Hunger and thirst survey

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I was jealous of how some people's bodies stay thin no matter what they do, but then I realized that if those people lose weight in an illness, they often have a lot of trouble getting healthy again, because they don't have a lot of energy reserves. I'm a fat girl, and I know my eating habits aren't that healthy--mostly because of the way I forget to eat and then eat a whole bunch when I remember because I'm ravenous by then--but as far as health goes, it seems that if I get some physical activity and eat real food instead of empty calories, I should be able to maintain good health despite the extra pounds. I really wish I could find a way to eat on a more regular schedule, though. It seems like just one more annoying thing to manage, and I feel like if I added that to my plate (heh, yeah, pun intended) I would have to drop something else that's equally important, like keeping my apartment clean or taking good care of my cats. So I just buy reasonably healthy food that can be prepared quickly, and hope that's enough.

If I am in the middle of doing something, I dislike having to stop to get something to eat or drink. I will feel hungry or thirsty because my stomach will ache and my hands feel dry. My problem comes from thinking, "I'll get something in a minute, I just want to do this thing first..." After which I forget my intention to eat or drink or lose track of time, so hours pass until I realise I've missed lunch or dinner.

Other people sometimes interrupt me to make sure I eat and drink. My housemates do this for me if I am working at home. At uni it's easier because there are set times for eating that are difficult to miss as everyone takes the time out. It's a lot harder to remember when I'm at home and don't have anything to knock me out of my zone. I have an app on my phone that is basically an alarm reminder system, which I have programmed to alert me when it is time to eat, time to take my meds, time to go to sleep etc and I can then 'tick off' things after they have been done so I can check if I've forgotten to do something.

I cannot really say whether I am hungry or not, but I get thirsty easily and tend to drink too much. At the same time I can go without without food for several days.

Hi Ettina, have sent you a link to the survey via a pm. If anyone else is interested in doing the survey, maybe just pm me and I'll send the link to you.

Unless I am extremely hungry I do not recognize that I am hungry. If I am becoming upset for no apparent reason my partner will ask me to check what I am feeling. Very often I am hungry, cold, hot, have a pain, or some other subtle internal feeling that I have not realized. It comes out of me in the same way as if I am being overwhelmed by external stimuli like too much light or sound, ie. agitation, mutism, chaotic thinking. It seems that I do not consciously identify the feelings (they are all kind of jumbled into a general sense of 'too much'), and at the same time I am hypersensitive to these internal feelings on a subconscious level.

that's really interesting Alexi, and exactly the same way John describes it. He gets really agitated, frustrated and tired.

I know I'm normal with knowing when I'm hungry and thirsty and knowing what it feels like. I was ever since I was born.

Do you have to be diagnosed to reply to this? Because my assessment is not for another 8 weeks. But I do have similar problems to those described, and my family learned to deal with it before I did. I can easily forget to eat (and my body needs to eat quite regularly which makes it more of a problem!) and drink and a few years ago it was quite a problem for a while. I would get shaky and dizzy and really indecisive (even more than normal!) and tend to burst into tears about nothing when I wouldn't normally cry in public. My Mum would take me to somewhere and sit me down and get me to drink a hot chocolate and eat something, and at some point I learned that if I get like that it means I need to eat. Now I just make sure I eat every few hours whether I feel hungry or not. I will go hours without drinking because I just don't think about it, and often don't realise I need the toilet until I need it urgently.

I would like to take the survey too but isn't it easier by just editing your first post and putting the survey link there? Then everyone can take the survey.

Hi Andras, I would like to do that, but I haven't yet received formal permission from Alex. Don't want to step on any toes. Alex hasn't read my email yet, so am not sure what to do. I suppose, if everyone's OK with it, I can place the link directly in my first post.

I don't see how that would be a problem? I've seen plenty of survey's here in the past, I don't think you need permission for it.

OK, will do

Wait, why is a phone number required to fill in the survey?

a phone number? Where is that?

[img][800:362]http://i.imgur.com/lxUGvwW.png[/img]

wow, that DEFINITELY shouldn't be there. It wasn't any part of the survey that I put to the University. Will contact my supervisor and the Technical Services people today to find out why they put it there, and to remove it. No-one's brought this up before. Thanks so much for pointing it out. Will keep you posted.