While research has looked at the potential mental health consequences of semaglutide drug use As with Ozempic, less has been talked about how the increase in these medications will impact those who don’t take them.
Heather Young said she struggled with her weight her entire life. She told CBS News that her teenage years and early adulthood were filled with trying “one thing after another and failing over and over and feeling so defeated.”
For people like her, the 37-year-old said, “all we ever wanted was a magical solution. Instead, we were bombarded with diet culture, harmful pills, calorie counting and diet after diet.”
Now, like medicine Ozempic, WegovyMounjaro and Zepbound to have rose in popularity for their use for weight losswhich helps both people and celebrities shed pounds quickly, it strikes a complicated chord.
“My initial feelings were definitely complex,” Young said of the craze. “On the one hand, I want everyone to be (their) best self – physically, mentally and emotionally. And if there’s a drug that makes that more accessible to people, I’m happy for them. But… I do think this medicines that are.” is marketed as a magical solution, and it triggers me.”
Ozempic and Mounjaro, both used for diabetes, and Wegovy and Zepbound, both approved for weight loss, are GLP-1 drugs, a class of drugs that signal fullness to the brain and regulate blood sugar levels.
Dr. Rekha Kumar, an obesity specialist and lead physician at weight loss app Found, previously told CBS News these drugs are “a scientific breakthrough.”
“Not just because of weight management, but because of cardiovascular risk reduction (and) diabetes treatment. People are actually getting healthier, and that’s the point of medicine. It’s not just about getting thinner,” Kumar said. Although she acknowledged that being thinner is the cause of the buzz – and that worries her.
“We’re seeing people trying to get their hands on medications they don’t need at all — people trying to fit into dresses and lose the vanity weight,” she said. “And that’s not really what these were made for.”
There has also been a buzz high demandwhich drives companies like Costco And Him and her to also join the GLP-1 boom dangerous counterfeits that have appeared on social media.
Young isn’t alone in her feelings, either.
Victoria Garrick Browne, a mental health advocate who has been outspoken about her battle with binge eating disorder, shared a similar sentiment during a recent episode of her podcast “Real Pod.”
“The Ozempic craze was really hard for me because when I was younger, all I wanted was a magic pill that would help me lose 30 pounds,” she said. “I remember googling, ‘How do I lose 30 pounds in a month?’ And it feels like we have that now. It’s this drug that you inject and you lose all this weight. I feel like I see it in celebrities, in everyday life… This thing that we all thought was impossible was to lose weight is now a real thing.”
Even if someone has gone through a healing process regarding body image or their relationship with food, these challenges can “last a lifetime,” says Alyssa Mairanz, a licensed mental health counselor and owner of Empower Your Mind Therapy.
“Sometimes you find a healthy relationship, and when you’re an adult, you can be retriggered by so many factors,” says Mairanz. “Many people find themselves reactivated at different stages of adulthood.”
Young said it was also difficult to see advertisements for the drugs that “suppress your appetite” and “reduce cravings.”
“It really brought up things for me that were completely at odds with my values around food these days,” she said.
Mairanz said these types of messages can contribute to the “culture of weight loss and body image as a whole and what our bodies look like versus how healthy our bodies actually are.”
For anyone struggling with similar messages, Mairanz urged people not to “tie your self-worth to what your body looks like.”
“This can lead to frustration and possibly lead to other harmful forms of weight loss,” she said, adding to seek professional help if necessary.
