Binge Eating Suggestions?

My 20 year old daughter recently started on Clozapine. She is eating non-stop- probably 5000-8000 calories a day- lbs of cheese, making a pan of brownies and eating it all, eating 4x a night. Does anyone have suggestions? Has anyone tried metformin or Lorcaserin? Do I lock up the refrigerator- she can’t even breathe she has gained so much weight in such a short time. Any advice? Thank you!

We had the same struggle when our son started Invega Sustenna. For us, things did calm down, and he’s now lost most of the extra weight he gained at the beginning.

I hate to say it, but the key for us was to have minimal food available in the house. Don’t buy cheese. Don’t buy brownie mixes. Don’t buy high calorie things like peanut butter or ice cream or chocolates, etc. Make only healthy food available at all times. I wish I understood this sooner than I did, but there’s that old hindsight thing…

You may want to keep a small, separate fridge in a locked area, so you can keep certain things out of reach. It’s a lot harder to take weight off than it is to put it on. Good luck.

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Thanks! The issue is she orders food and buys it/hoards it herself ( since she is 20 and has a part-time job). We buy the bare minimum or it is hidden, so she makes concotions of butter and sugar (now hidden) or hot cocoa mix and butter ( now hidden). I was going to explore a binge eating program, but don’t think she will go. I have 4 kids, so I need to feed them too, but I just hide the food around the house now. If anyone has other suggestions, I appreciate it!

Oh, that’s a tough one, since she has her own money. It sounds like you’re doing the best you can to control things, given the circumstances.

Hopefully, things will get better once her body adjusts to the meds.

Clozapine is generally not a medication that causes weight gain, it sounds like it is a coping mechanism.

@ninjastar posted the following hotline, they might be able to give you some advice?

Eating disorder hotline (USA)

If you or someone you love is suffering from an eating disorder, you can call the eating disorder hotline in the US to find services in your area at 1-800-931-2237

You can also text NEDA to 741741 to receive support by text message

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