I have no appetite anymore and the thought of food makes me nauseous

[johncassidy96]

Hi, I am an 18 year old, roughly 5'10" (178 cm) and 155 lbs (70 kg) man. I used to love eating, but for the past 5-6 months I've lost my appetite almost entirely and I feel nauseous at the sight, smell, or sometimes even thought of eating most foods. I've never had an eating disorder and I didn't really have any major trauma or stress in that time period, although I have had issues with depression and anxiety in the past.

Every morning, I wake up feeling nauseous. Typically I will counter this by sitting in front of the toilet and sort of forcing myself to retch until the feeling goes away. Thankfully I very, very rarely actually throw up because of this. Likewise, throughout the day at various points I will feel nauseous again, and if possible I try to handle it similarly to how I handle my morning nausea.

I never ordinarily eat breakfast and haven't done so for years, but with the reduced amount of food I have been consuming I definitely feel very empty by the time lunch comes around. I just never even feel hungry anymore, I only eat when everyone else eats or when I can tell it's really been a long time since I've eaten. I can't finish normal sized meals in one sitting anymore, which makes eating with friends difficult and a little uncomfortable at times when they question me about it.

Probably what is most concerning to me is that I don't ever even feel hungry anymore. I used to be able to eat all the time, but that's gone now. Simply smelling or seeing food is enough to trigger nausea; sometimes even the thought of eating gets me a bit queasy. It's particularly bad when the food in question is dry or hot, for whatever reason. The only kind of food for which that doesn't usually happen is fruit.

I thought I could handle this on my own since I've never sought help for non-physical medical issues before, but I just can't do it on my own. I talked to a friend about it and they suggested I should talk to someone about it; I plan on bringing it up at my next checkup, but until then I hope that someone can provide me with some kind of answer.

Thank you

[Paxiled]

Be careful about taking medication that suppresses stomach acid for long periods of time.  The stomach absolutely must then work harder to produce more and more acid, as you can't digest protein or minerals without an acidic digestive system.  There are better ways to do this.

[Clsactn]

I have found I have similar symptoms. I know I have high stomach acid and I take medication for it. If I miss my dose, I know it. I can usually eat 30 minutes after taking it.

[Paxiled]

One possibility is if you started a new multi-vitamin around the time this started.  Some, particularly when they contain minerals that aren't in the best absorbed forms, especially iron, can make you nauseous if you don't eat them with food.  Skipping anything at breakfast, even a little food, can exacerbate this problem.