Depression and trying to lose weight

monicabroadbentswearingen

Depression is one of the hardest things for me to deal with. I do See a Doctor for depression medications. We meet several times a year to keep me on track and see if we need to tweak my meds. If at anytime i feel they are not working i go in and we visist and see what is going on and if we really need a med change or maybe i just need to view things a little different. A lot of people will say depression is in your head. Well they are right. Our brains no longer send out that chemical that we need or enough of it. This is not anything to be a shamed of. It is becoming more and more common every day. I personally relate this to eating habits and exercise or lack of habits as a country. I also am going to a Doctor that specializes in weight loss. I had all kinds of excuses why I could not exercise. She sat and listened to everything I said. Then she set me up with a physical therapist, a counselor, a dietician and a sleep apathy test. She put me on a small dose of medication to help decrease my appetite. She asked me to walk 10 minutes 2x a week. I could not even do that. After i got off work everyday i was in so much pain from my back i could not do anything. I did 4 weeks 3x a week of therapy. the first week I did not think I was going to make it. Each week got better. They had me try the Elliptical on the 2nd week, I made it 1 1/2 minutes and thought I was going to die. I am now doing 20 min. on the Elliptical and 45 minutes on the treadmill. Also have added weights to all my back strengthening machines. I no longer have any back pain and no longer need to go to the chiropractor because I have strengthen my muscle so they can hold everything in place. I have been dealing with a lot of personal family issue's for the last 4 months. I can tell you this program is the only thing keeping me going. When I go work out, it is 1 hr 45 min. of me time to get my thoughts organized. This really helps me completely. You no when I was a child we were always happy and on the move. So our body kept up with all the endorphins we need to keep us from being over weight and fat and depressed. For some reason we seem to give ourselves permission when we getting older to make excuses for ourselves for becoming couch potatoes. I believe this is where it all starts. Depression can not be handled alone. You need help from a professional. Also weight loss needs support such as doctors and programs that do just that. Don't go this alone because you are just setting yourself up for failure. It starts with us, we have to seek the help that we really need to get to our goals. This has just been my experience. you don't sound really committed and I believe its because you have to start my dealing with the depression and seeing doctors to get you to point where you can do this and feel good about yourself and get the self-esteem that you nee. I believe my faith in God has help me get to this point in my life. I know you don't believe and I am not trying to push God down your throat. But my faith has not always been as strong as it is know. Don't know where I would be with out it. Hope this helps you out. you know the saying " if you continue to do the same thing time after time, you can not expect different results" So maybe a little faith might head you down the right path. Will be praying for you

Milvardea

Adpalangi wrote: »

Hi! I have suffered and struggled with depression for over 20 yrs.The last 5 years I have been in an acute depression with bipolar. I mean so depressed I've had many hospital stays, ECT treatments and about any anti depression drug out there, along with mood stabilizers, medication to deal with the side affects of one of my meds, and then the adderal for focusing, and keeping myself less exhausted (something like that). I see the same therapist on the same day and time each week, there is help out there other than just meds. Therapist has been working with me on my cognitive skills. And then once a month I see my psychologist to adjusting meds, she's got them down pretty much by now, just afew tweaks here and there. One thing I was wondering, had you been diagnosed with depression? What seems strange to me and I may be very wrong. But I have picked up a lot of information as the years have gone by. But I believe you said something about your depression coming back or going away (something like that) but from what I understand, you can't just stop the depression here and there, and especially not in a day. From what I have read it would be like a definite amount if weeks of symptoms do not disappear. I can't seem to word that correctly, hopefully it makes sense. Glad to hear your sticking with it!

Yeah, my depression is linked very closely with period and those hormones. Instead of getting testy or hungry or mean like most women seem to during PMS, I get severe, empty awful depression. It comes and goes, and although it always comes back, it leaves me alone for long periods of time too, for which I count myself very lucky. It has been this way my whole life. I have been diagnosed with depression and panic disorder. The meds we have tried over the years don't help much and make me feel like not myself, so I tend to avoid them. Those few days or week or week an a half every month are exhausting and terrifying, and I don't know if I could live with it all of the time. I don't know how you guys do it. You are are all brave and wonderful.

Milvardea

Also, just an update, I managed to get to the gym last night, and I feel loads better. I had a good friend drag me there, and she forced me to get on the machines and go things. I felt massively better afterwards. I'm still not quite out of it, but I have improved enough to re-kickstart my efforts to weight loss all over again.

I'm going to try to better regulate my carbs and see if that helps. The only reason I haven't done it before is because my OBGYN suggests I don't lower my carbs too much, since my depression is linked so closely to my stupid uterus. All I know is that since I started watching my weight and excising last year, my depression has gotten waaaaay better!

Thank you everyone for your support. This discussion has given me a lot to think about.

consideritdonemi

My down days are less so when I stay on track taking my omega 3 / fish oil pills. I notice the difference if I miss 2-3 days even while maintaining exercise and diet. I feel like it lubricates parts of my brain that need it to feel even-keeled.

apparations

consideritdonemi wrote: »

My down days are less so when I stay on track taking my omega 3 / fish oil pills. I notice the difference if I miss 2-3 days even while maintaining exercise and diet. I feel like it lubricates parts of my brain that need it to feel even-keeled.

Agree, I take Fish oil and vitamin D every single day. It honestly has made a big difference for me especially through fall and winter months (the weather really affects me). That and maintaining regular exercise is huge. I still have days when I can't get out of bed, but now half the time exercise becomes the only reason I can really think of to get myself up.

jrose1982

I feel ya. Here are your hugs: :hugs: :hugs: Good luck!

I think these are the key things that got me through depression:
- Vitamin D and fish oil (like others have suggested)
- Remembering to do something I love. I had stopped reading for pleasure when I started college. I was about a year out of college when my depression became barely manageable, and two years out when I remembered that I used to be a bookworm. So I started reading again. I think this, more than anything, helped me pull myself out of the pit.
- Recording successes. When I was depressed I was often plagued with doubts and thoughts that I was useless. I felt like a fraud, because everybody around me thought I was smart, but I felt so stupid. I started writing down things that I was proud of, no matter how small. These would includes things like making a phone call (I hate making phone calls). Or waking up on time. Any small success was worth celebrating, so I wrote them down.
- Lower the bar. I stopped trying to lose weight and focused solely on exercising regularly. It was too much for me to try to follow a diet and exercise routine. So I just picked one. Obviously, this didn't help my weight-loss efforts (it was 5 years ago). But it kept me going.

Good luck! You'll get through this.

olivebeanhealthy

Practicing the affirmations in 'The Only Diet There Is' and 'I Deserve Love' by Sondra Ray both helped me, plus she offers some great insights.

http://www.amazon.com/Only-Diet-There-Sondra-Ray/dp/0890873216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416713440&sr=8-1&keywords=the+only+diet+there+is

http://www.amazon.com/I-Deserve-Love-Sondra-Ray/dp/0890879095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416713467&sr=8-1&keywords=I+deserve+love

izu87

Living in a country that completely ignores problems such as depression and anxiety, unless you're borderline psychotic, I can definitely relate to handling those on your own. I've never been diagnosed due to the reason above - unless you're suicidal (and actually tried to commit suicide) no one would pay attention to you over here, so I've been handling with those on my own for a while. Depression got me really bad just after high school graduation, and after my first year in university I had to take a gap year due to failed exams - couldn't bring myself to study or sleep. It was hard, but during that one gap year I actually started paying attention to myself. It was also the first time that I lost weight. And with losing the weight I did feel better, which got me back in school, surrounded by a group of friends, then on my track to get a good job, and raise quickly in it.

It all really sounds great and my closest friends don't even know that I've ever suffered from depression, or that I still have depressive periods, but even when things are really great I can find something to get me down. Over the years I've managed to crawl out of the complete depression, but I developed anxiety. I'm fighting it on my own as well with herbal teas and herbal supplements mostly. So even though I get depressed at times (usually around my PMS) I do manage to get through it. It is hard sometimes because food is the only consolation that I've got right now, and because it helps with both depressive and anxiety attacks I've now gained a lot of weight. Things at work have been stressful which triggers my anxiety on an almost daily basis, while my depressive episodes usually explode when something else gets on my nerves as well and I end up in a self-loathing mode... But I've got to a point where I just can't do it anymore the way I've been doing it until now.

Food helps, but it is not worth it to eat my feelings. I will not be happy or confident if I gain more weight, I will not be able to love myself the way I deserve to if I keep sabotaging myself. Food helps my emotions, but at the same time it destroys my body. So now I've taken another path - working out, eating well. I'm still doing my first steps back into this life style and it is hard, but I will make it because I do remember just how great I felt back when I was working out regularly, eating well, losing weight. I want to go back to that version of me and even make it better. And seeing as I've got no chance for professional help or medications to fight back both the depression and the anxiety I have to do it on my own. And the drive to succeed is actually making me feel just... well, strong, confident.

So, all I could recommend is - find your drive and stick to it. Fight for it. Live for it. There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. And, no, it is not a train coming to hit you

smithkd333

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this but it is November and I've noticed myself getting "seasonal depression." It's kind of a vicious cycle... Not enough sunshine & vitamin D so I get mopey and depressed, which makes me want to stay in bed all day and NOT go outside and exercise, which in turn makes me more depressed because I'm not getting enough vitamin D and sunshine. I used to take a ton of meds but I'm trying to do things more natural. There has definitely been more than a few days I have watched an entire season of a tv show on Netflix in the exclusion and darkness of my bedroom, but what I really need is to get my *kitten* out of the house, even when I don't feel like it. I tell myself I will feel better afterwards, and I always do.

ems212

With me, my depression swings to either extreme (diet wise)....either I don't eat at all, or I eat wayyyy too much. Lately, I've been able to combat it by pre-planning meals, and basically forcing myself to stick to the plan. On my really bad days, when all I want to do is eat, I put on my headphones and I run. I run and I run until the desire to eat is gone. I also drink A LOT of water. If I fill up on water, I stay away from treats. It's difficult though. The days when I have no appetite at all, forcing food down is the most difficult thing I do. Usually, I'll feel sick afterwards too, but I know that starving myself is really bad.

Milvardea

I'm going to start taking my fish oil every day.
Thank you, everyone, and I wish all of you luck too, in dealing with your depression.