Not eating

lesleytjbriggs

Not eating due to depression I know I should but I don't have the appetite especially not for anything substantial. I've been snacking a lot. Am I doing more harm?

wimeezer

I know it's hard to eat when depressed, even when you know you should. My tactic is to have the right food readily available so when I'm too tired too bother I can just grab something. Whole grain crackers, sliced cheese, fruit, bread, peanut butter, yogurt are easy to keep around and not too fussy to bother with.

How this helps. x

wimeezer

And as long as what you are eating is healthy you should be ok.

lesleytjbriggs

Thank you. I did eventually start eating again.

Zekela

I think you should worry more about treating your depression. The eating part will return once your depression is cured. Best of luck to you.

glovepuppet

edit: glad to hear you got over this x

neandermagnon

I went through this when I had PTSD really badly, I felt sick anxious and depressed the whole time. The result was I was losing lean mass due to not eating enough (I'd literally eat just a couple of mouthfuls of a meal and then that was it) then I'd go through phases of being hungry and eating normal amounts of food, and in those phases I'd pile on fat. I got obese this way (not the first time I was obese, first time was just from being sedentary and eating too much)

I fixed it by forcing myself to eat enough calories. It was hard, started off at 1300 cals/day, upped it to 1400 cals/day, then up to 1500 cals/day. Now I'm maintaining without tracking, but my maintenance calories are more than 1850 cals/day.

I found that eating healthy foods, in particular getting enough healthy fat and healthy carbs, combined with heavy weight lifting, has benefited my mental health. It's not the main thing... therapy was the main thing that helped, but it didn't fix it totally, I still have PTSD and the depression could come back, but healthy eating + heavy lifting has really helped a lot. Just the fact that I know I can squat and deadlift x number of pounds helps me to feel strong, which is a really good antedote against the kind of negative thoughts you get with depression and/or PTSD.

So my advice is yes, force yourself to eat, but do it in the way that's going to make it the most easy for you. Eat several small meals a day, if you need to include foods like chocolate to reach your calorie goal, then include them, just try to get enough protein, healthy fat, healthy carbs, vitamins and minerals too. Never ever beat yourself up over a bad day, just remind yourself that you're strong and can get through this and pick yourself up again. Also, try to force yourself to do any kind of exercise that you know you'll enjoy when you get into it, or used to enjoy before you got depressed. Even if it's just for a short time. Exercising in short bursts several times a day is just as good as going to the gym in one session for the same amount of time. So do whatever's going to be easiest for you to stick to.

If you're not having therapy already, I'd recommend it, but shop around for a good therapist first, some are better than others, and you also get perfectly good therapists but you don't seem to get on with them, that's a reason to find another one and a good therapist would understand.

ETA: I have also found that getting outside in daylight every day really helps to beat depression. Get sunlight on your skin if you can.

neandermagnon

ooops old thread!

Glad you got over this