Posted in: Nutrition / Nutrition Talk

Prescriptions- thoughts?

Wanted to start a discussion to see if others feel as I do or have had similar experiences with doctors’ tendency to over prescribe.

My experience- I have Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, which is different from the more commonly known OCD- basically I tend to obsess over order and over work myself sometimes. After a very quick discussion with my primary, she prescribed me Zoloft. I asked about negative effects, especially weight gain, and was told that wouldn’t be an issue.

I took Zoloft for about a year. There were some good effects, but lots of bad, including a 40 pound weight gain that seemingly came out of nowhere. After doing my own research about the medication I discovered that it was actually fairly common. I attempted to quit Zoloft multiple times, and finally went completely off in August (after dealing extreme mood swings and feelings much worse than before I went on the meds).

I then went back to my doctor to see what she thought about the abrupt gain and to see if she had suggestions for more effective weight loss. She immediately prescribed me phentermine, only saying that I should ease into it because it could make me jittery at first. This time I researched it before filling the prescription, and found that it’s a rather extreme pill, and only should be used in extreme cases, and hardly ever with those with anxiety issues.

I decided to try to do things the “right” way. Since then (4 months) I’ve lost 27 pounds through continuing to do FB workouts and continuing to eat healthy. Since the Zoloft left my system completely I’ve seen faster results.

I just wanted to share my experiences and see what others have gone through with prescriptions and weight maintenance. I completely understand that some medications are necessary in some situations, but often they seem over prescribed with little to no discussion on side effects.