#mental-health 2026-05-01

that was me too

grieving food is real. it was my hobby, my comfort and about half of my social life

we are a chat channel. good company, not clinicians, and it matters that we keep saying so

nobody in this room thinks less of you for needing a medication. genuinely nobody

im ashamed of needing a medication for this and i cant seem to shake it

the disorienting bit for me was realising how much of my day had been spent thinking about the next meal, for what its worth

i measured my waist and my walking pace during the plateau because both were still moving when the scale wasnt

hold on if you can

youre not a fraud

same at week 5

ok so i cook more now than i used to, i just eat less of it, and that compromise saved that part of me, thats just me

a colleague told me today i look ill. i have lost 22kg and i do not look ill

the ill comment. everyone gets the ill comment

you get told you look great for about six months and then the same people switch to concern

why does it switch

my honest read is that people are fine with you improving and less fine with you changing category

changing category. thats it. thats the whole thing

my mother in law asked if i was ok in that voice. twice. at the same lunch

what do you even say

i went with thank you for checking, im well, and then i asked her about her garden. worked perfectly

the garden pivot is undefeated

the harder version for me is what to say when someone asks HOW

oh, that one

the shame of needing a drug. it is very widely felt in here and it is also, i think, borrowed from other people

nobody says a statin is cheating

nobody says an inhaler is cheating, and asthma also gets worse if you dont look after yourself

the inhaler comparison is the one that finally landed for me

the part that took me longest was accepting that willpower was never the missing ingredient. i had loads of it. i used it for twenty years on the wrong problem

twenty years on the wrong problem

so do you tell people or not

i tell people who have earned it and nobody else. its medical information, it isnt gossip currency

my rule was, would i tell this person my blood pressure. if no, they dont get this either

thats a clean rule, im taking it

the bit i find hardest is that i am proud of the work and i cant say the work out loud without also saying the drug

you can. the drug quietened the noise, you still did the lifting, the cooking, the walking and the two years

a drug did not meal prep on a sunday for you

ok that made me cry at my desk, thanks

checking in as a mod rather than a member for one line. if the shame is sitting heavier than the rest of it, that is a thing worth saying to a professional, and it is a very treatable kind of heavy

seconded and said better than i would have

back to not having told work — did any of you regret telling people, or regret not telling

i regret telling one person and i do not regret any of the silence. sample size of me

i regret nothing about telling my sister, it made the whole year easier having one person who knew everything

one person who knows everything is the actual answer. doesnt have to be twelve

and this channel counts as the one person for some of us, which i think is fine