It’s hard being praised for losing weight, when it’s because of your mental health

How do you begin to explain it's because of depression and not a diet?

Over Christmas I had people remark that I was in great shape and had lost a noticeable amount of weight. I had people praise me for dropping a dress size and I was asked several times what diet I was on or how I did it? For the most part I just said I'd be exercising more because I didn't want to get into the real reason behind my weight loss, because it is a much tougher subject. 2021 was a difficult year for a lot of people but towards the latter half of the year things took a bad turn in my personal life. Something incredibly traumatic happened that sent my mental health down a spiral that I'm still struggling to cope with. Within the first couple of weeks of this event occurring I barely ate. Even now, months on, I'm doing well if I eat one solid meal a day. It has caused me to lose weight, but it has been by no means healthy weight loss. Unfortunately, whenever my depression and anxiety kicks in, my appetite is the first thing to suffer and the last thing for me to recover. Of course when people have complimented me they don't mean anything by it. They most likely assume that it was something that I've been working towards and in a lot of ways it's easier just to let them think that. It's been difficult enough talking it all through with my therapist, never mind having to get into it all with random acquaintances. Coming into that time of year again when everyone is talking about hitting the gym and losing a few pounds, do be mindful that for some people weight loss can be a negative thing. That may be suffering from eating disorders, chronic health issues or like myself, depression. Just be mindful that while you may mean something as a compliment, the mention of losing weight can bring up some triggering issues for some people. After all that we've been through the last two years be gentle with yourself and with others.