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There are many articles proposing that nutritional inadequacies contribute to, or are actually responsible for, depression, and at the very least, potentiate it. However, it is not obvious which comes first: nutritional deficiencies or mental health disorders.
Coaching led by the founders of the program is a great way to avoid missteps on the diet and to stay motivated through accountability.
Like hair loss during chemotherapy, weight gain while on antidepressants is not, fortunately, inevitable. And like hair loss, gaining weight should not be justification for refusing treatment with these drugs, as they may be very effective for a variety of mental disturbances, fibromyalgia, and even menopausal hot flushes. Unfortunately, for those who find themselves gaining weight within weeks of starting on their antidepressants or mood stabilizers, losing this weight is much harder than growing back hair after its loss from chemotherapy.
Side effects from medications are common, although usually not severe enough to halt treatment. Anyone who has listened, perhaps unwillingly, to a recital of side effects associated with a television advertisement for a medication is aware of the number of health problems that might arise while taking that particular drug. But unless the side effect is death (the announcer always seems to mumble at this point), one assumes most of these adverse events go away when the medication is no longer taken.
What is a food addiction? Having heard several people explain their inability to lose weight due to this problem, I searched out the answers on, where else? The Internet. It appears there are “addictions,” and there are addictions.
Good news: By now even mental health care givers know what their patients have known for years. Most drugs taken to relieve the symptoms of mental illness cause weight gain. Bad news: There are probably more places to buy larger size clothing than weight-loss programs specifically designed to remove the pounds the medications added to your body.
