Poll Does Your Weight Or Diet Affect Your Ptsd

[Nicolette]

I get that weight and diet can go hand in hand but you can still increase your weight if you overeat good food which therefore does not involve a bad diet.

Intererstingly Anthony's moods can change with his weight - if he eats too much junk, puts on weight and gets depressed or the opposite and drops weight too quickly by going from naughty to dramatic healthy with a body which has a fast reacting metabolism. ie if I just changed my eating habits I wouldn't drop weight as quickly as he does. He's a bit of a freak like that and I wish I could drop weight by simply just a meal change.

Anyway, I am interested in how you diet affects your PTSD.

 

[intothelight]

When I am anxious (duh when am I not) the adrenaline burns calories faster than I can take them in. So I end up dropping weight at an alarming rate, and this combined with the lack of sleep, will cause major depression symptoms. It is a vicious cycle that took me a while to recognize.

Food does play an important role in overall health, and especially mental health. There are a lot of interesting studies on how food affects mood. I know that when I dutifully follow a healthy diet (Mediterranean is my choice), limit processed foods that affect my blood sugar, get daily exercise, and the proper amount of sleep; I do not experience the extremes of PTSD symptoms.

Besides looking in the mirror and resembling "Death's" avatar doesn't help much with self esteem

 

[suzie q]

While I keep a very close eye on my eating habits (have eating disorder..don't eat ), I notice when I'm especially anxious, hypervigalent, sleep deprived, or depressed, my symptoms of PTSD increase. This causes me to stop eating altogether or just barely nibble. My appetite disappears and I have to force myself to eat. Unfortunately for me, this may mean eating only junk food because that's all that sounds good to me.

Went to a treatment center for my eating disorder years ago and learned that I had a very unhealthy view of what I truly looked like. I had gotten down to children's sizes and saw myself as overweight. My view has changed, and for my health, I do see I have gained a lot of weight since then. I don't think I'm overweight according to the Drs. guidelines, but I still obsess about the fat rolls. I have to constantly overlook and accept that my weight is OK. I can usually do that unless my PTSD is flairing up.

I think that my weight effects my PTSD and my PTSD effects my health and weight.

 

[Lucycat]

I too think that PTSD affects my weight rather than the other way round.
Since diagnosis I have lost tons of weight without doing anything.
I have also recently given up smoking yet am still losing weight.

I am now a 'normal' weight for my height, which I had not been since I was a small child :)

 

[Tinyflame]

I know that they say after a sexual assault etc a lot of people can't bear being the same weight they were then.

 

[becvan]

If my symptoms flare up I lose weight like crazy. It's always been that way. When it calms down I have to fight to put them back on. It is very much the symptoms affecting my weight. (I count IBS as a symptom since it was caused by the PTSD to begin with.)

 

[Abbi]

Strangely enough if I rigidly control food intake, ptsd symptoms decrease. Guess it gives me feeling of control over my body. I numb by "liking" the hungry feeling. Yep I know have to watch that closely.

 

[anni]

I have to watch it also, containment being too close to over-control. I've been fighting an eating diorder for years. The thing is, is that I'm like Deb in that adrenaline and feeling nauseous when stressed just burns it off at light speed. Then you end up LIKING the denial, as anyone with an eating disorder knows. The head sees it as satisfying-awful, isn't it?The other thing is, when healthy I function best at a certain weight also, being depressed and non-functional when overweight so balance is very, very hard for me to achieve. Of course with an eating disorder, what one's head considers over weight varies with one's mental health. Sigh. The PTSD is incredibly unhelpful.

 

[Srain]

My weight is effected by my PTSD. I tend to try to control my anxiety by power walking more and my paranoia is heightened so I tend to more around the house more keeping busy. I tend to need some sense of power somewhere in my life and weight control, once the weight starts falling off, seems to sends that message to my brain, "here's where you can get it". It's a lie but I'll take it at the time.

Just as easily the opposite can occur with depression, overnight, when I shut down and crawl into bed. Easy enough to pack the pounds on when you don't do anything but eat eat eat, trying to think or feel.

***The more aware I am the more I try to at least keep eating when losing the pounds, if only something to take my meds and vitamins. When laid out due to depression, change out crappy food for litter better choices and do my best to get up for the early morning dog walks. Anything to try to keep moving forward despite the symptoms. This past year it's help keep from dipping too much into the red line territory.

 

[Abrasky]

Good question

My PTSD effects my weight. I can't seem to put any on since I started dealing the issues around my PTSD last year. I hover in the lower end of the middle range.

I was obese when I first got PTSD. I found eating as a nice way to feel better and hide my appearance.

PTSD effects my blood sugars I have diabetes and when ever I get emotional or angry, my insulin has gone up by 25%, dropped by 25 %. When I get a memory back and get emotional ,I have a low blood sugar, sometimes 5 a day if it is a really bad memory. It has happened so often, It makes me think Oh I must be getting a memory back tomorrow.

 

[AngelaMarie]

I have been thinking about this question and realized that weight does affect my PTSD. When I get heavy I look more like bio-mom and bio-grandmother. It freaks me out a little when I look in the mirror and see someone that looks like them in me. I hate it! Then I go on crash diets to lose the weight just to be able to face myself in the mirror and then gain weight back again. I am trying to learn to like myself and realize that I can't help the fact that I look similiar, but that I am not like them on the inside. Then I hope I can quit having the yo-yo affect with me weight and just find the weight that is healthy for me. I am not getting any younger, ya know??;)

 

[Sunshine71]

I feel that some medication can make you over weight and this in turn can make you feel depressed.

My husband is the PTSD sufferer and he asks me everyday if he is fat - (I hate that word)

We dont eat animal products although you have to make sure that you are getting all your B Vitamins as not getting enough I hear can lead to depsression.

I have also read that eating more raw foods, juices etc can boost great feelings and some people have got over their depression by eating raw foods (raw fruits and veggies - not meat!)

I hope that this helps and if its of interest please do more reseach on line.

Wishing you all the best - Sunshine :O)