Psychiatric drugs and fat

This is a tab the top of the page I’m sharing here again. It’s got a collection of articles I’ve written on psychiatric drugs and fat.

These are pieces I’ve written on the issue of weight gain and psychiatric drugs. I was always made to believe I was a lazy glutton for having gained weight on psychiatric drugs. I also saw this happen to my clients routinely when I worked as a social worker with people who took psychiatric drugs. I’m here to tell you it’s often simply not your fault if you get fat while ingesting these drugs. There are however options to taking them in the first place or at the very least long term. This blog in it’s greater scope looks at those issues.

This page has links to articles on meds and fat.

You’ll perhaps see that my attitudes change from the first article to the last one, as well, as I come to learn more and more about psychiatric drugs and what happened to me all those years I was taking them.

My pieces on fat vs. my pieces on good diet and lifestyle for holistic wellbeing may at times seem to conflict with each other. This is because I hold a couple of seemingly conflicting ideas as both valid. I suppose its the nature of our paradoxical existence.

Shaming people because they are fat is counterproductive to say the very least. Fat and obesity as experienced in the lives of human beings is extremely complex. While diet and lifestyle can certainly help tip the balance the foods people eat and why they eat them are intimate, deeply personal and laden with psychological significance. People can’t just change these things based on simple desire or will quite often.

Changing my diet for better, which I’ve now done in radical fashion took years of learning both about food as well as about my body and my desires. We have to respect our process around food since as I suggested above, it’s all very metaphorically entwined with who we are.

Acceptance of oneself as we are in this moment remains the most important thing.

I write about some of my process with diet and nutrition and how to start thinking about those issues here.  It is not exhaustive. My ideas and knowledge have continued to evolve and there is lots of information that should be researched once one begins to alter their diet for optimal health. I’ll think about editing and updating and republishing that article soon.

• Psychiatric Meds and Fat May 2007 — Most of us who have been treated with psych meds gain weight, there are a lucky few who escape this side effect, and then many that gain a moderate amount and then what seems a large significant minority for whom major weight gain is a problem. I fell into the last category.
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• The fat melts away: psychiatric drugs and fat–a commentary April 2009 — So I’m feeling really skinny. I’ve lost about half of the 100 lbs psych drugs put on me. I do not want congratulations! No. Really because it generally strikes me as insulting.

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• Psych meds make you fat — June 2009 — a response to Therese Borchard who seems to have drunk the kool-aid and believes that you can take psych meds and just diet and exercise and get thin. It’s simply not true for many people. And it’s not your fault if you’re one of those people.
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• Fattened by pills — Paula Caplan academic writes about drugs that make us fat in the Boston Globe.
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• The politics of fat – speaks to fat as a broad issue, not just for those who take psych meds. Includes some interesting and informative links.