I will be going next week form my pysc eval and I have no idea what to expect. Can anyone give me some idea? Also they said my first visit would take 3 hours and my second visit would take 2. What in the world am I going to talk about in 5 hours. I can only say I have been heavy most of my life so many times.

Smalltowngirl.

The psychologist will talk to you in order to help you figure out the causes behind your obesity, and most likely give you suggestions about other ways to manage these causes. Expect lots of questions, and go ahead and give truthful answers - trust me, s/he will probably know if you don't.

Mine didn't take nearly that long - that is a long time. Perhaps yourpsychologist employs methods like formal testing, which require more time than a standard session.

My doc asked about an hours worth of questions and then I got to do two paper tests. It was pretty interesting to read the results. I agree with Wheetsin, just be honest.

My eval was only a one hour conversation during which my history of obesity and weight loss was discussed. I am actually a clinical psychologist myself and know that what they are really looking for is whether you are a good candidate for surgery. This means: whether you're making the right decision based upon your history as opposed to rushing into surgery, etc., (people who haven't tried other methods of weight loss or don't have much history of obesity), whether you have the psychological wherewithall to handle the stress of surgery, recovery, and the capacity to stick to the commitment that WLS requires, and whether you have any other pre-existing psychological disturbances which will make it difficult for you to be successful with WLS. Some personality disorders and people with severe mental illness will have a great deal of difficulty with surgery and are at risk for depression and even suicide. This type of stuff.

This said, I doubt you have anything at all to worry about. If you are a relatively stable person, (even if you've struggled with depression or other psychological stuff), and you are committed to this process (even if you fear and doubt that you can do it), and you are making this decision for the right reasons at this time in your life, the evaluation will be a "recommendation" that is provided to your insurance company. You'll do fine. Be honest, relax, there are no right or wrong answers, and look at it as an opportunity to learn something new about yourself. If they are going to spend 5 hours in this evaluation, you may want to think of something that you'd like to learn about yourself - like what in your psychological makeup might be your greatest strength toward successful weight loss, and what might be your greatest weakness against weight loss. That would be good to know. I wish my psych evaluation would have provided me with something to walk away with. Good Luck! I know you'll be relieved when its over, but its really no big deal!

My psych. requires WLS candidates take the MMPI...which there's no way to "fake." The very first item was, "I enjoy mechanics magazines." My favorite was, "I wish I were a girl, or if you are a girl you enjoy being a girl." Heck YES I enjoy being a girl wouldn't trade it for the world....cramps and all!

Clovermeg...HAHAHA> I had to do that one too! Felt like I was in high school again bubbling in all the answers. My psych eval took 4 hours. They asked a lot of questions and wanted everything detailed about every diet I've tried.. my weight from youth until now. how much I'd lost each time... etc etc.

Don't worry. Just be yourself. I think one of the main goals is to be sure you are "emotionally ready" for all the changes you'll be going through and to verify that you don't have any misconceptions about the weight loss like "I'm gonna lose all my weight in three months then my life will be perfect." That's mainly what my eval was aimed at determining. We talked about my weight history, why I thought this surgery was the best option for me and how I expected my life to change afterward. No biggie!

This said, I doubt you have anything at all to worry about. If you are a relatively stable person, (even if you've struggled with depression or other psychological stuff), and you are committed to this process (even if you fear and doubt that you can do it), and you are making this decision for the right reasons at this time in your life, the evaluation will be a "recommendation" that is provided to your insurance company.

I second the above, I passed my phys eval and I'm currently taking an anti-depressant. Her advice was to keep taking it until a year or so post-op, that I would have enough changes to deal with as it was.

Mine was also an hour, with some paperwork I filled out beforehand, including a couple of tests. Then we talked about my expectation, what kind of support I had from family and friend, my history and things like that.

I don't practice as a clinical psychologist, but I have an advanced degree in it. The actual "interview" session of my test took maybe 30% of the time. He asked my education background, I told him, and then we broke off into conversations about different personality theories, performance theories, etc. It was a piece of cake. I still had to go back twice though.

I don't think the psych associated with the program I went through uses tests, but I know he does often requore 5+ sessions before approval, wil still require sessions after approval, and likes to see you at least once or twice post-op.

Covermeg, the reason for the mmpi made NO sense to me. I don't know how all those goofy off the wall questions can predict if I will be successful w/WLS. My personal favorite was, "I like seeing small animals suffer." PLease! I'd love to know what that has to do w/WLS success! Oh, and btw, I DON'T like to see small animals suffer. Seriously now, I would like to know how questions like that CAN predict success....OK, some of them may be valid to weed out multi personallity disoder and stuff, but beyond that I honestly don't understand. Technically you CAN be a sicko and still do ok w/wls...Any professional opinions? I know some of the questions tried to trip you up w/repetition and being asked in different ways, but what's the REAL reason? Is it an insurance thing?

Mine was hilarious. I had 2 sessions the first one we went over my weight loss history and then I took a 166 question test that covered about 5 subjects.

1.Family

2.abuse

3.drugs/alcohol

4.religion

5.eating habits

My favortie question was number 88 where it asked me (they were all true/false) I am answering this test truthfully T/F?

When I got the results back I scored very high (you want to score between 65-80) on the religion part (100%). All she said was religion can be a helpful tool so if you ever feel depressed you may want to look for a religious belief.

Hope this helps

I have a Master's in Psych and from what I've learned and researched is basically the MMPI questions, taken individually at face value, have no relevance whatsoever. HOWEVER, they have found that certain responses to all of these questions are more prevalent in individuals with certain disorders.

Each and EVERY (WOW!) item has been validated thousands of times. It is a highly reliable, if not the most reliable, test for personality disorders and other issues such as depression. There are items on the MMPI designed to make sure you are not lying...(for instance, "I have never told a lie.") No one can honestly say this is true because we were all children and we all did it at LEAST once. (When I tell my child about Santa I'm lying... )

So, if you took the MMPI, it can't be disputed. The pupose of it, I believe, is to determine whether or not you are able to fully understand the responsiblity of the surgery (i.e. it is a tool not a magic wand) and that you have the ability to stick with it....certain personality disorders would not be able to comprehend this. Additionally if you have a major mental illness such as major depressive disorder or something...it wouldn't necessarily rule you out but would need to be stable and under treatment before surgery.

All this being said, I'm supposed to get my MMPI results tomorrow....

My vist with the shrink lasted 10 mins. Before i talked with her i had to fill out a few forms. She asked about my health, education, and family history. She asked me how i felt about my weight then asked me a few cognative questions. Where were u born. Who were the last 3 presidents. 100-7, and she asked me to say the months backwards starting with dec. That was the hardest part. So it really is no sweat. At the end she said i was a lovely girl with not alot of psychological issues. Which i found hillarious and we both had a laugh about. She then wished me good luck with the weight loss. So i guess i passed. The worst part of the vist is waiting for ot to come.

My MMPI and the other two tests I took confirmed that I've had depression issues and that I should continue to monitor the depression before, during and after the surgery. It also gave my psych doc a game plan on what to work on with me. Just because it found I had a few issues didn't mean I wasn't a candidate. It just helped us both to understand where I was coming from and where to direct our efforts toward my counseling. I thought the questions were kind of strange sometimes, but all in all it was a good thing to do.

My vist with the shrink lasted 10 mins. Before i talked with her i had to fill out a few forms. She asked about my health, education, and family history. She asked me how i felt about my weight then asked me a few cognative questions. Where were u born. Who were the last 3 presidents. 100-7, and she asked me to say the months backwards starting with dec. That was the hardest part. So it really is no sweat. At the end she said i was a lovely girl with not alot of psychological issues. Which i found hillarious and we both had a laugh about. She then wished me good luck with the weight loss. So i guess i passed. The worst part of the vist is waiting for ot to come.[/quote]

Hi,

My psych evaluation was the same. I had it on Aug. 14th. She asked me the same questions as you, the last 3 presidents, 100-7, 93-7, then the months backwards.

I was kind of nervous though. I answered eveything honestly. But I forgot a few things when I was in and didn't remember to tell her, like some meds I am on for RLS.

She asked me who my psych doctor is that I see, I told her that I was diagnosed as being Bipolar 3 years ago, but I didn't have the full bipolar as most people, I didn't have the manics that they have, I had a slight bit of it, I had the spending money part. She asked me if I was ever hospitalized for depression, I said, yes I was...it was my decision because my mother passed away 3 1/2 years ago unexpectly and I was depressed so I thought it would help me, then when I got there, I knew that I was not as depressed as I once thought I was, so I left after a couple of days, it was a learning experience for me to see that. So I hope she doesn't use that against me and say I am not a good candidate. I'm so afraid that she will. I am on medicine, wellbutrin, and lamitcal for depression. I have not missed a dose and I follow up with my primary doctor all the time and I am working on getting a new psych doctor because after 3 years I don't care for him.

I told her that I have support from my husband and he plans on helping me out. I have 3 kids, one is 17 and he said he will help me out with the girls if I need him too, you know small things.

So, I was honest, do you think she won't approve me? All she said was "well good luck with everything", then she asked me if she could call my primary doctor to discuss this.

:phanvan