innerSpace

 “Client Story: How I Was Healed From Depression,” I describe how I emerged from a one year, suicidal depression. I experienced many blessings as a result of this episode, such as a deepening of my compassion and a renewed faith. There was, however, a downside—I now weighed 250 pounds. This was a far cry from the 180 pounds I had weighed a decade ago. I didn’t consciously plan on this happening. I didn’t wake up one day and say. “I think I will gain seventy pounds today.” Growing up, I was a skinny kid. I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain weight. But when I entered my forties, my metabolism began to slow down. As I became less active, the extra pounds gradually snuck up on me. And when I experienced a major depressive episode at age forty-seven, I ingested all sorts of antidepressants, some of which were said to cause weight gain. I am sure that these drugs played a part in the expansion of my girth. At first I was so happy to be free of depression that I ...

Depression and weight problems often go together. Here are tips for handling both. They are both heavy burdens - weight problems and depression. And they often go hand in hand. Some people gain weight when they're depressed. Others lose weight, to an unhealthy degree. Which comes first? And how can you untangle the link between depression and weight -- especially if depression has sapped you of your energy to make changes? Here's what experts say you need to know. Depression and Weight Gain A March 2010 review of 15 studies, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry , linked obesity to a greater risk of developing depression - and vice versa. But do people gain weight because they are depressed? Or do they become depressed because of the excess pounds they are carrying? No one knows. “It’s a chicken and the egg phenomenon,” says psychologist Leslie Heinberg, PhD, who directs the Bariatric and Metabolic I...