I wasn't looking forward to it but other than the hand cramps from the personality test, I'd say it was a good experience. The psychologist was very kind and listened to me talk for the first hour about my life in general as well as past weight loss successes and failures. She was very encouraging about my past weight loss, since I had kept it off for years at a time that I probably have the mental tools to overcome challenges with food - geez I hope she is right, and that adding the sleeve will help me eliminate these challenges forever!

She works a lot with wls folks and in her experience, if someone can keep maintain a healthy weight for 2-5 years post-op, they are generally over the hump and are much more likely to have a healthy weight forever because the good habits have become ingrained. She said for some its helpful to continue to visit her (or another method of support like OA) every 3-4 months post-op for a while, that during the rapid weight loss/honeymoon phase it's easy to forget to address the mental component.

She also has seen sleevers fail, and it's usually within the first 2 years and because they did not have a replacement habit for food. One suggestion I liked was Make a "self-soothing box" that has items that help you get through the tough hungry/anxious moments, just simple, meditative, fun activities like nail painting, sodoku, beading, etc.

From a handout she gave -

Common issues that come up as people lose weight:

- Anxiety due to feeling 'naked', like a layer of protective clothing has been taken away

- Feeling uncomforable with attention the world gives them - "I'm the same person inside, why are people responding differently just because the outside changed?"

- Plain old grief due to missing the comfort of overeating

- Irritability (just like a smoker or drinker who is trying to go cold turkey, ther will be cranky moments)

- Remember 12-36 months out is often the most challenging time for people because it is the maintenance period when new healthy habits either 'stick' and become lifelong, or the person feels like 'the diet is now done' and they fall back into the old patterns

- Some of these things may come up, come may not, your job is just to deal with them openly if they do. Talk to trusted people; read; journal; just don't sit along withe those feelings. They are comon and they are workable

Anyway. Just thought I'd share!

Wow that's really cool. I am actually looking forward to the psych evaluation. I don't know why.

Wow...sounds like you had a great psych eval! Mine is tomorrow and I wasn't expecting anything that thorough. I am seeing a LCSW and I don't think she particularly specializes in weight loss issues. My work has an EAP program so I just took the first appointment that they offered me since it is free and I wanted to get it done. Thanks for posting what your session was like as it gives me something to compare mine to. I have to admit that I was considering this just a "check off" of the things that I have to get done before I get to have surgery and that 90% of the session would be made up of her assessing whether or not my ideas about the surgery are realistic. It may turn out to be more than that though and I am looking forward to seeing what it will be like. Thanks again for sharing!