gp

ally1 said:

peacetrain, i,m on 2 different anti depressants and one is notorious for weight gain

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Some antidepressants cause weight gain because they tend to increase your appetite - such as Seroxat - which is the one I have halved from 20mg to 10mg. But it was going low/er carb which helped me lose 3 stones and brought my BS down to almost non diabetic levels, not the reduction in Seroxat. The thing is, some antidepressants also tend to make you crave junk food (refined carbs)and you have to be strong with that and fill up on salads, vedg, fish and chicken or any other low carb food. I found I can eat conference pears (through testing) so they are sweet and replaced my favourite jammy muffins!! Then there are strawberries with a little clotted cream - yum, blueberries (which I freeze and take a few out as a treat), nuts and a couple of squares of very dark chocolate, which I sometimes grate with a cheese grater and sprinkle over strawberries, so there is no need to go without a little treat if you feel the need for one. But my main food is based around fish, fresh, tinned or frozen, green vedg. and salad. I chop salad up and mix it with a little olive oil and sprinkle with ground pepper, and occasionally a small teaspoon of salad cream, though you need to test for that. I can eat 1 Weetabix for breakfast with a tiny amount of milk, again you must test for that though, and sometimes I add blueberries. It is only through testing that you will find out what makes you spike and what doesn't, and sometimes you may be surprised at what you can tolerate. Never look on it a depriving yourself, look on it as starting a new way of life which will give you back your health and celebrate it.

We are all here for you.

Hi Ally,

I'm with you hun and understand exactly what it making this so hard for you.

I, too, suffer with depression and anxiety. I also use food as a form of comfort.

I'm over weight and trying to loose weight now, plus get my BG levels stable.

If we use food as a comfort it kind of becomes a "medication" I know that if I'm feeling really down or sad, if I eat something naughty which inevitably would contain loads of carbs, it makes me feel temporarily good, happy and satisfied. But the key word here is "temporarily" I only feel "happy" whilst I'm eating it.

Then will come the carb overdose symptoms, tiredness, no energy and psychologically, feeling depressed, guilty because of what I've just eaten, angry that I should have more control and sad that I've let myself down.

With levels as high as yours Ally, it will be having a negative impact on your depression hun. I'm a strong believer in that physical illness will effect us psychologically, and psychological illnesses will have a negative impact on our physical state.

Having said all of that, this is a very difficult thing for you to do Ally and I really understand that.

I really think that it would be very beneficial for you to have both physical support and psychological support and counseling too.

I think you would find it a whole lot easier to do if all of that support and guidance was put in place for you hun.

I'd advise that you go back to your GP and ask him if he can arrange these things for you, print off this reply and show him if it will help you hun.

You CAN do this Ally, but you need lots of help and support whilst you're doing it, we're all here willing you along and listening to you as well as supporting you.

Come on Ally! let's do this together, we WILL succeed and we WILL be happy and healthy.

Ally, I know how hard it is some days just to put one foot in front of the other having had a lifetime of mental health issues and like several others, I put my weight gain down to self-medicating with carbs. But, I am coming to realise that life would be much less stressful if I was at a sensible weight and not always worrying about my health. I think you need to speak to a GP and ask for a med change to one that doesn't make you gain weight( I found Lustral was ok) and also a referral to the counselling services for help with the PTSD and eating disorder as I do think that you are experiencing psychological issues around food that they may be able to support you through. The first thing is to accept that you are actually ill- such high blood sugars are not sustainable long or short term and really you need to be as proactive as possible with yourself and your medical team in order to get control and avoid any further complications.

ally1 said:

thank you so much amandaanne
i,m going tom ring my surgery for an appointment with my gp

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Well done Ally.......we're all with you hun.