Anti-Depressants- How I Gained My Weight

I don't understand why you're getting your panties in a bunch. Some of us are simply explaining that there is no known mechanism by which the antidepressant would alter you physically to cause direct weight gain. Weight gain occur when one takes in more calories than they are expending. The only reason any of you gain weight is because you end up overeating. Now, obviously, that's a side effect of going on antidepressants. It's difficult to avoid overeating when you're chemically altered. You can easily do this research yourself. It's the explanation for why most of you are gaining weight. Now, I'm not saying you'll be able to control it but rather I was just mentioning it. No need to get offended. This is the internet. It isn't serious business.

Also, @Apa93: a healthy diet does not mean you won't gain weight. What an absurd notion. I couldn't care less if you eat like Michael Phelps or Lustig. Healthy eating =/= no weight gain.

You are another example of why I'm getting frustrated. You're obviously not reading anyone else's reply. I lead a healthy lifestyle food and exercise and still gained weight and could NEVER lose it. I didn't overeat. I wasn't lazy. This medication made me gain the most weight I've ever weighed. If it was fault of my own, I would admit. Let alone not post on the forum. You all just need to pay attention and read before you open your mouth

YES PLEASE READ THE GD POSTS BEFORE YOU REPLY!!!

That's bull****. You can lower metabolisms whilst playing around with the hormones in the body.

Let's say that happens, okay? How do you propose that causes weight gain unless a caloric surplus is present? The medication indirectly causes weight gain but, in the end, a caloric surplus (overeating) is the direct cause for the weight gain. I don't understand why that is so complicated to understand. Google is your friend. You can find this stuff out easily.

My advice, you don't have to take it or agree with it, try to change your life without taking these drugs unless you absolutely have to. This is one of those cure is worse than the disease situations.

^^ That may be true if you just need some therapy to deal with a difficult life situation, but it sounds like you've never had severe depression caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Otherwise, I don't think you'd say the cure is worse than the disease.

Situational or clinical, real or imagined, what's the difference? Either way, it still doesn't just go away. It's something that you have to deal with for the rest of your life.

^^ I don't understand what you mean. With proper treatment, depression can and does go into remission. I guess the cure could be worse than the disease if your disease is mild and your treatment side effects are bad. In that case, I wouldn't want the drugs either. But if your disease is extreme and severely restricts or threatens your life, and you don't suffer any noticeable side effects, or if the side effects are manageable, then how could the cure be worse than the disease?

I mean: how is clinical depression any worse than situational depression or vice versa?

^^ One is NOT worse than the other. There are different treatments for different kinds of problems. Situational depression generally has an identifiable trigger or underlying cause. Sometimes it's reassuring to know that there's a reason for your feelings and it helps to work through it. Chemical imbalance can happen seemingly randomly and for no reason. It's scary to experience emotions that are out of control and have no reason for why it's happening. Both types of people suffer, yes. Medication may or may not be the appropriate treatment for situational depression. Talk therapy alone may do nothing for a chemical imbalance. Please don't say that the cure is worse than the disease if you don't know what other people are going through.

A situation is an event, usually traumatic. Therapy alone doesn't cure situational depression if the depression is exasperated by post traumatic stress disorder.

This is a generalisation. It may be true for one person, but not everybody who is depressed has PTSD...these are two separate diagnoses.

Actually it was more of a specific case I was referring to.

Whether or not I'm depressed enough to have an opinion isn't for anyone here to decide. All I'm saying is this: before you ask your doctor about SSRI's, make sure you've exausted every other option first. If one possible side effect is DEATH, then you could end up worse off than you were before.

The UK has already started to ban SSRI's. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/4861.php

Now I'm going to quote Keith Hodge here, but this is just my opinion. That's all it is. You don't have to agree with it or even like it. It's just an opinion. There's no need to get all butthurt and rectal bleeding and spotting on the toilet paper. You can do whatever THE F YOU WANNA DO!

AND we also live in a world that expects us to be up and happy all the time. We are given two weeks to be depressed before it is called clinical depression and then we need to medicate!!?? I remember when my husband was diagnosed with cancer, the FIRST thing they wanted to do was put him on antidepressants. SEVERAL medical staff talked with him and finally he said, "I was just diagnosed with cancer, am I supposed to be happy about it"!! They finally let him be. Sometimes life is VERY very difficult and few of us have others we can talk to about the TRUTH and we end up depressed.......I wish you well and I wish you someone in your world who truly cares enough to listen with out judgement!.....Dyanna

You are absolutely right.
As has been already stated in the posts, antidepressants are oversprescribed and yes, pharmaceutical companies are big business...we've already covered that ground, if you read the previous posts.
You husband's experience is an example of the quickness that exists in the medical field to instantly want to put a pill into someone who is ailing.
However, when you mentioned that someone only needs to feel "depressed" for two weeks and then they're put on a pill...This isn't exactly accurate.
The diagnosis for Clinical Depression is based on the DSM-IV, a the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. It's what all mental health professionals, myself included, base diagnoses on.
The depression has to be experienced for two weeks, yes, but a host of other symptoms must ALSO be present, not just the downer feelings...
There are actually several criteria that have to be met in order for a clinical diagnosis to be made. This includes but isn't limited to:
Loss of interest in usual activities.
Increase/decrease in appetite.
Increase/decrease in sleep.
Feelings of hoplessness.
Lack of ability to function "normally".
Thoughts/feelings of suicide.

Short of whipping out my DSM, this is a short list. It's not just "Oh, I feel depressed, and it's been about two weeks now" and the doctor responds "OK let's put you on an antidepressant". If the doctor is practising like this, then run away,. and run away fast and find a doctor who will ask more questions and spend more time getting to know your problem. Ideally, this should be done by a psychiatrist, who is someone who specialises in mental illness and is the most familiar with current pharmaceutical options.

You are another example of why I'm getting frustrated. You're obviously not reading anyone else's reply. I lead a healthy lifestyle food and exercise and still gained weight and could NEVER lose it. I didn't overeat. I wasn't lazy. This medication made me gain the most weight I've ever weighed. If it was fault of my own, I would admit. Let alone not post on the forum. You all just need to pay attention and read before you open your mouth

I'm not saying it's entirely your fault. Again, you are getting your panties in a bunch. You have to realize that the medication itself cannot directly cause weight gain. You cannot take a pill that will cause you to gain 20lbs. It's obscene to suggest something like this. It's like the people who suggest that they're addicted to food like cocaine and thus cannot prevent binge eating. Honestly, very few people on here understand the science behind the things they discuss.

Let me reiterate for a way that won't offend you: the medication does cause weight gain BUT NOT DIRECTLY. If it was direct then simply taking the pill would result in weight gain regardless of caloric intake yet this is absurd notion. Yes, the pill could decrease your metabolism (I haven't seen evidence that it does but let's say it does). If it does then eating more than you're expending will cause the gain.

And, one more time: healthy lifestyle means jack **** when you're trying to gain or lose weight, so please stop bringing up your "healthy" lifestyle, whatever that means.

Look, I know it's not your fault you gained weight. I'm not trying to suggest that it is.

Google is your friend dear, it's actually been studied and obese people have a much stronger reaction in the brain to even the suggestion of food, than non obese people. JFGI.

Now which comes first the chicken or the egg, no one is really sure. But either obese people have a tendency via neural stimulus to over eat and that is how they become obese, or the current thinking is that the human body is conditioned through millennia of ensuring the survival of the species by making high cal foods taste good in your mouth, so you'll eat them. And that the heavier you get, the more neural stimulus you receive, so it gets harder and harder to break the cycle.

I wish people would stop being so black and white, not everything is black and white, and I'd actually say that most things are a shade of gray.

No depression? No opinion.

Love this!

That's bull****. You can lower metabolisms whilst playing around with the hormones in the body.

Let's say that happens, okay? How do you propose that causes weight gain unless a caloric surplus is present? The medication indirectly causes weight gain but, in the end, a caloric surplus (overeating) is the direct cause for the weight gain. I don't understand why that is so complicated to understand. Google is your friend. You can find this stuff out easily.

I wish it were this simple, but sometimes it's NOT!

That's bull****. You can lower metabolisms whilst playing around with the hormones in the body.

Let's say that happens, okay? How do you propose that causes weight gain unless a caloric surplus is present? The medication indirectly causes weight gain but, in the end, a caloric surplus (overeating) is the direct cause for the weight gain. I don't understand why that is so complicated to understand. Google is your friend. You can find this stuff out easily.

You really don't understand? o_o say that someone is fit and healthy wthout any weight to lose so they are eating maintenance calories. By the metabolism lowering itself if you keep eating at the same rate you will GAIN weight by eating the same amount of calories rather than maintaining. :noway:

thank you!

I am both relieved and terrified to have come across this thread. I have suspected that my weight gain was related to the Lexapro which I have been on for about a year now.

Guess I'll have to talk to my doctor.

Anti-Depressants, especially SSRIs, do chemically CAUSE weight gain or the inability to lose weight in some patients. They alter your hormones AND your metabolism. Some meds are worse than others. Some will experience this side effect, some will not.

I've been on Sertraline for over a year for PPD/Anxiety. In that time, I have somehow added to the "baby-weight" - instead of losing it. My doctor recently recommended changing from Sertraline to Citalopram. I've been weaning from the Sertraline for a week now. I am undecided as to whether or not I will start the Citalopram right away or wait it out and see if I still need it. (I've been doing some of my own research and I am finding that Citalopram can cause a side-effect of weight gain too.) If my panic attacks and sleep anxiety don't rear back up, I plan to stay off of the meds.

We shall see!

be warned citalopram made me gain nearly 2 stone (24lbs) when i took it