DOSE:

15 mg

oral

Pharms - Olanzapine

(daily)

I began taking Zyprexa (7.5 mg, twice daily) at age 12 to treat (supposed) episodes of paranoia and delusions. At the time, I wasn't aware of why I'd been prescribed the drug and thought of myself as a normal kid with an active imagination.

I was chubby as a child but by middle school had begun to thin out. Although I had problems with self-esteem, I had never exhibited any symptoms of an eating disorder. Within three weeks of starting on Zyprexa I began to experience severe drowsiness to the point of sedation, I couldn't stay awake for a ten minute car ride. Although I didn't feel like I was eating any more than usual, I went from about 120 lbs - 150 lbs in 2 months.

Most significantly, instead of lessening any delusional thoughts that I had, Zyprexa intensified my paranoia tenfold. The weight gain made me feel horrible about myself and I had fears that my parents would abandon me because I was fat. 90% of people prescribed Zyprexa experience weight gain- at least in my case, the delusions were redirected to this weight gain and made life much, much worse.

It became obvious that the drug was not helping and I was taken off of it by fall of 2001. By then I was already restricting calories, fasting, taking laxatives and doing absolutely anything to lose weight without my parents finding out. The delusions of my family of friends leaving me stopped, but in their place was Anorexia Nervosa.

That was my freshman year of high school, and for 6 years I've lived with the Eating Disorder that I blame pretty much entirely on the weight I gained from Zyprexa. Zyprexa made me fat, and deflected all of my psychoses and paranoia to that fact, without helping my condition at all. I am a college student, outwardly happy and social, but I wake up every day praying that I won't have to fight with this disease for the rest of my life.

Exp Year: 2000	ExpID: 66443
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 5, 2021	Views: 884
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Pharms - Olanzapine (260) : Not Applicable (38), Medical Use (47), Health Problems (27), Retrospective / Summary (11)