Hello,

My surgery date is June 16th. I started a liquid diet starting on June 2nd. In doing the liquid diet, I have realized how much I rely on food to bring my anxiety down and I have lost that coping method. Has anyone else experienced this and did it get much worse after surgery? How have you coped with this? I am currently seeing a therapist and plan to continue seeing one.

Look into Lexapro it is prescription but it has Helped me Tremendously it takes about 3 weeks to get into your system but when it does life is Amazing. They have a prescription called Ativan that is fast acting and good for getting you through attacks but it doesn't last near as long as the Lexapro.

I've always been an anxious muncher. It's so tough preop because not only do you have to overcome stress eating, but you also get stressed about the surgery itself. But it does get much better post op. I have had some minor food cravings, but they are nowhere near the compulsion I used to experience. The food commercials that used to drive me nuts preop have absolutely no power over me now. I could care less about pizza, and I used to order one every week just for myself. Sweets make me nauseous and preop I'd plow through an entire pint a few times a week. I also realized whatever momentary "cravings" I do get now are usually because it's time for me to eat again, and completely disappear once I have a spoonful of the foods I should be eating.

I will warn you that some folks do have cravings post op. I was one of them. Once I started tolerating my full liquids better, the food cravings started creeping back in, but again, it was nowhere near as bad as it ever was pre op. They were frustrating, but were never tempting enough for me to want to break my diet. You just gotta refocus, think about the drastic change you just put yourself through in order to lose weight, and the possible complications you face by advancing your diet too soon.

Good luck to you!

Same thing here. It is getting better, but is still there. Every now and then I have a stressful situation and immediately I think of food or sugary drinks.

One of the great things about the surgery is that it forces us to develop healthier eating habits based on actual hunger. As months go by, you'll find that your desire and dependency on food for mental reasons will decrease significantly. Especially for you since you are wisely in counseling. I had bad food cravings for crap food for about 4 weeks post-op. But those were mentally generated and after 4 weeks my body's desire for healthy eating, just when actually hungry, took over. I too was fearful of the mental addiction to food. But surgery gave name the tool to move beyond my addiction. It's good that you are acknowledging this issue ahead of time. It's better to know that the struggle is real, even though in most cases temporary.

Before surgery I had serious binge eating problems. One thing that really helped me was my aversion to fried and breaded foods. I cannot tolerate them well at all anymore, so I try to stay away. Anytime I'm stressed and want to eat some unhealthy fast food I'll think through the chain restaurants here and then basically feel nothing for every choice. There's nothing good I can eat that won't make me sick or feel like ****. I hold on to that feeling.

Going out to eat has changed for me. I'm wasting money eating out and I get no satisfaction from it anyway.

Even pizza, which I can still eat, isn't as great as it used to be. The satisfaction from these foods came from filling myself to capacity. Now that I physically cannot do that there is nothing left for me.

I've gotten back to mostly drinking protein shakes during the day for this reason. If everything tastes bad or makes me sick, might as well just drink protein.