Anxiety and panic attacks after eating?

Posted , 26 users are following.

Hwllo there ive posted here before. Some of u might be familiar with me already .. ive been experiencing anxiety and panic attacks after eating for a couple months now. Ive never had this up until 2-3 months ago.. why is it i feel like this? I feel worse after eating big meals. Anyone else? 

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  • Posted

    Have you ever had any issues with eating in the past? Maybe something you ate triggered a past experience you had that caused you trauma.

    • Posted

      Nope never have.. at first i thought ibwas diabetes or something but ive been checked for hat and im okay. It always happens after i eat especially if i eat big meals and get full.. i start feeling all wierd and shaky and anxious 😕

  • Posted

    I have had this recently. I have had reactive hypoglycemia for about 25 or more years and had an intense episode two weeks ago and had to go home because I thought I was going to freak and die (panic attack-like symptoms but with slurred speech, cognitive issues like dropping words, shaking, tongue and face numbness).  Since then, I have been struggling to rebalance myself. It's a horrible cycle of being hungry but not wanting to eating because when I do, I get nauseous and intensely anxious so I can't recover my balance.  And the anxiety is like blasts of intense panic that doesn't stick but is very uncomfortable and frightening.  My Doctor has educated me in the past on the cycle of blood sugar dropping too low, which leads to adrenaline kicking in, causing fight or flight.  I may get this wrong but my understanding is that if I eat a high carb meal, I get a blast of too much insulin, which in turn drops my blood sugar too low, which then blasts me with adrenaline.  I have taken my blood sugars in the past when I have been inexplicably anxious and my glucose is low.  That being said... anyone who has had anxiety knows that the idea of experiencing it again in and of itself causes anxiety, and it is terrible to have it associated with eating.

    Talk to your doctor... maybe keep a food diary before going to see if there are any patterns between what or how much you eat and the resulting anxiety. 

     

    • Posted

      Hmm sounds understanding.. is its with any meal or particularly in a heavy meal? 
    • Posted

      I could have written this myself. It's comforting to know it's not unheard of.

  • Edited

    Right now, it's any meal.  But the symptoms are much worse with carb heavy meals or sugary items.  For example, a soda would probably result in panic attack type symptoms right now whereas chicken and brown rice makes me anxious but not panicked.

    • Posted

      It's been even 3 months since I posted this.  My doctor forced me to eat on the clock (nibbling every 1:30-2:30 hours) versus when I was hungry.  I have only had minimal anxiety here and there when I deviate and skip meals. After I was more steady, he ran a hormonal panel and found significant abnormalities, which he said was also affecting my inability to stop the drops in blood sugar. I've gotten a shot 2 months in a row and have had significant improvement in outlook, energy level, focus, motivation, and surprisingly, a huge drop in chronic pain level.  As an FYI, I do have PTSD after being stalked by a client who eventually threatened to kill me with a gun.  But I can say that this situation I experienced has nothing to do with triggers, etc and entirely to do with physiology. 

    • Posted

      Tell me what type of injection did he give you? I have the exact same thing and I think I need to bring it to his attention. Please if you receive this let me know.
    • Posted

      i know this is an old post but i get this currently! ive had it over a year now if i eat big meal i get panic attacks and cant breathe and very light headed! its torture because i still have the symptoms somewhat even when i dont eat. if i drink pop or sugar it will send me right into a panic attack. please help anyone if you have an solutions for us ty

    • Posted

      Soda, especially on an empty stomach like while I am waiting for my meal, sends me straight to panic mode with associated nausea, etc from the shift in blood sugar. So if i must have soda, I wait until I have some food first. Large meals are really going to screw with your insulin levels so that is likely why you feel that way.

      You need to talk to your doctor about whether you have hypoglycemia or diabetes. Talk to them about appropriate diet for blood sugar issues. My doctor says to eat on the clock, not when i am hungry. So that means regular meals and a small snack in between. If I am out of whack, i need to get something every 2 - 2.5 hours when i have been level and normal, I can go 4ish hours. If i dont follow this, i get panicky and sick. If you are doing intermittent fasting or keto, it might also be causing it because being in ketosis is being hypoglycemic. Keto flu is hypoglycemia. Definitely look at your diet. It may be the cause of your problems.

    • Posted

      ive had blood work done and even while having a full blown panic ive had my finger poked by a medic and checked my blood sugar levels and they all say i am fine thats the weird thing. i do have very very bad anxiety however. so my issues may be related soley to that. or im diabetic in the early stages and its just hard to detect. it really sucks because i dont have a for sure diagnosis

    • Posted

      I was cycling every 9 minutes between panic and crashing in December of 2017. I was so nauseous i couldnt eat more than a bit of string cheese. i went to the ER. My blood sugar was 110, so seemingly normal. But i was forced to sit and eat a specific diet for 3 hours, which leveled me out. My PCP later explained that the body burns the glycogen in those low moments, which spikes the blood sugar as part of flight or fight. So test look normal or high. You can absolutely have anxiety and other stuff going on. I just know that once I got myself educated, I stayed on top of it and rarely have significant anxiety. I barely ate 3 days last month and felt a panic attack coming on when day 3 rolled around. i ate and i ate some more... i feel "fragile" for a couple of days after something like that but if i maintain frequent snacks, i level back out again.

  • Posted

    Yes! I've had panic attacks and anxiety for 22 years now. It's gotten way better with time but this has started recently and it's horrible! Suffering it's effects as I type actually.

  • Posted

    I have been having these same issues. I noticed it start at the same time I broke through to having a full blown panic disorder. I say it this way because in retrospect I think my general anxiety had been slowly developing since I was kid. Now I have social anxoety and panic disorder. I have been to several doctors and therapists and gotten many tests and this seems to be a very elusive and mysterious phenomenon unfortunately. I wish i could help but all i can say is you aren't alone in dealing with this but don't give up either. I have been persuing alternative methods which has helped more than conventional medicine ever has so I am continuing to explore that path through herbs and attempting to get to the root of my emotions. My attacks were triggered after a couple of my friends committed suicide, so have you considered an event or a few, or a progressive building of anxiety that triggered this recently? I think it may have to do with something much deeper than physiological issues. Not to say to completely disregard the body, but integrate it with the emotional body as well. It is definitely a journey but it teaches a lot along the way as well. I have gotten to the point where I almost never eat now because of the huge wave of anxiety or panic attack during and after any meal, no matter how small. Some days it is worse than others but i feel like i have made progress which is all that matters to me. Doctors have failed me so it's up to me to learn to rely on myself and curiosities in hopes i will be led to an answer or healing. I truly wish you all the best and please try to remain positive about the situation as beat you can, knowing this is somehow fixable. I wish i could offer you a solid answer bit I have been searching for a couple years now and the most progress i made was working with myself rather than seeking answers outside of me from others. I wish you all the best in yoir healing and to anyone reading this who is going through a similar situation.

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