Weight-loss jabs didn’t work for me and I thought I was stuck being obese forever… until I was diagnosed with this condition. Now I’ve finally lost three stone. It’s so common – these are the signs you have it too

When Nell Jensen took her first dose of the Wegovy weight loss injection, she thought it would be the beginning of the end of her lifelong struggle with her weight.

He didn’t know he would finally grow to a healthy size until he was diagnosed with a common brain disorder two years later.

The 41-year-old, who grew up in the Netherlands before moving to Brighton, says he was constantly teased for his weight as a child.

‘I was bullied a lot,’ says Nell, who works in customer service. ‘People would ask my face why I was fat. ‘I always felt judged.’

Nell repeatedly tried to lose weight with various diets and exercise programs. But he realized that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t control his eating.

Her biggest problem, she says, was snacking: Nell would often eat chocolates and biscuits unconsciously, often regretting them immediately afterwards.

‘It was like I had no control,’ he says. But in 2023, Nell reached her lowest point. After a difficult divorce that led to ‘eating Chinese food every day for a year’, Nell was the heaviest at 14 stone and 13 pounds.

It was at this point that Nell decided to return to Wegovy. Injection administered once a week suppresses appetite. Studies show that the average obese patient will lose up to a fifth of their body weight in less than a year, thanks to the drug.

Nell hoped it would have the same effect on her; so much so that he was willing to pay around £160 a month for vaccines despite his relatively low salary.

But sadly for Nell, Wegovy failed to trigger the results she had hoped for. He managed to lose less than 11 kilos over five months. Eventually, given the high price of the needles, Nell decided to leave Wegovy.

And worst of all, when Nell stopped taking the medication, her weight skyrocketed; Within months he was back to his heaviest weight.

‘This was supposed to be an answer,’ he says. ‘But it didn’t have the effect I hoped for.’

But two years later, when Nell went to see a psychologist, she accidentally found a permanent solution to her weight problems. Nell says she has always had mental health issues.

‘I always felt like my brain would get bored easily,’ he says. ‘I could never concentrate on tasks for long. I also often found it difficult to communicate with others. So I pressured my doctor to refer me to a psychologist.’

After evaluating Nell, the psychologist gave her a diagnosis: the brain disorder attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Around 3 million people in the UK are believed to have ADHD, defined as inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

In 2025, Nell was diagnosed with the brain disorder attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Around 3 million people in the UK are believed to have ADHD

Although research suggests that the number of men and women with ADHD is generally the same, experts say women often go undiagnosed or are told they have the condition later in life.

A recent study from the University of Cambridge found that nearly 40 percent of women with ADHD are not diagnosed until they are in their 40s.

And most importantly, experts say there is a strong connection between ADHD and obesity. According to some studies, ADHD patients are 50 to 80 percent more likely to be obese. Children with this condition are 30 percent more likely to have serious weight problems.

“There’s a big correlation between the two conditions,” says cognitive neuroscientist Prof Katya Rubia from King’s College London.

‘Interestingly, this link appears to be more common in women than in men.’

Experts say it’s still unclear why the two are linked. But one theory is that ADHD patients appear to have low levels of the brain chemical dopamine, which makes them feel good.

Experts say that our bodies produce dopamine in response to activities that make us happy or relaxed. This could be sports, sex, or making money. However, it can also be earned through food.

This means, as Prof Rubia explains, that many ADHD sufferers may turn to food as a way of boosting their dopamine.

He prescribed her a daily tablet of bupropion, a dopamine-boosting drug. Nell noticed she was snacking less after a few weeks of taking her ADHD pills

Nell says she has also improved her diet by cutting out unhealthy foods such as croissants and ham and cheese toasties in soups and salads.

Nell thinks this explains his incessant snacking.

‘I realized I was snacking on dopamine,’ he says. ‘I would eat unhealthy things because they gave me a quick mood boost. And I would do it even though I knew these things were unhealthy for me.’

And most importantly, his psychologist told him that ADHD medications could potentially put an end to dopamine snacking.

He prescribed her a daily tablet of bupropion, a dopamine-boosting medication often prescribed for ADHD and depression.

Nell says the pills had an unexpected side effect, making her constantly cold. But within a few weeks, she noticed she felt less tempted to snack.

‘It’s like I took a two-second pause in my thought process before going to grab a sweet treat,’ she says. ‘I’d grab it first and eat it. But when I started the medication, it was like I had time to think and realize that I didn’t really need it.

‘It was incredible.’

Nell says she’s also improved her diet by cutting out unhealthy foods like croissants and ham and cheese toasties in soups and salads.

Dr Rubia says studies have shown that patients taking ADHD medications can lose weight. He adds that this isn’t necessarily because the tablets increase dopamine.

“Many of these ADHD medications can suppress appetite,” he says. ‘So this could be the reason too.’

However, Nell says she hasn’t lost her appetite but instead feels more capable of making healthy eating decisions.

Since she started taking bupropion about a year ago, Nell has lost 3 stone and 2 stone, meaning she is a healthy 11 stone 11 stone, or a size 10.

Nell says she often thinks about the times she was bullied for her weight as a child and wonders how her life would have been different if she had been diagnosed with ADHD at a young age.

‘I always felt like my weight problems were my fault,’ she says. ‘And as a result I was insecure. ‘I now understand that it was due to a medical problem and I wonder how many other women have the same problem without realizing it?’