I was wondering if anyone else has noticed a weight gain on lithium? If so how do you go about counteracting the weight gain? I know diet and exercise plays a large part and sometimes I admittedly eat becsuse I feel sad or empty and use it as a crutch. I also have substance abuse issues particularly with alcohol and am 3 months sober on the 22nd of March. However I’ve noticed lately whenever I feel sad or down I will eat instead of drinking. 

I’ve also read that lithium can cause weight gain in general. I suffered from an eating disorder when I was in my teens/young adult and for the longest time afterwards was about 145-150 pounds and 5’9. I recently weighed myself and I’m up to 168 pounds so basically 170 pounds and 5’9. I feel so chubby and heavy. My weight gain has been primarily in my breast, stomach and behind but I have also gained some in my stomach and I feel so embarrassed and ashamed of my body. I just want to constantly hid and not show my body. At work I constantly feel fat and bloated and it depresses me. The 20 pound weight gain has made me feel so bad about myself sometimes I think it contributes to my depression. It makes me feel like less of a human because I am “fat” now. In a prior hospital visit when I had been binge drinking prior I was up to 175 so I have lost weight since then but I still feel so fat and uncomfortable in my body. It makes me so sad. I think of my body prior to the lithium  and it makes me even more depressed and yearn to be thin again.