medication that stack on the weight

[suchislife2]

I had a thought about this today. I recently (very recently) had issues with my new medication that caused water retention, and weight gain. Had I chosen to keep going on the meds I know I would have gotten worse and started to look extremely unhealthy.

Anyways, My grandmother and Soon to be mother in law have issues with their medication that has caused weight gain. Both are arthritic, and have various other problems that mean if they go off the meds they will be wheelchair bound/dead. What gets me is the looks they get. People look at them like "OMFG Fatty loose some weight already/ OMG stop eating and walk once in a while"

If it was that simple both would be slim and trim. Neither one eats a lot and both eat very well. They really can't do much about the weight.

So basically. I find it's really sad that there are lots of people, for whatever reason, that have a weight problem that is not due to diet/lack of exercise yet they are treated so cruelly!

I just think this world has become less and less accepting instead of more accepting some times

[Seshat]

Yes. It's not fun, it's not fair, but it's true. Any 'excess' size, even if its muscle, is looked at badly by this society unless it's clearly and obviously muscle.

Even if the reason you're not 'thin' is muscle, if it's concealed by a layer of fat or a layer of clothing, you get 'the looks'. And unless you're building muscle specifically to look 'ripped', most people will have no more visible muscle than Rocky from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Look at that character with modern eyes! In the 70s, HE was considered 'ripped'.

[Boozy]

I think its wrong to judge people who are overweight because they overeat, too. Why is someone's appearance my business at all? If some stranger sits in front of his/her TV all day and eats Twinkies and potato chips, that makes their life poorer, not mine. I just feel badly for them.

Judgmental people are the reason why people whose eating is out of control don't seek help.

[Seshat]

I think its wrong to judge people who are overweight because they overeat, too.

Many people who overeat do so because of some sort of psychological or psychiatric disorder. Not all, but many.

Many people who eat poorly do so because of a lack of nutrition knowledge, or because of a life where taking time to cook and eat is a lower priority than the other things they do. Both are correctable, but both require a societal change. Nutrition education in schools will do the former, the latter will require a change in social attitudes that currently value a 'time-poor, activity-heavy' lifestyle.

[powerboy]

Also some people who over eat, has the attitude of "Who Cares"

[IDrinkaRum]

I over eat. I'm an emotional eater. My family knows this as I've told them in both a calm manner and a screaming match manner. Do you think they care? Would I be about to rant, if they did?

My mother knows how to push my buttons. However, I'm the more "responsible" child of the 2 my mother has had.

We can abuse IDR emotionally and mentally. She'll come back for more. Can't abuse "Princess" (as I refer to my sister because that's what she is in my mother's eyes). We'll complain about her lack of motivation in cleaning her house. We'll complain about what we feed her daughter, how she lets her daughter crawl into bed with her & hubs in the middle of the night, etc., etc. We'll tell her she's not a good mother. She's not a good wife. And because she dared to have a mini-rant about her parents on her MySpace page, she's not a good daughter because her feelings don't count. We did the best we could for her and we never had the money fo her to do what she wanted but we damn well made sure we have the money for Princess. Bah.

I'm sorry. Now the Special Dark candy bar in my pantry cupboard is calling to me. I'm trying to resist the sweet siren song it's singing. I really am. But I'm losing the battle.

Every day I have this battle with my mother. Last night I just snapped. And I'm not going to take it anymore. My mother opens her big, fat, ugly mouth to criticize about how why I can't carry the damn vacuum cleaner down the stairs by myself (when she can, when she knows I can't even carry myself down the stairs without falling), I'm hanging up on her. Every time she does it. *click* goes the phone.

Sorry about the thread jack. I do apologize. The overeating thing just hit a raw nerve with me.

As to medication that adds weight, I think it's my Lexapro that is keeping me from losing weight. I'm not gaining, but I'm not losing, and I've given up fatty foods (fast foods) and I've cut back on my sodas. Oh well. More water and I guess more salads for me in the future. *le sigh*

[Seshat]

More water and I guess more salads for me in the future. *le sigh*

Also more figuring out how to provide yourself with a healthy emotional environment.

Which may include a great deal of hanging up on your mother or walking out of family gatherings until you've enforced that you WILL be treated respectfully or you simply won't be around.

Get yourself a healthy emotional environment, get yourself a therapist or counsellor if you need it, let yourself heal.

[IDrinkaRum]

Seshat - I do have a therapist. He's really good. I've been standing up for myself more and more. However, my mother is never wrong and I always am so I'm going to talk to my therapist on Friday (I have a standing appointment with him anyways) and let him know what I'm planning. Just to talk it out with him.

Thing is though, we have to walk on eggshells with my sister or she'll stop talking to the family. Well, maybe IDR needs to take that stance too. I can't completely cut my family out of my life as my daughter absolutely loves & adores my mother & vice versa. I cannot hurt my daughter just because I cannot get along with my mother.

I will still go to family functions/dinners/spending time before leaving for my mom to babysit my daughter. But, I will nip the ugly talk in the bud. Over the phone, I have a little more control because I can say "I'm terminating this conversation right now Mom. What you're saying is hurtful and ugly to me and I don't want to hear it. We can talk later. Good bye." And then hang up. It's the only thing I can do.

I just know it's going to tick my mother off, but really. When my husband came home last night, I railed at him because I couldn't rail at my mother. And he let me rail at him. He laughed (but that's a defense mechanism) and just let me rant. I love him.

[AFPheonix]

Yes, definitely set some boundaries with your mom. She most likely is trying to compensate for some flaw she perceives in herself by making you seem smaller than her.

As well as eating healthier foods, check your portion sizes, too. that makes a huge difference as well. Eating healthy stuff is great, but eating too much of them puts you in the same boat as eating unhealthy foods.

Also, SSRIs like lexapro have the side-effect of weight gain. Maybe talk to your doctor about wellbutrin. It works on a different set of chemicals in your brain, but many people who are unhappy with their SSRI are happier with this one. Bonus, most strengths of wellbutrin come generically.

Our obesity problem in this country really has many, many root issues. SSRIs are one of the most prescribed drug classes in our country, and although it's a class with few side effects, potential weight gain is one of them.
Many towns are set up more for driving than for walking or bike-riding. We need to reexamine how we design our communities to encourage more physical activity. Families need to teach kids how to get up and get moving, too, and it will probably have to be an example sort of thing, instead of yelling at them to get off the XBox while the parent's sitting reading the newspaper.

Our food supply is heavily weighted towards over-processed foods with too much caloric content. Changing zoning in some cities so that grocery stores can move into areas where only mini-marts reigned would help some, also better nutrition education would be a bonus, too.
Furthermore, healthier food needs to be available in school. Pop machines and snack machines frankly should be disallowed in favor of school store offerings that have better options available.

Better mental health treatment needs to be available in this country as well. Over eating is often associated with depression, and many people cannot afford a decent therapist, much less a GP to get a stop-gap script for psych meds.

I could keep going, but this post is pretty long already.

[Giggle Goose]

I really, really, really want to get off of my Lexapro. I was able to decrease my dosage; but once when I was having an OK week I went off of it. I was fine, but last Friday I was feeling so incredibly depressed I didn't know what to do with myself. I also hate the sexual side effects. Not to be TMI or anything, but it's a big concern with SSRIs.

But then if I'm off the Lexapro and depressed, I eat. It's incredibly frustrating. I learned through my 12-step program that I'm NOT a normal eater. Or drinker. I try to improve myself one day at a time, which is pretty much the basis for all 12-step programs like AA and OA.

People are excruciatingly insensitive when it comes to emotional eating. I don't mean to threadjack, but the whole notion of SSRIs and eating for comfort go hand in hand for me. I think I'll start a new thread about it, actually. Hmm...

[AFPheonix]

Check with your doctor about switching to a completely different class of drug if SSRI side effects are bothering you. Like I mentioned before, dopamine reuptake inhibitors like wellbutrin are often a good choice for people, and they don't have the sexual side effects that SSRIs do.
Some other people do well on old tricyclics like Remeron, too.

BBC just had an article out recently that was pretty interesting, too. A study was published that recompiled the data from old drug tests on SSRIs, and overall they found that for people with mild depression they were not really that much more helpful than placebo, although people with stronger depression and other maladies like Bipolar disorder were noticeably helped.

[suchislife2]

I'm on Lexapro too, I didn't know that it could cause weight gain, as my doc told me it's the one anti-depressant that doesn't.

So far I have been able to loose some weight but it's a SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW process. I know I'm an emotional eater. I'm also a binge eater. I'll try and be good and eat very little, then I end up being starving and eat HEAPS in one go. SO very bad.

[myswtghst]

I can't recall the name of it, but one of the many drugs my father was on (he's got adult onset diabetes, high cholesterol and more) was making him gain weight/stopped any weight loss he was acheieving, so he was able to work with his doctor to switch things up, which helped greatly.

It's been hard on my parents lately, though, because dad has done a great job of losing weight through eating better, walking the dog constantly, and various other lifestyle changes. Mom, on the other hand, finally resolved sleep apnea issues and had knee surgery, but has trouble with getting enough exercise because of her bad knees, and is an emotional eater (just like me). Add on to that the BP meds she was recently put on are causing water retention, and she's quite unhappy.

[SportinGoods]

"Our food supply is heavily weighted towards over-processed foods with too much caloric content. Changing zoning in some cities so that grocery stores can move into areas where only mini-marts reigned would help some, also better nutrition education would be a bonus, too.
Furthermore, healthier food needs to be available in school. Pop machines and snack machines frankly should be disallowed in favor of school store offerings that have better options available.

Better mental health treatment needs to be available in this country as well. Over eating is often associated with depression, and many people cannot afford a decent therapist, much less a GP to get a stop-gap script for psych meds.

I could keep going, but this post is pretty long already."

In my opinion, it's not only the quality of the foods, at least as an American, we eat, it's also the frequency at which we eat. For the past five years I have eaten at most twice a day, which is why I maintain the chubby weight I am at, and can't loose weight, nor do I gain. I consume at most 1500 calories a day in these two meals, and have very little fat in them.

I rarely have cheese, fried items, red meat, or in general a lot of dairy products. I love vegetables and chicken. I eat more healthy than most American Ham-beasts do, yet I still manage to stay fat. I'm not inactive, I walk around campus all day for Mondays, and Wednesdays, and I work a part time job in between where I am running around the entireity of my shift. So I wouldn't agree with the stereotype that all overweight people are over eaters, or lazy, or don't eat healthy.

People that a restricted by their medication to this body-type shouldn't be stereotyped like that either. I was misdiagnosed as depressed, and later as bi-polar when I was 17 or so, I took medications for both conditions, and all they accomplished was making me fatter, and more upset about my appearance. I have yet to shed the weight from this period in my life, and I'm almost convinced that it completely f$%^ed my metabolism.

[AFPheonix]

I actually have kind of the same problem that you do, in that I don't eat particularly often and I'm terrible about eating breakfast.

But you and I do not a trend make The stuff I pointed out are definitely contributors to why the MAJORITY of Americans are overweight. A small minority can point to glandular issues, another slice can point to inability to exercise much due to disability and lack of a nearby pool, a slice can point to medications that cause weight gain and water retention.
Most of us frankly just eat food that's bad for us in too large of quantities at bad times of day to be able to burn it off, and then proceed to not burn it off at all. I will raise my hand as a part of the latter, as I eat far too much fast food, sometimes only eat once per day, and drink way too much pop. I get a decent amount of exercise between being on my feet all day at work and the farm, which is probably why I'm only 20 pounds over my ideal and not more.