Table of contents:
- Get to know depression more deeply
- Why do you lose weight when you are depressed?
- 1. Difficulty sleeping
- 2. Side effects of anti-depressants
- 3. Eating disorders
Depression is a serious but often underrated mental condition. Sometimes even severe depression can be seen as just plain stress or confusion. In fact, depression has many adverse effects on physical health, and one of them is marked by a drastic decrease in body weight. What causes a lot of weight loss when someone is depressed?
Get to know depression more deeply
Sadness, lack of excitement or bad mood is a feeling you often experience. But when you experience these feelings for no reason and it turns out that they last several weeks, months, even years, you could be experiencing depression.
Depression, although common, is actually a mood disorder that should be taken seriously. Depression can occur at any age and it is still not known exactly what causes depression. However, some cases show that feelings of extreme anxiety in childhood have a tendency to develop into chronic feelings of restlessness and bad moods at adulthood.
In some cases, depression can also occur, because:
- Side effects of some medications, such as diabetes, cancer, heart failure and Parkinson's disease
- The occurrence of events that are unpleasant and not easy to forget
- Certain personalities, such as worry easily, low self-esteem, perfectionist, and so on
- Take drugs and alcohol.
Why do you lose weight when you are depressed?
Depression is often linked to body weight. Depression can lead to weight gain, but depression can also cause weight loss. Based on some literature, actually it cannot be confirmed, but several conditions that occur when depression may trigger your weight loss:
1. Difficulty sleeping
In some cases, depression is also accompanied by difficulty sleeping at night. If your depression is like that, it's possible that you can lose weight with depression. A study published in the American Dietetic Association revealed that the calories you burn when you are unable to sleep at bedtime are greater (2,5290) than the calories you burn while sleeping (2,360). The combination of calories you burn when you can't sleep at night, accompanied by depression, certainly requires burning more calories, right?
2. Side effects of anti-depressants
Some depressed patients usually manage their depression by using certain anti-depressants. Some anti-depressants may have side effects that lead to weight gain, but in fact they contain antidepressants selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors will give diarrhea side effects to consumers. This diarrhea condition then increases your chances of losing weight with depression.
3. Eating disorders
Based on research conducted by the University of Maryland Medical Center, the onset of depression is often associated with the onset of a person's bulimia. This condition can occur because in some symptoms of depression, a person will tend to lose their appetite. Bulimia itself is an eating disorder characterized by the forcibly expelling the food that has just been eaten. If your depression is followed by bulimia, of course your weight will decrease dramatically.
But in some cases, if you have eaten large portions, apart from the conditions mentioned above, it could be because of another health disease in your body that is happening. You should immediately consult a doctor.
