By Liliana

Many people with borderline personality disorder take psychiatric medication. In my particular case, many types of pills were prescribed in a very short period of time.   I won´t question the convenience of taking these drugs. I would only like to help make up for one of the most irreversible and uncomfortable side effects I get: gaining weight.

I was never skinny, but ten years after my diagnosis and drug treatment, I gained 70kg (around 140 pounds). It was not until recently that a doctor explained to me that many of the pills have an effect in the part of my brain that registers the sensation of feeling satisfied (food wise), these chemicals cease to send the signal of being full, and therefore I always feel hungry.

It was then that I understood why I ate like a lot. No food, no amount seemed enough for me.

I carry the weight of what could be another person in my body. For years, that was enough reason to carry on evicting myself and to complicate, to a large extent, my evolution. And back then I could not do much because I did not know the reason; I just thought it was like a non-purgative bulimia .

Last March, I returned with my nutritionist, who I used to visit in 2011 and who to tried to help my situation. But I had to stop going because I could not follow his suggested diet of five meals a day. I was no able to follow a special routine of 7 meals a day either.

Currently, I am moving slowly, but I have lost 20 kilos. And although I still have 50 kilos more to lose and being that overweight can demoralize even a normal person, I am working on a plan with my psychiatrist and my therapist to carry on losing weight.

If you can’t or don´t want to start a nutritional regimen, make sure you eat healthy, this way you will be able to eat normally and will gain as little weight as possible.

You can find advice on healthy snacks that will help you calm the starving demons here: How to diet @pigerdanger