[TheCuddlyDuckling]

Hi, I'm 17 years old and I currently take Lithium, Vyvance, Latuda, Saphris, Lamictal, Neurontin, Klonopin, Adderall (fast release), occasional Zofran, and no matter how much I exercise and eat healthy, I keep gaining weight. Gaining weight is my #1 trigger for panic attacks, self harm, isolation, and many other unwanted things. It triggers suicidal thoughts, urges, and attempts. I absolutely CANNOT tolerate weight gain. How do I climb out of this inevitable dark hole?

[CANDC]

Hi I am sorry you are suffering from weight gain on meds. There are several links to discuss options.
Psych Central - Search results for Lose weight on these medication

[Lauliza]

You should have a discussion with your psychiatrist and tell them what you said here. I think there are some things that a resourceful pdoc can suggest to help you. Just make sure you let them know how distressed the weight gain makes you so they really listen.

[*Laurie*]

I agree with Lauliza. Also, I'm not a medical professional, but I've had decades of experience with psych meds. You are on a lot of medication, especially for a 17 year old. If all the meds are necessary, that's fine. I just want to be sure your current with your psych team, and that they're sure you need to be on so many meds.

Best of luck to you

[HALLIEBETH87]

Oh sweetie that's a lot of meds for one person to be on.

I hope you find your answer to your question here.

[mikegrot]

First of all, I would urge you to please, please, please inform your doctor of the suicidal thoughts. This is an indication of problems with your current meds.

I know you indicated you are eating healthy, BUT (you knew that was coming) you can only gain weight by consuming more calories than your body burns in a day. So while you feel you are doing what it takes, and I applaud you for being conscious of this, it could STILL be your routine and diet. Even though you think you are doing everything necessary to lose weight, you obviously are not. The meds are no doubt partly to blame, but it's a matter of finding the right balance between your diet and exercise, and the effects of the medications.

Rather than posting about the weight loss issue here, you may want to join something like myfitness pal where you can post your diet and exercise efforts and have THOSE experts tear them apart.

[~Christina]

Originally Posted by mikegrot

First of all, I would urge you to please, please, please inform your doctor of the suicidal thoughts. This is an indication of problems with your current meds.

I know you indicated you are eating healthy, BUT (you knew that was coming) you can only gain weight by consuming more calories than your body burns in a day. So while you feel you are doing what it takes, and I applaud you for being conscious of this, it could STILL be your routine and diet. Even though you think you are doing everything necessary to lose weight, you obviously are not. The meds are no doubt partly to blame, but it's a matter of finding the right balance between your diet and exercise, and the effects of the medications.

Rather than posting about the weight loss issue here, you may want to join something like myfitness pal where you can post your diet and exercise efforts and have THOSE experts tear them apart.

The OP could easily be dealing with "metabolic syndrome" which is pretty common especially when someone is on so many psych meds. So its really not always calories and exercise.

[HALLIEBETH87]

Originally Posted by mikegrot

First of all, I would urge you to please, please, please inform your doctor of the suicidal thoughts. This is an indication of problems with your current meds.

I know you indicated you are eating healthy, BUT (you knew that was coming) you can only gain weight by consuming more calories than your body burns in a day. So while you feel you are doing what it takes, and I applaud you for being conscious of this, it could STILL be your routine and diet. Even though you think you are doing everything necessary to lose weight, you obviously are not. The meds are no doubt partly to blame, but it's a matter of finding the right balance between your diet and exercise, and the effects of the medications.

Rather than posting about the weight loss issue here, you may want to join something like myfitness pal where you can post your diet and exercise efforts and have THOSE experts tear them apart.

Have you read into the effects certain meds have on those taking them? For example-Zyprexa? They call it the weight gainer for a reason. I gained 12 lbs without realizing it...

[Rose76]

If I were you, I would ask my doctor to consider letting me go off the Neurontin for awhile. I took Neurontin, and it had me eating like there was no tomorrow. A few hours after I took a dose of Neurontin, I would be suddenly starved and pulling out pots and pans. Meanwhile, it didn't seem to be doing much for me mentally. When I stopped taking it, my eating went back to normal . . . and I was no worse off, mentally. (The Neurontin was ordered to help my anxiety, but it didn't seem to help much.)

Have you discussed this with the doctor prescribing for you? Weigt gain is, in my opinion, a very serious effect to want to avoid because it has other health implications, can be hard to reverse, and can be depressing, effecting one's self-esteem. Do you have an eating disorder? Several of your meds affect appetite.

That's a lot of different meds to be on. Your doctor must be trying to control some very worrisome problems that you'ld been having. I presume your doctor is a psychiatrist. If you have only seen one psychiatrist, then I would strongly recommend you go for a second opinion, just to confirm that it is appropriate for you to be on so many different meds.

I hope you are in therapy. At your age, it is very important that you are getting good moral support from somewhere and that you have a trusted counselor whom you can really talk to. You might benefit from a Partial Hospitalization Program. (I was in one that helped me a lot.)

The trouble with taking so many different meds is that it is hard to know what is doing what.

[HALLIEBETH87]

Im with Rose on two things.

1)A second opinion is always a great thing to get. An outsider's look can sometimes show us something that wasn't previously seen. Worth consideration.

2)It is a lot of different meds to take for one person. In my experience, pdocs these days are often adding med after med to the cocktail when something is up. Ive been told they see it best not to change too many things at once when a person is symptomatic but then they individual ends up being on several meds at once which can cause side effects, etc.

I hope you have a therapist to talk to about the things going on in your life. meds are really only 50% of the solution. They don't fix us. We have to find new, great coping skills to get through our stressors life throws at us.

I wish you well and you figure out what is best for you!! Keep coming and chatting with us!

[mikegrot]

Originally Posted by ~Christina

The OP could easily be dealing with "metabolic syndrome" which is pretty common especially when someone is on so many psych meds. So its really not always calories and exercise.

Originally Posted by HALLIEBETH87

Have you read into the effects certain meds have on those taking them? For example-Zyprexa? They call it the weight gainer for a reason. I gained 12 lbs without realizing it...

Yes of course, I've gained weight on my meds as well however I am not a healthy eater and don't exercise enough so if I were to be honest I'd have to accept responsibility for my actions/lack of actions. Simply saying you have a 'syndrome' (Metabolic Syndrome, btw, is most often the result of overeating and a sedentary lifestyle BTW) or the meds will always work against you sounds a lot like you are offering an excuse to avoid the most common sense approach to this problem.

I hate to talk about the OP as if she weren't here, but did either of you notice she lists an eating disorder amongst her conditions? Whether it is overeating or under eating both mess with your metabolism and can lead to weight gain. The reason for over eaters is obvious, but under eaters tend to starve out for shorter periods of time and put their body into a conservation state, following that with a binge period.

It's very difficult, particularly in America, to maintain a healthy diet and stick to an exercise regiment. Frankly I'm shocked the two of you seem to be suggesting these two simple things, that would help all of us, aren't worth considering.

Most research on the metabolic effects of psychiatric medications reveal root causes that CAN be managed with diet and exercise. The most common being bacterial imbalance, which can be managed with a gluten-light if not free diet and probiotic supplementation.

The bottom line is it is ridiculous to think that psychiatric meds, all on their own, somehow summon the constituent material for fat deposits out of thin air. Fat is made from what we consume, period, and fat is 'burned' when we expend more energy than the calories in our digestive tract can support. Period. The meds may nudge the variables, but the process is the same. The biggest problems our society faces with weight gain is a) we were not evolved to be sedentary and b) we were not evolved to eat three meals a day. This is why nearly 70% of the country is OVERWEIGHT. 70% of the population is not on psychiatric meds.

If you have a weight problem and you're not trying diet and exercise, you're simply not doing your due diligence. I don't think giving up and saying your meds are going to work against you and there is nothing you can do about it is an acceptable answer, nor is stopping the meds obviously. There are people managing their weight on these meds and I guarantee you they are all doing it with hard work, perhaps VERY hard work since the meds are working against them, focused on their diet and activity levels.

[~Christina]

Of course damn near everyone could eat better and exercise more. The OP is on a ton of psych meds and a metabolic issue could be at play and just the fact of taking ALL those medications likely has the OP in a zombie like state and walking is probably a very hard task.

You don't know what eating disorder the OP has.. there are so many, Not all are overeating , starving then binging.. I know I deal with one!

I feel the OP needs compassion not lectured or shamed for not eating and exercising enough, Since the Op hasn't returned I am not going to continue a pointless disagreement and bow out.

Good day