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No appetite? Can’t swallow my food. HELP!!

I apologize for this being so long. I’ve had these thoughts in my mind for days and have had no one to tell without sounding crazy! I’ve had appetite for almost a week now. I’ve been experiencing some pretty big life changes recently......new job (which I know has been the main source of my anxiety)......the weather, winter is coming and seasonal depression is a lot for me to handle......relationship problems....and now, NO APPETITE! Great. Another thing to stress and worry about. I feel hungry. My stomach growls. I feel like I should eat when I feel like this, but......as soon as food is in front of me, I am repulsed. I try to eat anyways and I seriously cannot being myself to swallow my food. I feel like I’m going to gag! I usually end up spitting out the first bite then forcing myself to swallow the next few bites with a couple sips of ice water right after. I cannot eat much more than this. I am already thin and do not need to lose ANY weight! I’ve lost 5 pounds already. On Friday night, (5th), I was able to eat watermelon and a salad. Not much. Saturday afternoon (6th), I was able to eat 2 chicken strips from KFC, half a serving of mashed potatoes and gravy and a few potato wedges. Saturday night, I had the same chicken strips from KFC, ate all 3 and half a biscuit. Later at home had maybe 10 strawberries. Went to bed no problem, no anxiety, felt great. Now, Sunday, (7th), I was only able to choke down one small cinnamon roll with icing and one tiny slice of cheese pizza from Dominos. I felt so hungry, stomach growling. As soon as I smelled the pizza, my stomach turned. I try to take a bite and want to spit it out. I force myself to eat the slice and finish it off with a whole lot of ice water. I felt like vomiting for hours. I notice a pattern. When I do not have to go to my job the next day, I am relaxed. Able to sleep with no panic attacks before bed, and able to eat a little bit to get me through the upcoming week of not eating much. I don’t have chewing and spitting disorder, I truly believe this is all caused by the intense stress and anxiety I am experiencing lately! This has happened once before (down to feeling like gagging after taking a bite, to a T). I was in 7th grade. I had swallowed 8 pieces of gum back to back. Instantly regretted it as I was filled with anxiety and panic. I hid this secret from everyone for two weeks. I was hardly able to eat dinner, my mom noticing that I was losing weight and eating less and less, started to think I had an eating disorder. I finally broke down crying and confessed to my mom about the gum, she laughed and reassured my I would be fine. My stress instantly went down and I was able to eat. I am currently trying to find my “gum swallowing” event in my life right now that I need to change so my anxiety will go down! I just can’t think of what it is. Besides the new job and that having no appetite is making me more anxious. I need help!!!! Reassurance of anyone that has been through a similar time in their life would be great! Any medications I can take to help calm me down so I’m able to eat more days than just Friday and Saturday. I just started Prozac 3 nights ago. I am taking 10 mg. I do feel more relaxed right after I take it because that’s the only thing that has brought me comfort of knowing I’ll be okay. Please help!!!!!!!!!!!
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Avatar universal
The Prozac might or might not help, but it will take 4-6 weeks to know, so don't be impatient.  You don't say your age, but since you mentioned your Mom I'm assuming you're fairly young.  Here's the thing -- what you say you're not eating is just as well you're not eating it.  You don't mention but one time you tried to eat something that was actually good for you.  So here's the thing.  You're nervous about a new job -- common problem, not necessarily an anxiety problem.  But you apparently do suffer from obsessive anxious thinking and have for awhile now to the extent you decided to seek medication, but you don't say if you ever tried to solve this problem in therapy.  Again, it seems you're fairly young still.  Also, being scared because you swallowed something -- the gum -- that isn't supposed to be swallowed isn't anxiety and panic, that's a normal reaction.  You were scared.  The issue for you is why you're getting so riled up about this stuff it's affecting your life so much.  Therapy might have an answer to this for you, and might also teach you how to change the way you think about things.  Doing his when you're still young is the time to do it, because it gets a lot harder when you've had the problem well into middle age, which is what a lot of people end up doing.  The relaxation you're feeling after taking the Prozac is a placebo effect, something you very well can get from all sorts of things.  I'm only mentioning this because we don't know how old you are but again you sound like you're fairly young and I'm just wondering if your life has gotten to the point and you're at an age where medication is a good way to go on this.  As for the eating, you say you're female in your profile; assuming that's true, this is something young women get a lot more than men, so is it possible it's a body issue?  You say you're thin and have no desire to lose weight, but are you thin because even in the best of times you don't eat enough?  Have no idea if this is part of it.  If this is indeed just new job anxiety, once you're used to the job it will be gone.  You'll still be on medication, however.  You see where I'm going here.  But if this is your life all the time, that's a different story.  If you're avoiding a lot of things because of anxiety that's a different story.  Here's one practical suggestion not on how to fix your anxiety, I think you need a psychologist to help you with that and to learn some relaxation techniques to tide you over, but this is about the not eating part.  Fried chicken and pizza and sweets aren't the stuff of food, they're the stuff of fun things to eat sometimes.  Maybe if you buy some real food and work to prepare it you will find an urge to see how it turned out and want to try it.  You might eat.  Those of us who suffer from illnesses, including mental ones, benefit from eating healthy food, and I just see it as one little way you might fight this thing.  It won't fix your problem, that will take time, but it might start you on the way to fixing at least the eating part.  
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