Exploring The Dark Side of Weight Loss: Ozempic Sadness

Shedding excess pounds represents the holy grail for countless people – the key to boosted self-esteem, improved health, and a sense of personal triumph. Yet this pursuit of a slimmer physique can paradoxically unleash a torrent of unanticipated emotional turmoil, even as the scales tip in the desired direction. 

This phenomenon, dubbed ‘Ozempic sadness,’ is particularly pronounced among those relying on new weekly injectable medications like Ozempic or Wegovy.  

Contrary to popular belief, feelings of sadness cannot be solely attributed to the physiological effects of these weight loss aids. While they undoubtedly curb appetite and facilitate shedding pounds, no conclusive evidence exists that they directly induce emotional distress. 

Instead, the root of this sadness seems to stem from the jarring realisation that food has long served as an emotional block—a means of numbing pain, filling voids, and seeking fleeting solace in the depths of disordered eating.

A decade or more ago, I was seeing an increasing number of clients who had undergone bariatric surgery, and although initially, their weight loss had been dramatic and not only life-changing but life-saving, they had begun to regain the pounds they had lost.

For many, emotional eating represents a deeply ingrained coping mechanism, a protective shield against the harsh realities of stress, anxiety, trauma or low self-worth. Each bite offers a momentary escape, a chance to swallow uncomfortable feelings and find reprieve, however transient. Yet this pattern inevitably breeds a vicious cycle of overeating, or restrictive eating and bingeing, all of which increases feelings of shame and reinforces reliance on food as a way to self-soothe.

When interventions like Ozempic or gastric surgery abruptly sever this ability to overeat, individuals are left starkly confronting the very issues they had been anaesthetising through consumptive excess. The comforting ritual of compulsive eating has disappeared, leaving them bereft of their familiar emotional buffer, painfully exposed to the demons they had been attempting to swallow down. 

The new injectables are reportedly highly efficient at reducing the constant white noise about food. For those living with disordered eating, their ever-present inner voice that keeps a running commentary on what they have just eaten and what they may eat next is effectively turned off. Clients describe it as if a powerful, magic switch has been thrown. Frequently, their palpable relief of quieting the hyper-critical inner voice they have lived with for years is short-lived. A mind liberated from overthinking about food soon fills with other competing and pressing concerns, many of which are upsetting and uncomfortable. The secondary gains of psychologically focusing on food have often been a subconscious strategy to avoid long-held trauma that now comes into sharp relief.

Crucially, discontinuing Ozempic or any other of the new injectables available on the market or reversing surgical procedures does very little to resolve the underlying emotional turmoil. The impulses and traumas that triggered disordered eating remain firmly entrenched, creating a high risk for relapse into destructive eating patterns or transitioning to other self-destructive coping behaviours like alcohol or substance abuse. The clue is in the prescribing guidelines of the injectables that many state the drugs need to be administered for life to avoid regaining weight – albeit at a lower maintenance dose level. 

Rather than viewing feelings of sadness or low mood as an undesirable side effect, these uncomfortable emotions can be a powerful catalyst for self-discovery and time to explore the past events and life experiences that led to disordered eating. This period of medicalised dietary restraint can offer a unique window into one’s relationship with food and the emotional voids it has been used to fill. With expert therapeutic intervention and a personal commitment to developing healthy coping mechanisms, individuals can confront the root causes of their trauma, anxieties and insecurities that had been incessantly eating at them. It is only when the memories buried alive are resolved and released that anyone becomes free of the tyranny of disordered eating.

Sustainable, holistic weight management demands far more than a purely physical intervention; it necessitates an unflinching examination of the psyche and its complex entanglement with disordered eating. By having courage and determination, those now dealing with Ozempic sadness or feeling they ‘failed’ at bariatric surgery can successfully emerge from their weight loss odyssey not just slimmer and healthier but fundamentally transformed — with new-found, robust emotional resilience and a recalibrated, nurturing relationship with both food and self.

If you are interested in exploring your relationship with food and or even discovering the emotional triggers that drive your disordered eating, I co-wrote a book with Australian therapist Liz Hogon based on how we work with clients presenting with disordered eating in our separate therapy practices. It is called ‘7 Simple Steps to Stop Emotional Eating’, published by Hammersmith Health Books and is available on Amazon or direct from the publisher.