I think my friend is addicted to taking Wegovy

[Fairslice]

She started earlier this year. I know she 'cheated' by holding heavy weights to make the scales show a heavier weight.

I don't know her exact starting weight, but she is about 5.5 and was a good size 16.

I saw her in real life last week and oh my god, she's so thin. I was shocked. She's a size 8 she says although she looks thinner.

She's still taking Wegovy! She says she's taking it less frequently though. She's barely eating anything but drinking a lot😢

This post is not to judge anyone who takes wegovy etc, I know it's been brilliant for so many people. But I'm really worried about her. She says she gets it from super drug, but I have a horrible feeling she's getting it illegally online somewhere.

Just to reiterate she does not look healthy. She looks anorexic.

Is it safe to carry on taking it like this?

How is she clearly addicted and terrified? Maintenance doses are an approved method of taking these injections, so it’s not clear that she’s addicted from what you’ve said. She may be, but we can’t possibly know that. If she’s taking it less often now as you say then maybe she’s titrating down as per her prescribers instructions?

If she was a size 16 at 5ft 5 she would not have had to cheat by holding weights to get the drug. That would be classed as obese. Only just but still obese.
I was obese at size 16 and I'm 5ft 7!
Also for her height a size 8 is not unhealthy.
It could be you are unused to seeing her so small..
Does she still have energy to go about her day as she did before? Does her hair look healthy and her skin? If so I doubt she is too thin.
If she seems to have constant fatigue, is constabtly cold, is having issues with her teeth, her hair is thinning and or her skin looks palid and greasy, then that is genuine cause for concern regarding her eating.

@ChungKing I'm just going on the OP stating that her friend used weights to artificially increase her weight in the photo she submitted, and being a size 16 at 5ft 5in doesn't automatically equal being obese (bmi over 30). If her bmi was over 30 then there would have been no need for the weights.

That's totally fair, but I thought it was worth pointing out you can still take a maintenance dose at goal weight, so that might not be hugely concerning depending on the dosage she's taking and her reasons for doing so.

Well, of course. Posters in this board are committed to the weight loss drugs, and will hear no word against them.

FWIW, you are probably right to be concerned. does she have any other friends or family you could talk to, to see if you could get through to her?

I'm a bit surprised too. Obviously loads and loads of people using this medication are doing so appropriately, but the absolutely wide-open possibilities for using it in the context of an eating disorder seem to make people on this thread incredibly defensive. Why?

Surely we can assume that the OP is able to make as good an assessment as anyone else of the difference between being newly slim and looking anorexic. If she had posted concerns about a dieting friend who was not using the injections but had gone too far with her weightloss, the responses would have been very different. But just because she is using drugs, the dangers of anorexia are being denied or downplayed by several posters
I can't help seeing all this defensiveness as concerning.

When I lost weight (from a size 16 to 8), lots of people were telling me they were concerned about me, I looked frail etc
I was actually completely healthy and my BMI was 24. They were just used to seeing me fatter or didn’t like that I had lost weight actually looked great. Plenty of people told me I looked great too.

“She's barely eating anything but drinking a lot”

The danger on this site is the emphasis on thinness rather than health. No programme in which you barely eat anything is going to be good for you. It’s bad enough being rigid about 1200 calories as day. Eventually she’s going to look like shit through lack of nutrients. ( dull hair and skin, lethargy etc) The problem is that people in the middle of these disordered eating programmes ( whatever they are) value the size over all the other costs. And the person selling the drugs doesn’t really have much motivation to stop selling it. Sorry OP I’m not sure there’s much you can do since she’ll assume your concern is an attempt to sabotage her.

Probably is the wrong board. I think there's an eating disorders board (IIRC) so ask there. I do think there will be unintended consequences of the mass use of these drugs and we will see more and more side effects. Including psychological.

They don't have to tell the GP.

Leaving aside all the discussion about whether your friend is actually too thin now, I must say that I understand why people struggle to stop taking them.
I've been taking the weigh loss injections and lost a lot of weight (and it was so easy - after a life-time of struggling, agonizing, largely unsuccessful dieting). It has been a miracle - honestly, the first time I worried about my weight and felt self-conscious, I was seven years old. I am now 47. I've struggled with this every day for 40 years of my life. And now the problem is gone.
But, as I enter the maintenance stage, I do feel scared to stop. Scared that the weight will come back, scared that I can't control my eating without it, scared that the cravings and "food noise" will be back with a vengeance.
I am working with my doctor to taper down, reducing the dose and the frequency. I will try to come off it completely, but, if that doesn't work, I will stay on a low maintenance dose (just as I am on other medicines for the long-term).
But, I am afraid. This week, my thought was, "well, maybe I should stay on it for another month or so? Maybe I should give myself more room for maneuver?"
It's also strange that, before, weight loss felt out of my control. I would diet all week and then get on the scale and not have lost a pound. My weigh loss would plateau. With the injections, I can predictably lose weight. I could, it seems, just keep on going. Some days I look in the mirror and still see a fat person. My husband says, "You're getting too thin," but he was used to me being a much higher weight. So, in my head, it's very difficult to know whether I should keep going.
I've stopped now, as my BMI is healthy, plus this is the weight I was when I got married, which is my lowest ever adult weight. But I am wrestling with it. So I see how your friend could be not necessarily addicted, but struggling (or not wishing to, despite needing to) stop.

@ReadWithScepticism I think it's asking here as if the people using these boards for support are somehow specially placed to know what to do when someone has obtained these drugs fraudulently and apparently now possibly developing an addiction or mental health issue. That's totally outside the experience of the people on these threads in this section, who are supporting each other whilst using these medications appropriately and without lying to access them.

I'm not downplaying anything btw. I've said more than once that this friend may well have serious issues.

But you don’t need support it’s not about you? Do you mean advice on how to support her/raise it with her. I’d say the same as everyone gets told when they ask should I tell my friend she’s fat - nope.

Once you're at your goal weight you are usually prescribed a maintenance dose for around 2 years although that's supposed to be changing to life and oral alternatives are in the works too.

All you can do is express your concerns but tbh if it's legitimately prescribed its not really any of your business. The prescriber has a duty to make sure she's taking the right dose for her.

Email the prescriber yourself if you feel she's abusing the medication but just be sure you're not mistaking maintenance doses for misuse of substance.

Because we see you.

No one had posted anything "prickly" when you made that post but it seems you were expecting it as if you knew what you were trying to do. Your OP was suspicious in the first place but you told on yourself with that post.

Goady thread.

What on earth would I have got out of being goady??

Honestly you are being paranoid. I am genuinely worried about her, and I apologise if I posted on the wrong board. Just wondered if anyone had known of anything similar.

Thanks I will look for a more suitable board.

Who is 'we'?

You suspect I've posted here to somehow throw shade on the drug that you love. Have a word with yourself.

She's probably on a maintenance dose as recommended once you get to target.

@Fairslice as I said in one of my other posts you only have to look at some of the trending threads about these jabs to see why posters here get their backs up. We're constantly attacked for being on these meds.

Well i am sorry about that, but this thread wasn't attacking the drug, which I understand is a miracle worker for some. I admit I know very little about them, I'm just concerned about my friend and wondering how she's still getting it.

A PP explained that you can be prescribed a maintainance dose for 2 years, so maybe that's what she's doing.

Anyway, I've learnt my lesson and will bow out and ask somewhere else. I wonder if I'll be followed there 🤔

I’d also be concerned and would talk to my friend ( carefully) about it in your situation. If she is prescribed it legally, is on a maintenance dose and is within a healthy weight range, she’ll be happy to discuss with you. If she gets angry about it or accuses you of being jealous ( and why would you be at a size 10 yourself), that answers your question really. Injections aside, hardly eating anything is worrying.

Why would anyone 'follow you'?

Are you important....no!

There is such a thing as Ozempic face and Ozempic butt where people lose fat and volume from these areas and end up looking gaunt.

She may be healthy at size 8 but perhaps her face might be showing it more drastically than if she had lost the weight naturally.`