Eumoirous

I have schizoaffective disorder that is maintained by ECT treatments once a month. I haven't spoken to a surgeon yet because I am terrified of being denied surgery because of my mental health and how it's maintained. My dream is to be healthy and for how extreme my obesity is this may be the only way to achieve that. Can anyone offer some advice?

I'm just getting started on the process of bariatric surgery and am leaning towards gastric bypass. I would love to be able to talk to someone about it all and be able to encourage someone else as well!

Thank you for you insight into it. I really appreciate it! Thank you for all of that advice! I will definitely keep all of this in mind. (by making a list of questions, things to do, people to call, etc.)

I am stable on meds as well. I was doing more research and found that the most important medication I take (risperdal) is also available as an injection which would be perfect. My antidepressant (effexor) isn't, but there are some other ones available as a liquid which would probably absorb better than the pill form. Thank you so much for replying and being so reassuring. Anyhow woop! Everyone who replied has made me much more hopeful. I'm looking forward to getting through the process and changing my life. Thank you everyone!

I went to the information centre at Johns Hopkins and they have their surgeons there. The Nurse Practitioner for the Briatric Centre there actually recommended a surgeon to me that may understand my situation better. I am still just worried a little lol. I will definitely be trying to get my therapist and psychiatrist on board. The Nurse told me the more effort I put into trying to get the surgery, (support groups, changing diet in advance, exercising, etc.) the better and I definitely am! Thank you for replying! I see my psychiatrist at the end of October and will be speaking with him about it then. Thank you for helping me feel a bit more hopeful with the process! Definitely will! Thank you. This makes me hopeful. I will definitely be upfront with them and already was at the information session I went to. Congrats on getting cleared and receiving a surgery date! Thank you for your insight.

I was wondering if anyone here had any sort of mental illness and how that affected their surgery's process. Like did having mental illness make it difficult to find a surgeon willing to operate? Did you have to do anything extra like more visits with a psychiatrist before surgery? Did they want to you stay "stable" for an allotted time before surgery? Or anything else that may be affected with having mental illness. I have schizoaffective disorder that is controlled with medication/therapy/the like and am considering weight loss surgery, but I was wondering if it could get in the way of having the surgery. If anyone has any experiences related to this please share as I'm pretty apprehensive about approaching the process. I've gone to an information session so far and that went well, but am unsure of what my mental illness will make the process like....if that makes any sense. Thank you!