Overwhelming anxiety after I eat.

[ejt0702]

Hey guys! New anxiety victim here aha!

I'm a freshman in college (19, 5'8", 135 lbs, perfect blood pressure, in shape). About four weeks ago I had my first panic attack. Ever since then I've been equating every single emotion or feeling to anxiety. I finally sat down with my sister for awhile and she mentioned I was having a "fight or flight" syndrome.  When she said this, everything sorta clicked and I magically didn't feel anxious anymore. The next day, I felt fine most of the day. When I started feeling anxious or tired I just think to myself "I hardly got any sleep last night" or "I just have sinus problems" and everything would be fine. Well, that night I ate some McDonalds (cheese burger,fries,water,6 nuggets) and about an hour later i freaked out! I was panicky and was experience horrible headaches. I took 1 klonopin and went and played cards with some people and everything felt fine afterwards.

For the past few months, I have done nothing but eat fast food (college student...remember?) and I've really been stressed about one of my classes. I eat only two meals a day (both are fairly large meals) and most aren't too good for me. I do stray for caffeine like a mofo though. I went and ate with my stepmom the day before I had the McDonalds and I felt really weird also, only this time it wasn't as overwhelming. She cooks fresh food; however, she does add a lot of salt to her cooking. I only had one cupcake and two biscuits that MAYBE had some kind of preservative in it. Everything else (bbq chicken,peas,potatoes) were fresh. So what's the deal?

As soon as I think I've conquered the worst of my anxiety, I go a freak out on food. Again, I'm not 100 percent sure it's the food because most of my attacks come at night, but it's strange that I would get so anxious and weird feeling after eating a meal. Also, I had been feeling sorta weird when I ate during the day, but I never paid any attention to it because it wasn't really bad.

*Note: I was on Wellbutrin, but I stopped taking that yesterday because it was giving me very unusual side-effects (both my father and sister take it and didn't experience the huge surges of energy and spaciness I was feeling) and i'm also taking half a pill of Klonopin a night, though the past few nights I wouldn't need it but it was the only way I could sleep b/c of the wellbutrin.

So yeah, help me out please. How should I change my diet or should I? Also, excuse any english errors. It's late at night and I've had a hard day.

[tigerpaw]

Wow. It sounds to me you need to discus the Med situation. It doesn't sound like you are taking it irregularly. That would certainly have something to do with it. Panic aatacks after eating runs more with me becasue just the sugar levels changing at one point with me gave me panic attacks because I was afraid of the feelings. Just a thought.

[lablake79]

I bet you are having anxiety attacks after eating because you are eating big greasy infrequent meals, which is probably causing your blood sugar levels to be out of wack -- this can cause similar symptoms to anxiety. I am hypoglycimic and get "anxiety" like symptoms when my blood sugar is too low (meaning have not eaten much) -- same thing can happen when it's really high.

Eating fast food is never healthy and eating two big meals a day is also not healthy -- your body is not getting a lot of the nutriants it needs and you are overindulging when you do eat. I would try to eat several smaller meals and cut out the fast food, cupcakes, etc for a while and see if it makes a difference...i bet you will feel better. I realize in college its not easy, but try eating some fruit,veggies, whole grains and meats (like chicken, turkey, ham, etc). If you have to eat fast food, instead of going to McDonald's, go to Subway and get a low-cal sandwich. You should also always eat breakfast otherwise you start your day out on a negative glucose level which will make you feel worse when you go eat a big meal. Yogurt, banana's, granola, even peanut butter on an english muffin are all healthy protein induced options to get your day started right.