stuff is dynamite. Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RWWOKHI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

If you cannot afford $35 every two weeks, just take one scoop at a time. I use almond milk, but you can use any kind.

The other thing I would highly recommend is seeing a psychologist, not a therapist, not a social worker, not a counselor, a psychologist. The others are only schooled from 2 to 4 years, where as a psychologist is schooled 8, and is a dr.

Therapy along with medication pulled me through without the meal replacement, but if I had it when I went through mine it would have helped tremendously. Stress puts a terrible amount of tax on our body and brain, nutrition helps with this tax, it pays it, if you will.

I hope that you will find your way out of the maze of feelings you are having, and please do try the meal replacement if nothing else. I am positive it will help.

Misfit
 
BTW, although I am very busy at the present, if you have any questions you can message me. I am not the most respondent at this time due to moving and work, but I will do my best to get back to you as soon as I can.

You can choose to have hope even if you don't see any, and just because you can't see any hope doesn't mean it's not there, like the sun at night, it may be behind something that prevents you from seeing it, but it is always there.
 
how about soft foods like baby food i some times eat baby food i like the taste and the texture of it in yummy in the tummy i hope i helped you have the best best day ever
 
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