Hi,
Brand new to the forum. After a two year journey stalled by covid, a new job and a move across the country, I finally have a surgery date and am now considering canceling. I’ve stuggled with anxiety disorder since my early 20’s - am 54 now -have done lots of therapy but the thought of panic attacks can still bring me to my knees. I take celexa daily. I’m just now-this late into all my research learning that wls can trigger more anxiety and depression. does anyone know why (beyond the obvious food mourning). am wondering if I can proceed. just started day 1 of liquid diet.
thank you to anyone who responds

Welcome. I had surgery on April 18th. So i am still recovering. At this stage. I do have some regrets but of course hopefully everything gets better as with any surgery, recovery takes time. 1st of course is the food mourning lol. missing all the great delicious food i use to eat, but the other hand i am loosing weight. 2nd is the big one is i am having some severe heart burn but its not a lot. I am unable to sleep in a actual bed yet because of it. I am hoping it goes away as i loose weight.

Short term post op some people experience mood swings and depression and/ or anxiety due to the hormones being out of whack from major surgery and the accelerated weight loss. But long term I think if people have issues it’s more because of meds not working as well.

My dr suggested sleeve over bypass because of the medicine absorption issue that is possible with bypass but far less common with sleeve. I just kept reminding myself that LESS absorption did not mean NO absorption so maybe I would have to take a higher milligram of certain meds to get the right amount to absorb but they should still work. Or maybe I would have to try another medication but there are so many out there that something should work.

There are some meds such as extended release meds that tend to cause The most issues for people. Some people are fine with them but others have to take the immediate release version twice a day. So my takeaway was Basically as long as you work closely with your doctor they should be able to make adjustments to your medication to find something that can work for you.

I had one medication that you have to eat 350 calories at the time you take it so I had to switch to another Medication but other than that I have not had any issues with medications post sleeve. I have bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder and I totally get what you are saying. I was a little bit nervous the whole time but I just kept reminding myself that I went with the surgery the dr suggested and I am very compliant with my meds and responsible to go to the doctor and ask for help if I need it and there are so many meds out there that IF I had issues they would only be temporary.

I know that WLS can trigger anxiety and depression, but I have to say it has been the opposite for me. I've pretty much lived my entire life with low level depression (unmedicated) that would devolve into deeper, uglier episodes periodically. In the past decade or so, I also dealt with anxiety, again unmedicated. All my treatment was therapy for both. My anxiety before surgery was through the roof.

My depression and anxiety have been much improved post surgery. In the first few months immediately afterward, I definitely had wild mood swings (still do) but the depression and anxiety have been much more manageable. And, that's with some serious stressors during that post surgery timeframe - best friend dying of COVID and our dog dying. It was very surprising to me.

Of course, the medication piece is one I cannot comment on, as I didn't have to deal with it, and it is another dimension to the puzzle.

I would definitely talk with your doctors and have a plan for how to deal with the depression and anxiety post surgery. Perhaps having that plan thought through together will help you with decision making.

My anxiety and depression are actually better post WLS (sleeve) 3 years ago. I've never heard of them worsening due to WLS. I take two daily medications for depression and anxiety (as I did before WLS) and it's all good.

As another poster said, the hormones released during weight loss can cause depression or other mental health challenges to worsen, and as you said, giving up your coping mechanism of food is huge. I have bipolar disorder and anxiety and I haven't made any changes nor had any issues with my mental health in the 7.5 months since surgery. However, I can't tell you whether you should cancel. It's not easy. Eating is hard, and I'm so cold all the time now, and I can't say my life is significantly better. I am exactly the same, just I wear a smaller size and walk faster. Some days I'm happy I did it, some days I hate being uncomfortable, cold and unable to drink with my meals.