Intense insomnia & obsessive thinking
Context: 46yr old female, clinical counseling grad in training, well versed in my own mental health struggles and generally thriving but trying to lose weight that is causing me back pain!
Side effects that made me quit Wegovy 1.5 pill after a SECOND try:
I had to discontinue treatment for a second time having again experienced severe insomnia and anxiety from this medication. I tried Wegovy a second time just to be sure it was the medication and not my circumstances. I quit previously when my sleep dwindled down to just 3hrs then 2hrs two nights in a row, leaving me feeling absolutely insane and rage-crying!
The results for me, which I hope someone will record, are waking up with panic attacks at 3am and insomnia that quickly sets in with the medication so that after 3+ days my sleep time starts dwindling down to 5hrs or less. As you can imagine this plays havoc with my life, emotions, and day job- basically I am just not functional! Even worse for me is the obsessive thinking that emerges along side of this medication. My obsessive thinking is manageable without medication, but on the 1.5 Wegovy pill it is super-charged and I’m bursting into tears all day long at days 4 and 5, with terrible racing thoughts and shame spirals. FWIW I do have coping techniques, healthy food substitutes, and all of these were applied though you get worse at coping when you’re not sleeping so even good plans start to fall apart.
The feeling of trying this weight loss solution when other things didn’t work creates a mix of despair alongside the anxiety that is just pure torture. I strongly believe this medication needs more warning labels and screening. I am glad I’m familiar enough with my mental health to bail out of this and have the energy to go back to trying “all the things”. I could see how others who didn’t have this resilience could plunge deep into depression and pair that with insomnia: that’s a dangerous mix for suicidal ideation.
My personal take is that this needs more stringent screening! I hate that it’s being touted as a cure all so that people experiencing shitty side effects get to feel like “oh thats JUST you” which Reddit is helping to dispel. The insomnia risk and mental health ramifications of this are extreme!