Feeling Socially Isolated
Hi, all. I’m mid 20s, nine months into taking Zepbound and have lost a considerable amount. I started originally due to specific health concerns, and now I’m at a healthy BMI for the first time since I was 14 when I developed a series of disordered eating habits (of which my doctor was aware of when she approved me for medication) that caused me to become medically obese in high school. I find that those habits have actually been helped by the medication, as well as OCD thought spirals/compulsions. I am happy with the way I physically feel and have a vastly improved relationship with food and nutrition.
The changes in my body have led me to feel socially isolated, however. The groups I run in are progressive and body positive; hence, there’s been a lot of anti-GLP1 talk in them well before I was prescribed one, and such talk has persisted. I am not at all open about my GLP-1 use; the only people who know are my immediate family, my partner, and one friend, and nine months in I just feel like liar. The changes in my body are extremely visible. I have lost the feeling of fat solidarity with friends who have similar bodies to the one I used to have; they do not talk to me in the same way anymore, and I feel (even unintentionally) excluded from certain conversations despite the fact I spent a decade in a fat body. I also feel unable to discuss the uncomfortableness of realizing how much better people treat me now that I have more “social capital” with any of my friends. My partner has been supportive in my journey, but there is a certain understanding gap due to the sheer differences in our life experiences. My extended family and older friends who don’t know about the GLP-1s have given me reactions from anywhere to “you look great!” and “thank god, we were getting worried.”
I don’t know if I was wrong to hide my GLP-1 usage from the outset, but I also don’t think my medical life is anyone’s business. I feel like I’ve betrayed some of my friends in a way based on the way they talk about the current societal trend towards extreme thinness, and I think the only kind of person who could ever really understand would be another GLP-1 user, and the few others I know are extremely body-negative. I don’t think I can ever be open about how I lost weight with anyone because of the reaction from both “camps.”
Is anyone else feeling similarly isolated?