Michelle Jaqua

Using Appetite Suppressants for Weight Loss

My personal story, and it isn’t pretty

Michelle Jaqua
4 min readOct 6, 2019

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When I signed up for a medical weight loss program over a month ago, I had high hopes. I’d tried everything to lose weight over the last year, without success.

My first visit with the physician was comforting. She assured me that she would work with me to create a plan I could follow. She would be my advocate. I needed someone to help guide me, and I felt relief.

This program was long term, about nine months long. In this time, I would relearn eating behaviors, and keep a strict eye on my weight loss. Then she gave me a prescription for appetite suppressants. She said this would help curb my impulsive eating while learning new behaviors and habits.

I was kind of excited about this. I’d give anything to keep from overeating.

She told me to take a 1/4–1/2 tablet once a day. If that didn’t seem to be working, I could call in to get it increased. This was a Schedule IV controlled substance, requiring me to have a hand-delivered hard copy to fill the prescription.

I immediately realized a quarter tablet wasn’t going to work. I increased it to a half tab, and tried that.

What I experienced from this medication was an unusual line between being amped up on too much caffeine, with the ongoing need to eat anything in arms length.

I realized the pills weren’t working, so I called to get my prescription increased. I was transferred to the medical assistant. I told her that my medication wasn’t working and she said I could increase it to a whole pill. Since this have me run out of medication early, she suggested I come in to get another prescription.

Since this medication was a stimulant, I was told that I needed an EKG first to make sure my heart was okay. I had a scheduled class the next day and she said I could come in early for the EKG and get the prescription beforehand.

I went in to the office, and got my EKG. It was fine. But she was running late and I was ushered in to my class without my prescription. An hour later, I’d forgotten about my prescription and left the clinic without it.

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Michelle Jaqua

Advocate for Women / Owner of Lipedema and Me and The Virago