Mental Health Services Before and After Weight Loss Surgery

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

Here is an interesting article about the importance of mental health services before and after weight loss surgery.

I think there are many reasons for the findings in this study, but the recommendations for follow-up care seem like good ones.

Weight loss surgery linked to suicide?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/07/health/weight-loss-surgery-suicide/index.html

What do you think?

[CowgirlJane 14,261]

I just read that same article this morning! I think that losing not just food as a coping mecanism but the ACTUAL excess weight itself can be a real stressor. It seems counter intuitive but I personally have noticed that I feel much sharper, whereas before I think alot of my reactions to things were a bit dulled.

I went through the adjusting to being "visible" again. For bit there, i thought I was losing my mind - seriously, it seemed like a lot of people were looking at me. One day I realized that i was receiving normal amount of "looking" and what was really messed up was the decades of being invisible. Now, I don't really give all that a second thought.

What I am talking about is a bit more than a transitional experience. I think it is true that if you are a introspective person, the type who really notices your own feelings and reactions to the world you might find it is markedly different post massive weight loss. The "fatsuit" is truly a shield, a damper, a facade to the world and when it is gone, there is some adjusting to do!

It makes me sad to think of people who probably needed medication or other serious intervention to cope with the adjustments and most likely underlying issues didn't get the help they needed. However, it is still quite a small minority that are seriously impacted.

[IncredibleShrinkingMan 437]

This is a very important topic, and no doubt some people used their physical shields as psychological ones. The fact that I am not in that group is both lucky and unlucky. My relationship to the outside world never really changed throughout the years of weight gain, and I didn't tend to assume people were viewing me differently. Now that I am losing rapidly, I also tend to think that the world and it's denizens have enough to think about and I am really not high up on the list. That said, there have been comments at work, but none that would cause me to think a channel to the world that was previously closed is gradually opening up.

[Babbs 14,681]

After what I've seen on these forums for the past year and a half, I think therapy should be absolutely mandatory for most people having WLS.

That's honestly not a slam on anyone in particular, but I have seen too many people get these surgeries who are woefully unprepared for the emotional and even physical aspects of it, and are destined to fail.

Sad, really.

[CowgirlJane 14,261]

I would have said something similiar until it happened to me. i have always felt that my weight did not hold me back career wise, I did not have social anxiety etc.

When I got to a certain size/appearance it was like a switch was flipped though. I had no idea I had been invisible until I wasn't. I suspect this is something that happens more to women though. In general, women are socialized to identify very strongly with their appearance/looks/attractiveness so changes in how others treat us (in relation to our looks) probably has a bigger impact on women, in general.

However, that isn't what I was talking about as that is a fairly minor thing that most get over pretty quickly. I was actually getting at something much deeper.... the way that fat dulls the pain (and joys!) in many ways. I can see why it is just too much for some.

I have some of my own experiences, but I have also seen some posts on this very website that make me wonder how well people are "holding up" emotionally. Seriously.

This is a very important topic, and no doubt some people used their physical shields as psychological ones. The fact that I am not in that group is both lucky and unlucky. My relationship to the outside world never really changed throughout the years of weight gain, and I didn't tend to assume people were viewing me differently. Now that I am losing rapidly, I also tend to think that the world and it's denizens have enough to think about and I am really not high up on the list. That said, there have been comments at work, but none that would cause me to think a channel to the world that was previously closed is gradually opening up.

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

I know that with severe depression, the most dangerous time for suicide is not when someone is severely depressed, but when they start to come out of it. When you are severely depressed you may contemplate suicide but you don't really have the capacity to act. As you improve, your capacity to act improves. I can't help but think that this might have something to do with the findings of the study.