Coping with anxiety while losing weight

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sarahfeelingood
sarahfeelingood Posts: 21 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am going through a lot in life right now, and I want to lose weight, and need to for health reasons, but I also have an internship/clinicals at a hospital going on that I must pass in order to earn my bachelor's and then pass a board exam to be a laboratory tech. And I am battling another rough patch of OCD (I have been diagnosed by a therapist). Before someone starts the "make it a priority" comments, I have been trying to and have been working with my doctor who prescribed Saxenda to help with weight loss and curbing the appetite that my other prescriptions can cause.

What I'm really after, I think, is if anyone has experiences or tips on dealing with OCD or other kinds of anxiety while losing weight, even if very slowly. I feel like maybe my priority right now should be my mental health, however I do not want my physical health to be ignored in the process. Does anyone have suggestions for situations like that? I want to incorporate a walk into most days for both the exercise and the benefit to my mood and mind. Anything other suggestions out there?

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  • eep223
    eep223 Posts: 624 Member
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    I will tell you two things. 1.) Running is the only thing outside of medication that ever helped with my anxiety. I felt great and really on top of things when I was running regularly, and I could really feel it (emotionally as well as physically) when I missed a workout. 2.) I recently had a bad bout of anxiety and depression that left me sitting on the couch, comfort eating for nearly a year. I knew that if I could get my butt back out there, I would feel so much better, but finding the motivation was very, very hard. I still haven't made it back to running, but I've been working out regularly for about a month and I'm already starting to feel better.

    I lost about 30 pounds over the course of almost two years. Managing my anxiety through exercise was way better motivation than the weight loss was, but that wasn't a bad side effect! You just need to get over the hump to where it becomes a habit. I promise it gets easier with time. Think of this as another form of medication for you. It will definitely not hurt your OCD and could potentially help it a whole lot! Good luck!
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    I've suffered from depression since I was 9 and anxiety for over 10 years. Exercise has been great at providing relief for the symptoms of both. I was on two different medications that helped when things got really bad.

    My doctors have always suggested meditation or yoga, but they don't help me. Oddly, allowing myself 10-20 minutes after work and before dinner to just stress out or feel all the emotions that build up during the day helps. That way I go into dinner with no extra emotional baggage and I sleep way better at night.
  • Kyrenora
    Kyrenora Posts: 133 Member
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    I have OCD as well. Are you on medication for it, or have you ever looked into the possibility? I was in therapy for years before meds were introduced into the equation, and then it took several more years before we found the right combination of prescriptions. I'm now on the perfect meds and doses for me and it's made an enormous difference. I can actually function now, and am not crippled by my thoughts anymore. I'm even lucky enough that the meds I need don't cause weight gain or water retention, but that's not the case for everyone.

    During my weight loss journey, I've found that yoga kills two birds with one stone. I burn some calories, and it really forces me to be mentally present rather than letting my thoughts run away with me. Because of the OCD, I'm really not good at most kinds of meditation, but honing my focus in on this muscle or that muscle while in complicated poses distracts me from the intrusive thoughts. There's an instructor named Nicky Jones who has some free yoga therapy videos I love for when I'm just feeling out of control. You can find them on DoYogaWithMe.com or her personal site NickyCJones.com and they range from about half an hour to over an hour.

    If you want to talk more, you are so welcome to add me as a friend and/or message me. This is not an easy path to walk, especially because most people simply don't understand what OCD entails. I actually had someone tell me the other day that they thought it was "a blessing" because it meant my house would always be clean. I had to fight the urge to punch her.

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