#hyperphagia

So I got prescribed antipsychotics as a kid, and if you don’t know, some of those can royally fuck up your body. This one did. My metabolism got permanently screwed and gave my hyperphagia. So not only was I putting on weight that I could not get off, my brain was constantly sending off “you are actively starving to death and you need to eat RIGHT NOW” chemicals no matter what I ate. I felt that shit in my sleep and it actually led to me developed NES (Night Eating Syndrome). I would wake up in the middle of the night or just not sleep, then go sneak snacks while my parents were asleep. Eating was only time where I felt relief from the constant hunger, though it never lasted.

That, non-diabetic hypoglycemia and excessive drowsiness also caused by my antipsychotics, plus early onset fibromyalgia that made it difficult to exercise, made me gain a fuck ton of weight in a short amount of time.

Anyway, I went into a hospital to get bloodwork done cause I was having trouble with cholesterol and the first thing the nutritionist did was scold me (a child btw) for being fat and recommended to my father that I get in on this study they were doing where they were putting kids on strict diet and tracking their cholesterol. We didn’t end up doing that, although I did end up going on a diet.

I was given a sheet and told to circle everything I ate in a week from a list of fruits, veggies, meats, grains, and desserts. My parents had me put on a diet, and I followed it to the best of my ability out of guilt. My sleep problems got worse, my hair started falling out due to stress, started hoarding food in my room out of anxiety, and eventually broke and made myself incredibly sick by eating way too much too quickly. I was accused of lying about what I was eating when I came back, because I had actually GAINED a significant amount of weight.

Now, the reason I bring up ableism in this is because we didn’t know I had hyperphagia or that my antipsychotics were messing with my weight. We went to the nutritionist and had bloodwork done specifically so we could figure the root cause of it. But the nutritionist jumped straight to diet.

If she had actually taken into account what medication I was taking , maybe things could have been different.

Charles Domery was a Prussian and french soldier who became renowned for his unearthly appetite. He is reported to have eaten 174 cats over the course of a year, and was known to consume up to 2.3kg of grass if no other food was available to him. During one instance during his military service he was observed to attempt to eat the severed leg of one of his fellow soldiers while they were at sea, however another member of the crew wrestled it from him and threw it into the ocean.

Unlike his contemporary Tarrare (who also had an exceptional appetite), Domery had an entirely normal physical appearance, he was noted to be polite, pleasant, of average weight and height. The only notable thing about his physicality was a tendency to be prone to profuse sweating while sleeping and when eating large amounts of food. He was also noted to never vomit, no matter the volume of what he had consumed.

While serving as a soldier he was captured by the British who conducted experiments on him to test the extent of his appetite and his ability to consume unusual food. He was fed raw cows udder, 4.6 kg of raw beef and 12 candles - a long with several large bottles of Porter. During this time he did not urinate, defecate or vomit.

Dr Johnston of the Royal Navy noted:

The eagerness with which he attacks his beef when his stomach is not gorged, resembles the voracity of a hungry wolf, tearing off and swallowing it with canine greediness. When his throat is dry from continued exercise, he lubricates it by stripping the grease off the candles between his teeth, which he generally finishes at three mouthfuls, and wrapping the wick like a ball, string and all, sends it after at a swallow. He can, when no choice is left, make shift to dine on immense quantities of raw potatoes or turnips; but, from choice, would never desire to taste bread or vegetables.

"Polyphagia and hormone-related conditions

Aside from diabetes, polyphagia can be a symptom of the following hormone-related conditions:

Hyperthyroidism or Graves’ disease: In these conditions, your thyroid releases too much thyroid hormone, which plays a significant role in regulating your metabolism (how your body transforms the food you eat into energy). Elevated levels of thyroid hormone speed up your metabolism, which means your body is using calories faster than normal. This can cause constant hunger and weight loss.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS): Premenstrual syndrome describes symptoms that show up one to two weeks before you start your period and return at the same time each month. One possible symptom is polyphagia. This is due to the spikes in the hormones estrogen and progesterone and decreased levels of serotonin (a neurotransmitter).