- Hi everyone, my name is Lauren
and I make videos on what it's like
living with schizophrenia.
Now, one of the questions that I get asked all the time
is how I deal with weight gain while on anti-psychotics,
or just psychiatric medication in general.
And so I know that this is a question
that a lot of people have
because it's something that a lot of people deal with.
Weight gain is unfortunately
a very common side effect of anti-psychotics,
and of just psychiatric medication in general.
So I'm going to be sharing with you
what my experience has been like
dealing with weight gain from anti-psychotics.
But before I get started, I just wanna ask,
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to make sure to hit subscribe,
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So let's start with why.
Why do anti-psychotics promote weight gain
in patients who use them?
So it's not totally understood yet why exactly that is,
but it is thought that it makes people hungrier.
It makes people feel less satiated,
and so that leads to eating more
and consuming more calories, thus leading to weight gain.
They also think that it affects metabolism too.
So not only does it make you eat more,
but it also affects the way
your body processes the food that you're eating.
I also just wanna take this opportunity
to really encourage you,
if you are dealing with weight gain
as a result of your anti-psychotics,
to speak about it with your doctor.
They are gonna be able to help you
either come up with lifestyle changes,
or find a different medication
that doesn't affect you in that same way
in regards to weight gain,
or prescribe a different medication that may help
alleviate some of the side effect of weight gain.
There are lots of different options
that you can discuss with your doctor,
and I would really encourage you to go to them
if you're struggling with this.
So I've always kind of struggled with like,
being aware of maintaining a healthy weight,
and it's always been something that's been,
that I've had to be mindful of in terms of
also taking psychiatric medication
for most of my adult life.
And so weight gain was always kind of on my mind,
or was always kind of a fear of mine.
And so when it happened so severely,
I think it was about three years ago or so now,
where I went on a specific medication
and I just almost instantly
gained like 50, almost 60 pounds.
It was really, really hard.
Now again, like I said,
I had kind of struggled with issues around my weight
and maintaining a healthy weight for a while,
and so when I first started that medication,
I was probably underweight
because I was dealing with the other extreme,
which I'll talk a little bit more about later,
but I was probably a little bit underweight.
So the 50 pounds, like looking at these photos,
that 50 pounds, you can't really notice it,
but it really had an impact on my mental health,
and my self confidence, and my overall wellbeing.
So I mean, looking at these photos,
I'm kind of transported back to the mindset
or the state of mind that I was in during that time.
And it was, it was kind of a dark one,
gaining all the weight and feeling like
meds were working against me in that way
was really, really disheartening.
And looking at these pictures,
I just remember how I was really going through
a period of depression during that time,
which kind of made the issue compounded a little bit,
and I can just kind of see from these pictures,
remembering back that I was really struggling at the time.
And so I know what it's like to not feel good
because of massive side effects
that are caused by your anti-psychotics
or your psychiatric medication.
And so I wanna talk a little bit more
about what I did to kind of work
to get out of this state of mind and to get healthy again.
So one of the most obvious ways
to manage weight gain is through nutrition,
and nutrition is really, really important
to be really mindful of, and to be aware
of what you're putting into your body
and how it's gonna subsequently make you feel
when you're taking an anti-psychotic
that's going to cause weight gain.
So it's just something to really be aware of, I guess.
So when I first started gaining a lot of weight
on the anti-psychotic that made that happen,
I began to be more aware of what I was putting into my body.
And I wasn't restricting or anything,
because that would be its own problem,
but I was just being more mindful
about what I was putting into my body
and trying to make really good, healthy choices,
and to be aware of the amount that I was consuming as well.
Now there's a few ways to do this.
You can either just keep a journal of what you're eating,
or you can, there's apps on your phone
that really help with that, and help you be mindful
of what you're putting into your body.
So MyFitnessPal is a really popular one,
or the one that I used
when I had gained all the weight was Lose It.
The only thing that I would mention about that though,
is that if you are prone to,
or are susceptible to eating disorders, do not do that.
Do not track your food because then that's
kind of a dangerous slope,
and that's kind of what happened with me,
where I went in the other extreme.
So just be really mindful of that.
And if you are prone to eating disorders,
or anything like that, don't track your food.
Just be mindful of what you're putting into your body.
Now I'm not usually a fan of like,
fad diets or anything like that,
but we had been reading some evidence
that the keto diet was really helpful
for people who are living with schizophrenia
and has really good cognitive benefits
for people who are living with schizophrenia or psychosis.
And so we've been giving that a try, and as you may know,
one of the common things that people say about keto
is that it helps them lose weight too.
This hasn't really been the case for me,
I've maintained a pretty stable weight while on it,
but I know it works for a lot of people.
So that might be something to give a try too,
also because of the benefits
that it possibly has on schizophrenia.
Yet to be determined for me,
I'm not really sure how it's affected me yet,
or if it has at all, but giving it a try.
(rhythmic chopping)
So as a side note, what I'm doing right now
is I'm just making a quick and easy
and nutritious salad that I do quite frequently.
So I just throw in some vegetables that I cut up,
some deli meat, I'm going to put some avocado mayo
on it as a dressing, and then it's good to go.
So I kinda have this handy little chopper thing
that really works well that you can find on Amazon,
if you are interested in doing that too.
And it's just a nice way
to make a quick and easy, healthy meal.
(muffled footsteps)
So, another way that I use
to manage the weight that I gained
while taking the anti-psychotics was to just get active,
and exercise was really, really helpful.
Like what I'm doing right now,
just going for a walk can make a big difference.
Not only does going out for a walk
help me physically by giving me physically active,
but also it just helps my mental health
to get outside, and to get active,
and to reconnect with the world around me,
nature, and it's really, really good.
So when I was really struggling with depression,
when I gained a lot of weight,
it kind of had a twofold impact on me
where I was being more physically active,
which was really great for my wellbeing,
and it was just good for my psychological wellbeing too.
Making goals for myself really helped too.
So I had been into ultra marathon running
before the weight gain,
and before I was struggling with that.
And so I kind of fell out of that
when I got depressed and gained a lot of weight,
and it was just harder to stay motivated.
So making goals for myself,
like I want to complete an ultra marathon this summer,
and picking one that I wanted to do,
and signing up for it, and making that
my goal that I work toward really helped get me active,
and motivated to be active.
I did a lot of running in running groups,
which was really, really great, because again,
there was the physical activity component,
which was really helpful to me,
both physically and mentally,
but then there was also the comradery
that came with running with the same people all the time,
and those relationships that were being built.
And I think that that was really,
really good for my mental health too.
Another group that I joined was November Project,
which is a really, really great kind of grassroots group
that gets together in cities throughout the world.
So any major city probably has an November Project group.
You just have to look into it, but it's a really,
really great way to get motivated,
to go and be active three days a week
and meet a lot of great people,
which was also really great for my mental health
and got me more confident in myself.
Another thing that I did
was I took up swimming again, a lot.
So swimming really helped me because it was just
something that I could go and do on my own,
and that made me feel a lot better.
And it was fun to be able to see my progression too,
as I got better at swimming.
So what I'm doing now to keep at a healthy weight
is to just continue to be active.
So I go to the gym quite regularly,
and I go swimming quite regularly,
and I made sure to get out for walks like this.
That's really, again, great for my physical health
and my mental health.
I have just started doing like decks of cards,
which we talked about in a different video,
where you give each suit a different little workout
and you do the number that's on the card.
Like you go through the whole deck of cards
and do the number that's on the card
of whatever suit, or whatever exercise the suit represents.
So just little stuff like that,
and just trying to maintain
as active as a lifestyle as possible,
and also maintaining those social connections
as much as possible too.
Some little gadgets that kind of help me were,
I had a garment watch as well as an Apple Watch.
Which both were really great
in terms of motivating me to get active,
and to kind of track my progress, and that kind of thing.
Also, I've taken up listening to audio books lately.
And so that's a really nice thing
to just be listening to on a walk or a run.
If you're feeling like you're going to just be bored,
just walking, or just running,
or doing whatever you're doing,
it's a nice way to kind of keep your brain engaged
while you're being active.
(birds cawing)
(muffled footsteps)
So I understand if maybe you think
that nutrition and exercise
are kind of the obvious solutions here,
but I think that it's easy to get discouraged
because it might take a little bit more effort
in those arenas than you used to have to put in
before you were on anti-psychotics.
And so understanding that it might take
a little bit more effort than you're used to,
what you're naturally used to, is important.
I know that it's a really,
really difficult thing to be going through,
Putting on weight gain because of something
that's kind of out of your control, and I know that.
I know that I dealt with depression
when I was putting on weight,
and it was just really hard in a lot of different ways.
And so, I get it if you're struggling with that,
but I think that it is possible
to kind of address some of the issues
that you may be experiencing
as side effects of the meds, like weight gain,
and to not only put in more effort
in the arenas of nutrition and exercise, and all this stuff,
but also just talking to your doctor as much as possible.
So if you are concerned about weight gain
that you're having a really hard time managing,
definitely talk to your doctor.
They are going to, as I said before,
be able to maybe switch around your meds
to get something that's a little bit more,
better agreeing with you,
or they might be able to prescribe you
some other thing that might help.
But just talk to them,
talk to them about what you're experiencing.
One really important thing that I also want to convey
is that it really doesn't matter what weight you're at
so long as you're working on
being as healthy as possible and as well as possible.
Whatever weight you are, it doesn't matter.
If you've gained weight on anti-psychotics
and are having a really hard time getting it off,
but you're feeling well, then it doesn't matter.
It might take time.
It's probably going to take longer
to get the weight off than it did to put it on,
and that's okay, you are completely worthy
of all good things in life, no matter what weight you are.
I get why it might be enticing
to stop taking your anti-psychotics,
or your psychiatric medicines because of the weight gain,
but I want to really encourage you
to not do that on your own
without supervision from your doctor.
Be open and honest with your doctor about the weight gain
and about any other side effects you may be experiencing
and try to work with them to find a better solution.
Also, just know that you are not alone in this struggle.
I know that it can feel really alienating
to be going through something like this,
and to be really frustrated with
not seeing any results when you put in effort,
but you are not alone in going through this.
A lot of people who are on anti-psychotics,
or psychiatric medicine in general,
are experiencing the same thing
and are struggling with the same thing.
So you are not alone in the struggle,
but I also wanna give you
all the encouragement in the world
to put as much effort as you can
into being as well as possible.
So thank you so much for watching.
I hope you found that video helpful
or insightful in some way, and if you did enjoy it,
please give us a thumbs up and make sure to subscribe
for future videos like this one.
Also, if you wanna help support
the creation of future videos on this channel,
please make sure to check out our Patreon page.
The link is in the description below.
Thank you so much again for watching.
I'm wishing you and your loved ones good health, bye.
(bright music)
(heavy breathing)
(blows kiss)