u/ethiothienine

I’ve lost a lot of weight. Mostly unintentional from being sick for a year, and then starting a GLP-1 for neurological reasons, and the glp obviously kept the wl train going. I’ve not really chosen wl at any point here of my own volition, nor wanted it strongly from the start. I’m not mad about it either, but it’s a complicated feeling when you’re on this journey and wl is a side effect, not the goal. I was not at all emotionally prepared for it. and it’s probably silly but I had no idea how emotional it would be??? the world treats me differently? doctors are nice to me and care now?????????

it’s so awkward bc I look in the mirror and I have no idea what I’m seeing. I just see myself, but I cannot gauge my own weight or size to save my life. I find myself seeing women out and about, and I have the most insane impulse to ask them what they weigh, which I will never do! bc that’s crazy! but I truly just want a picture of someone else who is roughly my height and weight, so that I can visualize the change that’s happened. I tried looking for pictures on Pinterest but Pinterest is so toxic 😭like 2012 tumblr all over again. i have a folder and have been trying to take pictures of myself, but my brain is absolutely refusing to catch up.

whats so frustrating is that my fat body carried me places, carried me across the world. I really loved my fat body. but the world didn’t. and it makes me so sad, because that was my “healthy” body to some degree, as far as the one that was strong enough to do the things I liked to do. im still fighting to recover from getting sick, but now my thin? normal? midsize? body isn’t ready yet to rejoin the world. but this is the body that everyone assumes I feel “better“ in. and you know what! I’m weak! in my fat body, even being mostly sedentary, i was strong. I’m a helpful person! if someone needs something heavy lifted, i would always lift it before! now I would fall over! sometimes i wonder if all those muscle wasting convos take into account that when you lose Xlbs or kgs, you need less muscle in the day to day? ofc i have less muscle bro, im not deadlifting myself all the time. i used to feel so grounded always, and i think it was just bc i was heavier? yall i fall over so easy now, its stupid. I don’t like how it feels!!!!!!

I have no idea how to dress myself?? being chubby to me was almost in part an aesthetic, it was a defined shape i was familiar with. and now I feel have traded cherub form for swamp witch form (said with love tbh bc lowkey goals). i feel like i have to start from scratch and rebuild my aesthetic understanding of how to work with my shape as it is now, which is really hard!!!!! when your brain refuses to acknowledge your own shape!!!!!!!!!! the wl has also impacted how i feel like I’m perceived and interacted with by fellow lesbians and gay people which is really trippy and I hope a therapist can help me understand what’s happening there bc that’s soooo far beyond my understanding rn.

oh also my dad who was mean to me about my weight since I was little told me if I lost any more weight I would look anorexic and bad lol. EVERYONE HAS SOME FUCKASS OPINION!! THAT I DONT WANNA HEAR!!!! I JUST WANT TO BE A SWAMP WITCH WITHOUT A BRAIN THATS TRYING TO MAKE ME BLIND!!!!

i need to relearn body positivity, or maybe even body neutrality? which is a new concept to me. and guys!! it’s really hard!! somehow this is really scary to post. Edit to add: I’m so thankful to the glp1, it’s helped so much and I feel better on it in so many ways that I couldn’t have anticipated.

my doctor has wanted me to get an upright MRI for the last 6 months. it’s hitting a lot of roadblocks. I’m in Oregon, and we don’t have the tech to do this in my state. nearest is WA, but I can’t find a place that’s willing to bill Medicaid. does anyone here have advice on how to go about this? I’ve had supine brain MRIs so far. TYIA for any advice!

30f I’ve been on glp1s since last October. just moved from low dose semaglutide to tirz 3 weeks ago, and within a week, my libido is back full force after being dead for two years. I’ve been really sick for the last two years and in a lot of pain, so i really didn’t mind the zero sex drive. this feels like a rapid chemical change though, not the things I’ve read about “increased confidence due to wl therefore improving sex drive” which is annoying, for me personally. I’m less confident in my body now w/ WL (unintended) and struggle with that. (on a glp1 to manage idiopathic intracranial hypertension, not for IWL)

idk either way this has been weird af, I’ve been a content and happy sexless monk for a small eternity. it was so peaceful. not complaining at all, im just caught off guard. my gyn said my libido would come back slowly after illness+surgery and this isn’t slow at all.

*thanks for this body positive community, been lurking for a while and it gives me so much comfort 🖤

edit for spelling and grammar

Share your stories! I looked for a post about this specifically but didn’t find one, but I apologize if it’s been posted before.

my brief story : I trialed nearly all the meds before being prescribed a GLP-1. My IIH has not been helped by weight loss (symptoms began as I was actively losing 70lbs from being very sick with an undiagnosed infection, now down a total of 110-120lbs and just shy of a normal weight.) My IIH symptoms have fluctuated, but seem to be overall reduced by 50% on good days. My eye pain/ear pain get noticeably worse the day before my shot.

my PCP prescribed the GLP-1 based on an IIH study that I’ll edit to add later.

thanks for reading!

I’ve seen POTS mentioned here in comments but never a post about it. I’m curious to hear about people’s experiences with these conditions side by side. which did you develop first? does a pots flair sometimes lead to HM? do your doctors work together well? thoughts on your HM and dysautonomia in general?

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my experience is that my neuro says I’m having daily HM in the morning. recently my sister hooked me up to an apple watch and when my morning cup of hemiplegia hits, my pulse has jumped 50-70pts. PCP + dysautonomia PT agree it’s POTS, now waiting to see cardiology for the formal diagnosis. developed the cardio symptoms after fighting an undiagnosed infection for a year. i was diagnosed with HM 11 years ago, recently found out it runs in the family. always silent.

I’ve been out of the game since 2018 when I used PTC to find a provider that took my insurance. Finding someone took a fair amount of work, but there were local options. my psyD no longer takes my insurance (OHP careoregon), so I went back on PTC and am genuinely overwhelmed at how many people there are, with all sorts of titles that are new to me.

When looking up Mindful Therapy Group on Reddit, i saw a comment that said “Washington and Oregon are the wild, Wild West. The absolute bottom of the barrel midlevels running wild with zero supervision.” I’ve heard similar sentiments from my recent PMHNP, that things are especially crazy right now. *This comment seems jaded to me and I think everyone deserves access to mental health care, and I’m not trying to pass judgement on anyone, the world really needs mental health professionals.

I guess my question is, from patients or providers, what happened in the last 8 years? I’m guessing pandemic+legislation? any insight is welcome. I’m honestly just curious at this point, and couldn’t find another post that asked this question. sorry if anything comes off as ignorant here.

edit: the tone of this sucks, I’m going through med changes yall my bad. what I failed to mention was that there’s like 500 people I can see that live in every other state besides Oregon, and that they’re working through companies that are being talked about as being predatory. the industry seems to have changed so much and I just wanted to learn about what changed.

finally got an appointment to see an ENT and want to make the most of it. how did they help you (if so)? I’ve tried looking up interdisciplinary approaches to treating IIH to see what role they take but can’t find much, but i see them mentioned here every so often. Thank you so much 🙏🏻

below is just a rant, not really relevant

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I’m at a point with my care where I’m losing my mind lmao, my symptoms started when I was losing weight (undiagnosed intestinal parasite 💔). 80lbs down, saw a neuro, and what was her treatment plan? you guessed it! more weight loss! so, I dropped another 40, symptoms are the same. new treatment plan? more weight loss!! im about to be a “normal weight” for the first time since i was 10. i got her covering neuro to trial me on all the meds but im unable to have sulfa (g6pd ) and topamax unlocked some sort of primordial despair.

really in my shit today about my narrow transverse sinuses and, now, my very flat ass. i need a group whining session.