POLOKWANE – A nine-year-old girl’s road to recovery will be a long one after she took prescription slimming medication for over a year without her parents’ knowledge.
Earlier this week, the girl and her mother told Review their story to try and warn other parents.
The girl’s parents were unaware that their daughter was taking any slimming medication.
“Being ignorant is easy but when the truth stares you in the face, it is just overwhelming,” the girl’s mother said.
“We first became concerned in the middle of last year when her school marks began to drop. She would become aggressive when we questioned her over what she had spent her pocket money on.
“She sold some of her toys to friends for extra money and when we asked her about this, she would scream and even throw things around,” the woman said.
About a month ago, her daughter’s mood swings become so bad that they could no longer be controlled.
Her personality had changed drastically, she had become depressed and moody and she often refused to eat. When she stopped eating entirely, they decided to take her to a doctor.
After a long consultation, the girl confessed to the doctor that she had been using diet pills for the past year. When the diet pills failed to help her lose weight, she decided to continue taking them and to stop eating entirely in order to do so.
She told the doctor she believed that she could not stop using the pills.
According to the girl, she started using the pills because her friends had teased her about her weight when they were horseriding one day.
“I love riding and would like to be a horse trainer one day, but my friends said I was too heavy and would break the horse’s legs if I continued riding them,” she told Review.
“Then I was told of pills that would help me and I started buying them.” She said a school friend asked her sister to buy the medication for her, as one had to be 18 years old or older to buy them.
She said she was now well on her way to recovery and was being treated for her addiction as well as depression as a result of the prolonged misuse of the medication.
She was also tested to ascertain whether she was suffering from any eating disorders and received help to start eating again.
Her friend and the friend’s sister were prohibited from contacting her and it was possible that she would change schools soon, her mother said. South African National Council on Alchoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) Polokwane senior social worker, Sonnet Seegers, said there was a general misconception when it came to slimming medication.
“People do not realise that they can get addicted to diet pills just like any other drug,” she said.
She said a lot of the slimming medications on the market could affect people physically, mentally and emotionally.
“If there is a suspicion that a loved one is addicted to diet pills they can get the help they need at Sanca. We are able and well trained to assist in this difficult issue,” she said.
She further said a health practitioner or dietician should be consulted before taking any kind of slimming medication, even if the medication could be bought over the counter.
Lizel Marais, a dietitian in the city, said she did not condone the use of diet pills and would rather advise a healthy lifestyle that included a healthy diet and exercise.
Marais said diet pills were usually high in caffeine or laxatives, which could be extremely dangerous, causing dehydration.
“Some slimming medications, which can only be obtained on prescription, contained substances such as ephedrine that is addictive and could cause side effects such as hyperactivity, heart palpitations, lack of concentration and a low libido, she said.
She advised people to use websites like the Medicines Control Council’s website to validate a product. Chinese products or products from other countries could be checked on the FDA website at www.fda.gov/drugs, she said.
