Losing weight with bipolar disorder

thirdworldblair

Hi everyone! I’m Blair from the Philippines, 23 years old. My boyfriend recently got hooked on this app and so I decided to start using it as well.

I’ve never been at an ideal weight all my life, but I was fairly active about four years ago. I climbed mountains at least once a month and ran laps around my village at least once a week. Over the years though, I stopped being active and started overeating. I also started drinking a lot. I battled through major depression for about four years and gained a significant amount of weight. From 130 lbs, I’m now at 225.

When I got officially diagnosed with type 2 bipolar disorder last year, I was warned by my psychiatrist that my antipsychotics will cause even more weight gain. That was to say the least prophetic. The mood swings did not help — when sad, I’ll succumb to ordering fast food. I also started partying a lot and drinking a lot again recently.

Last month, I quit my job even though I loved the actual work because my small non-profit was run by a very difficult man. It wasn’t worth sacrificing my mental health over. I have to say that I left college in 2015 because of this and I’ve gotten accepted to start over at a new one on January.

In light of starting over, I want to give this weight loss project a shot once and for all. I’m so hurt and damaged by everything I have been through but I think it’s about time I take loving and caring for myself seriously.

I know this will be hard. Being bipolar means I am given to rapid cycling and I can be motivated then turn depressed in a matter of minutes. For those of you battling with mental health problems as well, how do you stick to your routine and practice self care and patience through this journey?

Thank you.

passenger79

I can't give much advice but just want to say I know how you feel. I was diagnosed with Bipolar not long ago after years of struggling and put on Quetanpine .
I 've pretty much went on self destruct after and put weight I lost back on again.

Pretty much all Ad's I 've been put on in a past had possible side effect weight gain so don't think you ll automatically be unable to lose weight because of meds.

Im.back on the wagon and I try and do what I can.
I log food everyday, workout whenever I can and dont beat myself up if I don't .

I work 52 h a week and study part time for a degree but I have decided to reduce my hours and practice self care a bit more as I was struggling big time.

Be kind to yourself and take your time, you ll get there.
This is not a small thing to be fighting everyday and some days will be better than others.

WickAndArtoo

Good luck in your journey, have you considered quitting alcohol? This helped me a lot, it was one more thing that encouraged impulsive and uncontrolled eating/extra calories. This isn’t the main reason why I quit, but it did have a huge impact on my motivation and ability to care for myself even when I am not doing well mentally. Not to mention alcohol affected mental health negatively to begin with!

Other than that the next best advice is creating a routine/habit of a couple healthy choices so it becomes effortless even on the bad days.

vingogly

If it were me, I'd look for a counselor with experience working with dual diagnosis bipolar clients as well as wellness/weight loss counseling. The drinking's definitely going to make it more of a struggle. Doing a bing search for "bipolar weight loss support" I found a number of support groups out there so you might want to see if you can find a more targeted support group than this one. I'm not bipolar, but I'm a mental health professional - so good luck to you and keep plugging away at it!

vespiquenn

Another bipolar sufferer here as well. I personally never had issues with meds causing weight gain, but came with a slew of other side-effects so I opted to be on Prozac only.

What worked for me was essentially setting a schedule. Because I knew my mood could cycle between determination and depression quickly, I found that if I treated my gym sessions or runs like an appointment, I was less likely to come up with excuses while I got into a routine. Generally speaking, you wouldn’t miss an appointment or shift at your job with no call or no show, so I treat workouts the same.

Unfortunately, I haven’t tackled the alcohol issue. I have lessened the times I drink throughout the month, but have a hard time with binge drinking in order to feel “normal” among other people. However, what has actually helped me the most regulate my moods amusingly enough is a low dose of ADD med, Vyvanse. I have less “quick” mood transitions which makes things feel a bit more reliable.