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A bit of a rant


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Hello everybody 

I haven't been here in awhile, as since I've increased my medication, my ocd and overall mood as been better than ever. I find that the best way of describing it is that I felt that my head was filled with dark, grey clouds and now there's some sunshine coming through.

The only side effect I've experienced is weight gain. A lot. Some days I struggle with it and other days I'm fine, since it is a decent tradeoff for having a manageable ocd. 

However, my mother is a very superficial person and we don't get along that well. She keeps trying to put me on diets, she even got me an appointment with a nutritionist against my will, she keeps pressuring me to go on walks with her, etc. On the one hand I get what she's doing, but on the other hand, she's not doing it for my wellbeing. She just doesn't want to have a fat kid. She told me I was too young to get fat. I'm 22, 1.57m tall and I weigh 60kg. I used to weigh about 50kg before I started medication. 

All she cares about is looks and how men view her. I couldn't give a ****. I've always been single and I'd rather be alone then having to rely on men to be happy. We are on two ends of the spectrum and we've always had our differences.

I don't eat badly and would rather not have to go on diets. I find that unlike before, the medication makes it much harder to lose weight. On my last appointment I thought about telling my psychiatrist, but ended up not to and now that I can finally feeling positive side effects, I don't know if I should... I take pregabalin and paroxetine, as well as gabapentin for migraines. 

I don't even know why I'm writing this, but I just felt like something I needed to do... Does anyone experienced this side effect and how did you deal with it?

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I've gained weight while taking fluoxetine before, which is listed as a possible side-effect, but I'm not sure if it was strictly to do with the medication in my case, or more a result of regaining the appetite I'd lost when suffering acute anxiety,  suddenly enjoying food again, and being more relaxed in general. I've adjusted my diet slightly and increased exercise to tackle it.

Have you checked your BMI, though? Just going through the figures in my head it sounds to me like you're a healthy weight. What's important is how you feel about your body, rather than whether you fit a particular stereotype or someone else's ideal. I've had pressure on me in the past to look super-skinny, but my build doesn't actually allow it, I have a chest and hips, even when I lose weight.

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Hi @VNDO I would say that losing weight is not a silver bullet to automatically being happy as I used to be chubby so I started going running and put myself on a very strict diet. I lost my goal weight, but was still unhappy when I looked in the mirror so I continued losing more until I was gaunt and bony. Luckily my friends talked sense into me to put some weight back on and I’m now a healthier size. Even now I feel pressure to stay exactly this size as my parents comment if I lose or gain any weight 

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That's exactly what happened to me... hips and bust got bigger. I think it's more to do with feeling insecure, although I never really loved my body even before. 

Thank you, I just checked my BMI and it's considered "normal". 

The thing is that when I'm starting to feel like I'm fine and accepting how I look, my mother always seems to make some kind of denigrating comment. Just tonight after dinner, after telling her how weirdly hungry I felt, she noticed I ate some bread after finishing dinner and said how could I be eating it at night, that it wasnt healthy to eat that kind of stuff before going to bed. I never eat bread, sugary things or fried food. Today I happened to be extremely hungry and since she bought some bread, I ate it. Just when I was actually feeling fine about myself. I know this is probably silly, but after finally feeling like there's actually some future for me, she always does something to put me down.

I totally agree with you about fitting some stereotype, I really do, but somehow my its difficult to keep a clear head and not get down.

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1 minute ago, Lost in Thought said:

Hi @VNDO I would say that losing weight is not a silver bullet to automatically being happy as I used to be chubby so I started going running and put myself on a very strict diet. I lost my goal weight, but was still unhappy when I looked in the mirror so I continued losing more until I was gaunt and bony. Luckily my friends talked sense into me to put some weight back on and I’m now a healthier size. Even now I feel pressure to stay exactly this size as my parents comment if I lose or gain any weight 

Oh, I'm sorry... I completely agree and comments like those, even if not meant with any harm, do affect us.

With me, it's more to do with going back to how I was. I gained most of my weight in my chest and I've been very insecure, so having big boobs is not something I'm very comfortable with... I would love to go for runs as well, but I think one of the ways my ocd manifests itself is that I always feel wary when I'm out of the house. I can't go outside if I don't have a place to go, if that makes sense. Like, I need to plan a route to where I need to go and not stray. So just going for a walk, is something I find very difficult. I've been looking into buying a treadmill, but they're quite expensive.

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Well done and glad to hear you mood has gotten better thanks to your medication. Far more important than superficiality! 

Im certain your mum does love you unconditionally no matter what and it doesn’t sound like your weight is affecting your quality of life. 

I wish I was like you and didn’t give such a fudge as you so eloquently put it about my own weight 

Edited by Lost in Thought
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18 minutes ago, Lost in Thought said:

Well done and glad to hear you mood has gotten better thanks to your medication. Far more important than superficiality! 

Im certain your mum does love you unconditionally no matter what and it doesn’t sound like your weight is affecting your quality of life. 

I wish I was like you and didn’t give such a fudge as you so eloquently put it about my own weight 

It has gotten so much better. Now that I know what it feels like, I think I've always been depressed. I was just talking to a friend about it and she said she used to be a bit afraid of talking to me, because she didnt khow I would react and that doesn't happen anymore. I don't get into those depressive moods and not a day goes by where I don't laugh at something. 

My relation with my mother is complicated... we never got along well and we're too different and view the world in a very different way, so I made peace that we'll never be friends. 

The thing is, I do get affected by how I look sometimes, so even though I say I don't give a toss about my weight, there are days where I do. I just need to center myself and think clearly. I'm healthy, I'm happier and we go a whole life only looking at ourselves through mirrors. If those didnt exist, we would probably be a lot happier. I'm sure you have people who love you and who don't give a damn about how much you weigh. We need to learn to look at ourselves like they look at us. At the end of the day, we were born with this body and it's the only one we'll get, so we might as well love it ❤

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15 minutes ago, VNDO said:

It has gotten so much better. Now that I know what it feels like, I think I've always been depressed. I was just talking to a friend about it and she said she used to be a bit afraid of talking to me, because she didnt khow I would react and that doesn't happen anymore. I don't get into those depressive moods and not a day goes by where I don't laugh at something. 

My relation with my mother is complicated... we never got along well and we're too different and view the world in a very different way, so I made peace that we'll never be friends. 

The thing is, I do get affected by how I look sometimes, so even though I say I don't give a toss about my weight, there are days where I do. I just need to center myself and think clearly. I'm healthy, I'm happier and we go a whole life only looking at ourselves through mirrors. If those didnt exist, we would probably be a lot happier. I'm sure you have people who love you and who don't give a damn about how much you weigh. We need to learn to look at ourselves like they look at us. At the end of the day, we were born with this body and it's the only one we'll get, so we might as well love it ❤

Yes well said! 

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I used to take Paroxetine 60mg with Mirtazapine 45mg, both of which can cause weight gain because they make you hungry. I initially gained weight, but then with careful management, I lost the weight I had gained and even lost a bit more.

Mirtazapine would make me hungry within an hour of taking it, so I would take it right before bed and aim to fall asleep before the hunger came.

Paroxetine, which I also took at night would make me hungry on waking, which was ok as i'd wake and have a decent breakfast, then go about my day.

It's normal to gain a bit of weight when you first start taking these meds, but it totally can be managed if you want to or if you feel the need. 

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7 hours ago, Captain Trips said:

I used to take Paroxetine 60mg with Mirtazapine 45mg, both of which can cause weight gain because they make you hungry. I initially gained weight, but then with careful management, I lost the weight I had gained and even lost a bit more.

Mirtazapine would make me hungry within an hour of taking it, so I would take it right before bed and aim to fall asleep before the hunger came.

Paroxetine, which I also took at night would make me hungry on waking, which was ok as i'd wake and have a decent breakfast, then go about my day.

It's normal to gain a bit of weight when you first start taking these meds, but it totally can be managed if you want to or if you feel the need. 

The first month I felt so hungry. When the doctor told me I would be feeling like eating, I thought she meant I would have cravings. But no, I felt so hungry, to the point I had to wake up in the middle of the night to eat something, and I never did that. I felt like I would pass out if I didn't eat. Right now, I'm back to my normal routines, so I don't eat anymore than I used to. I think my metabolism is slower now? Even when I was restricting my diet, I couldn't lose that much weight. 

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On 30/06/2020 at 07:08, Captain Trips said:

I also used to wake up in the middle of the night to eat. 

I think you'll find that anti depressants won't change your metabolism directly, only they increase the hunger and desire to eat. 

That only happened to me in the beginning. I eat no more than I used to, nor do I have cravings. To be fair, the lockdown hasn't helped. I've been home since the early days of march and whereas before I used to walk to the bus station and then to uni every day, now it's difficult to do any sort of exercise, so that doesn't help ? And to be fair, I was never really secure about my body and having a mother that's very quick to say when I've put on some weight, it's not the best thing. 

Do you still wake up to eat or like me it was only in the beginning?

Also, sorry for the late reply. I don't seem to be getting the notifications 

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