Ozempic is everywhere and that’s triggering for people in recovery from eating disorders, specialists say – CBC

Alarm raised that patients are prescribed without proper screening for eating disorder history

Nov 19, 2023

One of the things Sheryl Rasband learned as part of her recovery from anorexia was that she shouldn’t actively try to lose weight. That’s why she was a little taken aback when her psychiatrist suggested she might want to try Ozempic.

“I want to give him the benefit of the doubt because I was expressing my anxiety about my weight…. However, he knows my history,” she said.

The 40-year-old nurse and mother who lives in Utah County, Utah, has struggled with an eating disorder since she was 16, and said her weight has gone up and down since then.

When she was at her lowest point she had to be hospitalized and even temporarily lost custody of her children as a result, she said.

Now, after going through extensive treatment, Rasband said she feels much better mentally, even though she is technically obese according to her Body Mass Index. (BMI is a measurement that some doctors use to determine healthy weight, though it has been challenged as an indicator of health.)

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ozempic-eating-disorders-1.7030553