Impact of GLP1s on brain and behavior

[MsNobody]

I wanted to share something I’ve been reflecting on, I saw Leo talking about GLP1s being conformity and would like to bring the topic to discussion. 

For context, I’ve been on the spiritual path for about 10–12 years. I come from a pretty “blue stage” background, growing up in Brazil, very conservative, very religious.. and I left the country after going through sexual abuse. That experience left a deep mark on me and led to severe eating disorders, especially binge eating, which affected my brain and behavior for many years.

When I moved to the U.S., I had the opportunity to develop more into stage orange  (structure, money, building a life), but I feel like I skipped that and went straight into green.

For those 10–12 years, I went super deep into spirituality.. meditation retreats, lots of psychedelics, self-development work, I even lived with a nun for three years. I also created a YouTube channel in Portuguese where I talked about psychedelics and PD and worked with women from Brazil online. But I was very much in stage green. I had this idealization that I would be able to make money from that, but the reality is that the Brazilian currency is undervalued, and I wasn’t making much. So I ended up putting that project aside, thinking I might come back to it later when I’m more financially stable.

Internally, I grew a lot. But externally, I didn’t build much structure, especially financially. I always say that I got lost in spirituality  it’s a great place to be lost but it had its price.. 

About a year ago, I started taking tirzepatide (hang in there before you judge me lol) I initially took it because of my eating disorders and my relationship with food. But what surprised me was the mental and emotional effect.

I became much more focused, calm, and emotionally regulated. My thoughts got very much quieter. I had less impulsivity, less emotional reactivity and much less mental noise, this had a huge impact on my life.

In the past year I was able to save around $100k, I’m honestly not sure I would have done that without the level of focus and consistency I had during this time. It felt like I was finally able to prioritize and follow through without getting pulled in a hundred emotional directions.

It also felt like I finally started integrating stage orange.. discipline, structure, longterm thinking, financial organization. Not in a forced way, but in a very natural, grounded way. Like my system was finally able to support it

Another important piece is relationships. In the past, my relationships were very intense and often toxic. I associated intensity with love. Right now, I’m in a calm and stable relationship, and I’ve realized how different that feels. The medication helped me here too. It reduced the anxiety, the overthinking, and the need for emotional intensity. It helped me not confuse chaos with connection, for someone with my background that was huge. I watched my dad trying to kill my mom countless times and somewhere within me unconsciously that was love. 

Now I’m starting to see how important it is to actually integrate these stages, I don’t think I could move a bit more towards yellow without first stabilizing orange in a real way.

I stopped taking tirzepatide about 2–3 months ago (I used it for around 8 months total), and I’m now feeling some of the old patterns coming back, especially with appetite and emotional eating so I’ve been looking into other options that might support me in a less invasive way, like Bupropion, Contrave, or Metformin.

I don’t think tirzepatide is something I want to rely on longterm, but I also can’t ignore the level of regulation and focus it gave me.

I’m curious if anyone else has experienced something similar (especially with medications that affect appetite or dopamine) where it impacted not just your body, but your thinking patterns, emotional regulation, relationships, and even your development path.

I’m still trying to understand how much of this was the medication itself and how much was timing and mindset, could just be the harvest of all the time I meditated and studied etc.. but the shift has been very clear for me. 
 

Sorry for the long post! Thank you for reading ☺️

 

Edited 2 hours ago by MsNobody

[MsNobody]

Short scientific context from chat GPT:

GLP-1 medications like tirzepatide don’t only work on the body — they also act directly on the brain.

They activate receptors in the hypothalamus and reward system, which regulate hunger and behavior  

They reduce dopamine response to food and rewards, which lowers cravings and impulsive behavior  

They modulate the brain’s reward circuitry, affecting motivation, addiction patterns, and emotional responses  

They may also reduce inflammation and improve brain metabolism, which can support cognition and mental clarity  

Some early studies suggest:

improved mood and cognitive function (still preliminary)  

reduced “food noise” and binge-related brain activity (sometimes temporary)  

There’s also growing evidence that these drugs may influence:

addictive behaviors

emotional regulation

long-term brain health

But important:

research is still early

many of these effects are not fully understood yet

 

In simple terms:

These medications don’t just make you eat less —
they change how your brain experiences reward, impulse, and motivation.