• Weight and Mental Health

    What Depression Medication Makes You Gain Weight?

    What are Psychiatric Drugs? Psychiatric, or psychotropic drugs, are used to treat mental health disorders. They work by adjusting the number of major chemicals in the brain. Decreasing or increasing certain neurotransmitters can help to counter the affects of certain mental health disorders. Neurotransmitters are the messengers that allow your brain to communicate with each other. Psychiatric medication is not a cure, it can only treat mental health disorders, and are sometimes more effective when combined with therapy.  There are five main types of psychiatric medications. These are anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants, antipsychotics, stimulants, and mood stabilizers. Stimulants help with unorganized behavior, they help with concentration and have a calming effect.…

  • Weight and Mental Health

    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…

  • Weight and Mental Health

    Why Do People Gain Weight on Psych Meds?

    People gain weight on psychiatric medication due to increases in appetite and craving for carbohydrate rich food, decreased physical activity due to sedating effects of the medication, and changes in metabolism. Types of Psychiatric Medications There are four main types of psych meds. They are antidepressants, antipsychotics, sleeping pills and minor tranquilizers, and lithium and other mood stabilizers. We’ll give a brief definition of each of the types. Antidepressants are psychiatric drugs that are licensed to treat depression, sometimes they are also used to treat anxiety disorders, phobias, or things like long term pain. Antidepressants work by boosting the activity of particular brain chemicals. This includes noradrenaline and serotonin, neurotransmitters…

  • Weight and Mental Health

    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…

  • Diet and Mental Illness

    How Does PTSD Affect Weight Gain

    Although the exact mechanisms are unknown, it is hypothesized that PTSD may affect weight gain through over activation of the stress hormones affecting the metabolism, PTSD medications that cause weight gain, sleep deprivation, or unhealthy habits that develop to cope with difficult feelings. PTSD is short for post traumatic stress disorder. It is a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people that have experienced a terrifying event. These events can include serious accidents, terrorist acts, sexual violence, or war/combat. Men can experience PTSD, but more women than men tend to experience PTSD. Women with PTSD gain weight quicker and are more likely to be overweight than women without PTSD. However,…

  • Personal Weight Loss Journey

    A real weight loss journey

    Hello! My name is Max. This is my very first blog post on this project. I decided that I really wanted to write a blog on something that I am currently going through myself, so I can write honestly and can speak candidly on the topic. So I thought, what am I currently doing in my life? And the answer was: dieting. I’ll start by giving you a little bit of background about my diet and weight loss story. Last summer I was weighing in at 130 pounds. Over the course of the past year, I put a little bit of weight on, up to about 168 pounds. I’ve been…