Weighting Line

How To Deal With Depression and Weight Gain

by Hope Wilbanks on May 14th, 2008

This month’s Health & Wellness Channel Theme Day is hosted by Alicia at Mental Health Notes. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so we’re celebrating with a round of posts about mental health.

As someone who has lived through a period of depression, I understand what depression does, not only to your mind, but to your body as well. Depression is a nasty thing that can cause you to gain a lot of weight in a very short amount of time.

Depression is one of the most common mental health disorders today. Nearly 20 million Americans (ages 18+) have been diagnosed with some type of depression. Women are twice as likely to have depression than men.

While these numbers may be startling, it’s important to note that even if you do suffer from depression, and you’ve experienced weight gain because of depression, there are things you can do to not only stop the excess weight gain, but control it, and even start shedding some of those pounds.

I went through a period of about three years of suffering with depression. I battled it and just when I thought I had it licked, something would happen and I’d feel like my entire world was crumbling around me. I turned to food a lot during those years, so I understand how difficult it can be to push away the plate and step away from the table.

The following are things I learned to do to help myself. I hope you’ll find some of them useful if you’re going through depression and it’s affecting your weight.

Relax.

One of the underlying causes of some types of depression is anxiety, which is brought about by stress. Stress can come from any number of things, including:

• work
• family
• friends
• other responsibilities

Meditate To Relieve Stress

Meditation is a terrific way to get rest for your mind. It’s a way of harnessing your thoughts and quieting your mind. I began practicing meditation when I was a teenager. It helped to quiet my mind during many years of mental abuse.

Follow these steps to practice a simple form of meditation:

1. Separate yourself from noise and activity. A quiet corner of the house, or even in your bedroom with the door shut (and locked, if necessary), will work. Turn off the T.V., radio, computer, or anything else that would cause audible distractions.
2. Sit in a comfortable position. The formal position would normally be sitting cross-legged on the floor. You should choose a spot that is comfortable, but not too soft. The bed, a yoga mat, or a semi-soft chair would work as well.
3. Close your eyes and practice deep-breathing as follows. First, inhale slowly through your nose to the count of ten. Hold your breath for a couple of seconds, then slowly exhale through your lips. Do this several times until you feel yourself begin to relax.
4. Consciously push every thought out of your mind. The purpose of meditation is to quiet yourself. So any thoughts entering your mind during this quiet time should be considered intruders. Visualize yourself literally pushing every intruding thought away from you and bring yourself back to a restful, quiet state of mind.

I recommend starting out with just ten minutes of meditation, then work your way up to 20 or 30 minutes twice per day. If you’re busy and aren’t accustomed to being quiet, it will be challenging at first, but you can do it.

Meditation is great for your mind, but it’s good for your body, too. Learning how to calm yourself while in the midst of stress-filled situations can be a very powerful tool, especially if you are an emotional eater. Rather than turning to food for comfort when you’re feeling stressed, retreat to a quiet place and meditate for a few minutes.

Journal.

As an emotional eater, and past sufferer of depression, I can tell you without a doubt that my journal has been my lifeline through some really difficult times. There were moments when I felt like I was all alone. I’d grab a pen and my journal and write out everything in my mind–good and bad. For about two years, it was mostly bad.

Keeping a daily journal did several things for me. It…

• taught me to rely on my own intuitions.
• gave me a safe place to talk about anything and everything without worrying about how it might affect someone else.
• provided the space to work through problems I was having.

Most of all, my journals became my outlet where I could vent my frustrations. Instead of eating, I could grab my pen and go sit outside on my swing and write about everything that was eating at me.

My journals also helped me to visualize what I wanted my life (and myself) to be like. Rather than staying stuck in depression, anxiety, and stress, I was able to literally talk to myself about what my ideal life might look like. Visualizing what my “perfect” body weight might be, or how I could deal with certain situations that were killing me (inside) helped me to create tactical plans to “save” myself.

Choose wisely.

Finally, choose the foods you put into your body wisely. The foods you are eating could not only be contributing to your weight gain, but could also further induce symptoms of anxiety and depression as well. I know this first hand.

A few years ago, after the birth of my son, I decided it was time to lose some weight. Just before my husband was deployed to Iraq, I decided to join Weight Watchers. For a few weeks, I lost weight.

To further boost my new weight loss, I decided to cut sugar out of my diet. I started using Splenda instead. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was about to propel myself into several years of mental torture…all because of a little yellow packet of sweetener.

At first, things were fine. In fact, things were really good. I started losing more weight. Not only did I stop using sugar, but Splenda was so much sweeter-tasting than sugar, that I was able to slash my intake of that as well.

Throughout this entire time (remember, I’d just had my son a few months earlier), I started experiencing some symptoms of anxiety. My husband had received his orders that he was going to be deployed. My daughter would start Kindergarten while her Daddy was in Iraq. My baby boy wouldn’t get that one-on-one time with his Daddy like my daughter did. I was trying to lose a lot of weight that I’d been packing on for years. I had a lot going on all at one time.

After my husband left for Iraq, my stress level went through the roof. My son became gravely ill and was even hospitalized at one point (RSV). At times I felt like I couldn’t take any more. And yet somehow I managed to keep going every day.

Now, let me back up for a second and tell you that just a few weeks after my son was born, my doctor put me on an anti-depressant for postpartum depression. I was crying all the time. I couldn’t even hold my baby. And I knew something wasn’t right with me.

I took this for a few months, then took myself back off it because I was feeling better (don’t ever take yourself off any medication unless the doctor says it’s okay to!). Not long after my husband left, I was right back at the doctor crying again. He put me back on the medication again.

The year that my husband was gone was probably the worst year of my life since I’ve been married. I realized just how much I relied and depended on him, and the loss of him not being there, coupled with what he was going through, put me under so much stress that I nearly caved. If it hadn’t been for my children, I probably would have totally lost it.

Fast forward a few years back the present…

A couple of years when my husband came back home, a whole new list of stressors entered both our lives. We’d been talking about moving away the entire time he was in Iraq, and it looked as though everything was working towards pushing us out the door. After a lot of prayer, we decided to just go for it, and moved two states away.

For the first several months, I fought the depression tooth and nail. I’d have a few good weeks and then out of nowhere, it would smack me in the face. And like most people who suffer from depression, I didn’t want anybody to know what I was going through.

I started having anxiety and panic attacks again. And this entire time I was still using Splenda. One very early morning, after a long sleepless night, I lay on the couch thinking about everything I’d been going through. I knew that mentally and spiritually I was in a much better place than I’d been in a very long time. So I couldn’t understand what was bringing all this back again. I didn’t feel depressed, but I certainly felt a lot of anxiety and was hardly getting any sleep at all.

Something that morning told me to do some research on Splenda. Call it God or intuition. Whatever it was that made me think that, I got up and got on the computer right away. After doing a lot of reading on it and finding myself in a lot of the stories on this website, I made the decision to stop using Splenda altogether and see if it would have any affect on how I was feeling.

Boy, was I shocked, and relieved.

Within as little as a couple of days of not using Splenda, I felt like I was a totally different person. Every ounce of anxiety was gone. The intense feeling of constant anger subsided. I really couldn’t believe how much different I felt, especially in such a short amount of time.

You see, it really does matter what you put into your body. And we’re not just talking about food here, although healthy eating is important. But you should pay attention to everything you put in your mouth. Is it healthy? Does it give you energy, or make you sleepy? Is it life-sustaining?

Choose wisely.

More Ways To Deal

There are numerous things you can do to help yourself if you’re gaining weight due to depression. Here are some other ideas…

• Exercise 30 minutes per day.
• Call a friend for a gab session.
• Find a support group.
• Seek professional help.
• Talk to a professional counselor.
• Pray.
• Go for a swim.
• Plant a flower garden.
• Forgive.

Roundtable:

• Are you depressed right now?

• Has depression further stimulated weight gain for you?

• Are you taking anti-depressants that have caused you to gain weight?

• What are some ways you’ve found to deal with depression without turning to food to soothe yourself?

Images: stock.xchng

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POSTED IN: Weighty Issues