If your doctor has prescribed you antidepressants, but you are worried about them leading to you gaining weight, one of the worst things you can do is just decide not to take the medications. I understand that your physical appearance is probably important to you, but the truth is that your mental health should be just as, if not even more, important. That’s why refusing to take the medications that your doctor prescribes is never a good option.
Since you probably already understand why that’s not such a great idea, I suppose that you have another question on your mind. Is antidepressant weight gain something that you absolutely cannot avoid and that you will need to make peace with? Or, is there a way for you to avoid increasing your body mass while taking these medications? If that’s what you are wondering, then I have some good news for you.
To put things simply, you’ll be glad to hear that you can very well take antidepressants without having to worry about gaining weight. Of course, I’m not saying that these medications cannot lead to weight gain at all, since they very well can and that’s a fact that nobody can avoid. Yet, if you are determined not to experience any increase in your body mass while taking these medications, then you will very well succeed in doing that.
Now, I am not trying to tell you that simply wishing for it will make that wish come true. You’ll have to work for it and you’ll have to take the right steps towards achieving this goal. After all, it’s not like you can just sit around and hope that this issue will get resolved on its own. You also can’t adjust the scales and call it a day, because that’s called lying to yourself.
As mentioned above, though, there is something you can do in order to achieve this goal and stop worrying about your weight while still taking care of your mental health. In fact, there are a few different things you should do if you want to accomplish that. Since you might not be sure what those things are, I suggest you keep reading, because we will be talking about them in the rest of this article. So, let’s take it step by step.
First, here is a nice read that can help you understand this topic even more: https://www.webmd.com/depression/features/antidepressants-weight-gain
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Research Antidepressants That Are Less Likely To Cause Weight Gain
The very first step you should take is this. Grab some books, or connect to the Internet and start researching the topic of antidepressants and weight gain in general. Unsurprisingly, you should focus on trying to find certain medications that can work just as the current ones that you’ve been prescribed, but that are less likely to cause an increase in your body mass. When you start doing your research, you will realize that there are quite a few options that you should take in mind. So, make sure to write those options down and proceed to your next step.
Talk To Your Doctor About Those
If you thought that you should just switch to one of those drugs without consulting a professional, then you were utterly wrong. Sure, you might have done an in-depth research and you might have come to the conclusion that certain medications could be of huge help when it comes to your particular symptoms and your mental health in general, but here’s the thing. You don’t have a degree to substantiate your claims, and even if you did, consulting your doctor is not only a great, but also a necessary step.
So, here is what you should do. Take that list featuring the meds you have found to your doctor and talk to him or her about it. Let them explain precisely why some of those might or might not be good for you. Additionally, don’t forget to mention the reason why you want to switch your medications in the first place, because your doctor should, and probably will, be full of understanding, which will lead to them switching your meds if they find that to be a good decision.
Let Them Give You Their Recommendations
There is another reason why you should convey your concerns to your doctor. Basically, while your research could help you find some great new medications, the truth is that these medical professionals will always know better. This means that they might be able to recommend you some types of meds that could be good for your mental health while not causing gain weight. Additionally, they could also give you some tips, such as those found on this site, on how to lose the weight that you might have already gained.
Get A Complete Physical Exam
Here is something else that you should know about those weight gains that appear to be caused by your antidepressants. Simply said, those meds might not be the actual reason. Instead, you could have an underlying medical issue that needs to be solved. There are some health problems that can lead to weight gain, such as hypothyroidism and similar, which is why you shouldn’t immediately attach this issue to your antidepressants. Instead of jumping to conclusions, the right thing to do would be for you to get a complete physical exam and figure out whether something else might be causing weight gain troubles.
Exercise & Eat Well
If you thought that we could conclude this subject without mentioning diet and exercise, then you were definitely wrong. Basically, no matter what it is that’s leading to you gaining weight, the one thing you can do to avoid that is start exercising and eating well. This way, you will manage to stop the problem that your antidepressants might be causing you and you’ll also get some more benefits out of it. In simple words, you will generally get much healthier, both physically and mentally, which is undeniably extremely important.