I have some questions for anyone who has clinical depression (takes meds) and has the band.

I suffer from Bipolar II and currently take several medicines to manage my disease (zoloft, limictal, invega). I am concerned how my mental stage will be affected by the process of lap band surgery before during, and after. So here are my questions...

For those of you on depression meds...Did you have to change to different meds or change your dosage after lap band surgery? Coud u swallow your meds (did u crush them?)Did having the surgery and all that it entails severely affect your moods to the point where you had trouble functioning? What was your mental state like after surgery?

I'm reluctant to get surgery for fear that I will become more depressed etc. I want to talk to others and hear feedback that it is possible to have depression (for which you take meds) and still suceed with the lap band. Thanks for your help!

I was diagnosed with work related stress and was on anti depressants, at the start I crushed my tablets and had them with frozen slimfast for the first week post op, my doc only told me after that I could have had them liquid! After the first week I chopped them in half so no real problems! Your emotions will be up and down just try to do some meditation (lay on the bed n listen to calm music or birdsong/water etc) even if it's only for 10 mins at a time. Good luck Ann

I take Zoloft for depression and Vyvanse for ADD...I have not had any trouble with pills except for one time when I tried to take prescription Allegra-D (before it went over the counter -the pills were HUGE) and it felt like it got stuck. So as far as taking pills go I haven't had any trouble with any antibiotics or OTC things I have taken, either.

As far as depression goes...depending on your depression and how you react to it...you may or may not struggle. If when you are depressed you are used to turning to food for comfort or to escape ---- then you will have trouble as you can't just binge or drown your emotions in food anymore....so the good news is that we have to learn to process our feelings and emotions instead of eating them...the bad news is that some people really struggle with that a lot. I would advise that you continue with a counselor if you are already seeing one or start therapy if you aren't. It helps a lot to have an outside person to bounce things off -they see things that we are too close to ourselves to see - and you can keep on top of things better that way.

Hope that helps.....

Kim