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Do Anti-Anxiety Medications Cause Weight Gain?
Classic anti-anxiety medications such as benzodiazepines show no association with weight gain. However, antidepressants, which are often prescribed as a first line treatment for anxiety, can lead to a high level of weight gain. First of all, I am not a doctor. I am just somebody who has taken different types of psychiatric medications, and struggled with weight gain from some of them. Anti-anxiety meds are a type of psychiatric, or psychotropic, medication. They regulate the brain chemicals that regulate emotions and thought patterns. There are five main types of psychiatric medications, of which anti-anxiety medications are one type. The other types are antipsychotics, stimulants, antidepressants, and mood stabilizers. Many…
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How are Anxiety and Weight Related?
Anxiety can lead to both weight loss, or weight gain. There are conflicting reports about whether weight loss can result in a change in anxiety levels, with many studies finding that weight loss neither increases, nor decreases anxiety. Anxiety is a tricky subject. It is a common ailment, many people suffer from it, including myself at times. Anxiety is generally referred to as a feeling of dread, fear, or uneasiness. It is characterized by worried thoughts, tension, and physical changes like increased blood pressure. There is a difference between having occasional anxiety, and having an anxiety disorder. Experiencing occasional anxiety is pretty normal, it happens to most people, but people…
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Can Mental Health Affect Weight
Mental health can affect weight, mental illness can increase the occurrence of comfort eating, anxiety, and depression, and various psychotropic medications all have the potential to contribute to weight gain. From my own experience, as I talked about in my opening blog post, I know that mental health can absolutely affect weight. I gained about 40 pounds over the last year, that I am almost positive I would not have gained if my mental health had been better. Normally I am pretty good about monitoring my weight and making sure that it doesn’t get too out of hand. However, over the past year, I just ate whatever I wanted, whenever…
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Can Losing Weight Help Mental Health?
Mental health and weight loss are both very complex subjects, with many variables. What is the relationship between them, and how does losing weight affect mental health? Losing weight can help to improve mental health through improving self-esteem, and possibly reducing rates of depression and anxiety. Greater Self-Esteem Self-Esteem is the opinion that we have of ourselves. When we have good self esteem, we feel more positive about ourselves, and about life. We are better able to deal with the ups and downs of life. When our self-esteem is low, we are less able to deal with life’s ups and downs and the challenges that life throws at us. When…
