Can anxiety cause allergy to certain foods?

Discussion

About a year ago, I had a severe panic attack induced by anxiety over what I presumed to be food poisoning. At the ER, they didn’t listen and prescribed me benzos. I had no idea what they were, and was told I had anxiety instead of simply treating the food poisoning. I have never ‘freaked out’ like that in my life- so health professionals overlooked my words and deduced I had anxiety disorder. Over the next couple of months, my body couldn’t handle anything normal anymore. I had restricted myself to ‘safe’ food like the B.R.A.T diet because anything else I ate ‘left’ my body shortly after, and would trigger severe episodes. It took a lot of medication to calm me down.

I suddenly couldn’t eat any dairy, fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, breads otherwise I would immediately puke it out. This turned into intense weight loss and I looked very unhealthy for a long time. It’s almost as if my brain programmed itself to be anxious at the sight of food? I would freak out right after I’d eat, or even during- and I never finished a meal.

I’m back to normal now, and can eat whatever I want. I was just curious if anxiety is so strong that it can do this? Can it rewire your brain into thinking some foods are ‘poisonous’ to you and force your body to take it out?

Posted Aug 1, 2026, 3:42 AM UTC

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