When Nell Jensen took her first dose of the weight-loss injection Wegovy she thought it might be the start of the tip to her lifelong battle together with her weight.
Little did she know that it might not be till she was identified with a typical mind situation two years later that she would lastly attain a wholesome dimension.
The 41-year-old, who grew up in The Netherlands earlier than transferring to Brighton, says as a baby she was relentlessly mocked for her weight.
‘I used to be bullied so much,’ says Nell, who works in customer support. ‘Individuals would ask me to my face why I used to be fats. I felt judged on a regular basis.’
Nell tried repeatedly to shed some pounds – with numerous diets and train programmes. However she discovered that, irrespective of how exhausting she tried, she could not management her consuming.
She says that her greatest challenge was her snacking: Nell would usually mindlessly eat chocolate and biscuits, usually regretting it instantly afterwards.
‘It was like I’d don’t have any management,’ she says. However in 2023 Nell reached her lowest level. After a troublesome divorce that led to ‘a yr of consuming Chinese language takeaway day by day’, Nell was her heaviest at 14 stone and 13 kilos.
It was at this level that Nell determined to show to Wegovy. The once-a-week jab suppresses urge for food. Research present that the common overweight affected person will lose as much as a fifth of their physique weight on the drug in lower than a yr.
Nell Jensen, 41, says she was relentlessly mocked for her weight. Little did she know that it might not be till she was identified with a typical mind situation two years later
Nell hoped that it might have the identical impact for her – a lot in order that she was keen to pay roughly £160-a-month for the jabs regardless of her comparatively low wage.
Nonetheless, heartbreakingly for Nell, Wegovy did not set off the outcomes that she had hoped for. Over 5 months, she managed to lose lower than 11 kilos. Ultimately, given the excessive value of the jabs, Nell determined to return off Wegovy.
And, worst of all, when Nell stopped taking the drugs her weight ballooned – inside months returning to her heaviest.
‘It was meant to be the reply,’ she says. ‘However it simply did not have the impact I had hoped for.’
Nonetheless, two years later, Nell by chance stumbled upon a long-lasting resolution to her weight issues when she visited a psychologist. Nell says she had all the time suffered with psychological well being issues.
‘I felt like my mind would all the time get bored simply,’ she says. ‘I might by no means focus on duties for lengthy. I additionally usually discovered speaking with others troublesome. So I pushed my GP to refer me to a psychologist.’
After assessing Nell, the psychologist gave her a prognosis: the mind dysfunction attention-deficit hyperactivity dysfunction, or ADHD.
Round 3million individuals within the UK are believed to have ADHD – outlined by inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.
In 2025, Nell was identified with the mind dysfunction attention-deficit hyperactivity dysfunction. Round 3million individuals within the UK are believed to have ADHD
Whereas analysis means that the variety of men and women with ADHD is broadly the identical, specialists say that females usually go undiagnosed or are informed they’ve the situation late in life.
A latest Cambridge College examine discovered that round 40 per cent of girls with ADHD don’t get identified till they’re of their 40s.
And, crucially, specialists say that there’s a sturdy hyperlink between ADHD and weight problems. In line with some research, ADHD sufferers are between 50 and 80 per cent extra prone to be overweight. Kids with the situation are 30 per cent extra prone to have the extreme weight drawback.
‘There is a huge affiliation between the 2 circumstances,’ says Prof Katya Rubia, a cognitive neuroscientist at King’s School London.
‘Curiously, it appears that evidently this hyperlink is extra frequent in girls than males.’
Consultants say it’s nonetheless unclear why the 2 are linked. Nonetheless, one concept is that ADHD sufferers seem to have low ranges of the feel-good mind chemical dopamine.
Consultants say the physique produces dopamine in response to actions that make us really feel pleased or relaxed. This could possibly be sport, intercourse, or incomes cash. Nonetheless, it can be gained by means of consuming.
This implies, as Prof Rubia explains, that many ADHD sufferers might flip to meals as a way of boosting their dopamine.
He prescribed her the every day pill bupropion, a dopamine-boosting drug. Inside weeks of taking her ADHD tablets, Nell realised she was snacking much less
Nell says she additionally improved her weight-reduction plan, reducing out unhealthy meals like croissants and ham cheese toasties for soups and salads
Nell believes this explains her incessant snacking.
‘I realised that I had been ‘dopamine snacking’,’ she says. ‘I’d eat unhealthy issues as a result of they gave me a fast temper enhance. And I’d do that though I knew they had been unhealthy for me.’
And, crucially, her psychologist informed her that ADHD remedy might probably finish her dopamine snacking.
He prescribed her the every day pill bupropion, a dopamine-boosting drug that’s usually prescribed for ADHD and despair.
Nell says the capsules had the sudden aspect impact of creating her really feel chilly on a regular basis. Nonetheless, inside weeks, she seen that she felt the urge to snack much less.
‘It is like I had a two-second break in my thought course of earlier than I went to select up a candy deal with,’ she says. ‘Earlier than I’d simply seize it and eat it. However as soon as I began the drug, it is like I had time to think about and realise I did not really want it.
‘It was unbelievable.’
Nell says she additionally improved her weight-reduction plan, reducing out unhealthy meals like croissants and ham cheese toasties for soups and salads.
Dr Rubia says that research have proven that sufferers positioned on ADHD medicines can shed some pounds. She provides that this isn’t essentially all the time as a result of the tablets enhance dopamine.
‘Many of those ADHD medicine can suppress urge for food,’ she says. ‘In order that could be the trigger too.’
Nonetheless, Nell says she did not lose her urge for food however as a substitute felt she was extra able to making wholesome consuming selections.
Since she started taking bupropion round a yr in the past, Nell has misplaced 3 stone and a pair of kilos, which means she is a wholesome 11 stone 11 kilos – a dimension 10.
Nell says she usually thinks about all of the instances she was bullied as a baby for her weight – and wonders how her life would have been totally different if she had been identified with ADHD at a younger age.
‘I used to be all the time made to really feel that my weight points had been my fault,’ she says. ‘And I used to be insecure because of this. Now I realise that it was due to a medical drawback – and I’m wondering what number of different girls on the market are struggling by means of the identical with out realising it.’
