I have an appointment on Monday and am afraid to go because I will probably start crying if questioned about certain things. I'm afraid that the psycologist will say that I need several appointment before he will refer me for surgery. Yep, I'm one of those people that hold things inside of me and eat for comfort. I'm trying to take steps to learn to deal with stress and feel losing weight will give me the confidence to get out of circumstances that make me unhappy. I know it won't cause my problems go away but if I could just gain the confidence to move on life would be so much better.

Has anyone told the psyc one thing and then after surgery decide to go for counseling?

Just try not to get into the past or talk too much. When they ask how you plan to relieve stress since you used to eat when you were stressed,

tell them that you plan to exercise. Exercise is a great stress reliever.

I am already in therapy and I survived as well. My surgeon told me that the psych eval is not a 'weeding out' exercise, but simply to get a feel for what your expectations are and what issues you might need help with going forward. Don't worry too much. You'll do fine!

I had my psych eval yesterday. I spent an hour with the doctor asking me a list of questions. He then asked questions that weren't on the list that the surgeon provided such as my medical problems and asked about exercise. I explained to him that my podiatrist will not allow me to do weight bearing exercise and that I recently got a recumbent bike. He asked how long I ride it and I told him 5 minutes 5 to 6 times a day until I get my endurance up. He then said I should be riding it 20-25 minutes straight. I told him I get tired and winded and he tried to argue with me in a way. Duh! Overweight, out of shape person here... has to build up endurance. Then he asked why my cheeks were so red. I told him I have good coloring but in fact I turn red when I feel cornered.

Oh, I forgot to mention that he talked down my podiatrist and PCP giving me cortisone shots for heel spurs and bursitis in my knees.

I then spent 2 hours answering 586 T/F questions. It didn't help that the lighting was poor and I felt uneasy with some of the other people who were walking into the waiting room. I was a very weird set-up in the way that 5 psychs work in the office and when you walk in, there is a switch on the wall with the doctor's names. You flip the switch to let the doctor know you are there. They then come in thru a locked door and they take you to their office. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. They do this to maintain people's annonymity so they aren't being called by name. BTW, this is in Santa Barbara were there are some famous and wealthy (and weird) so I guess that is why they do it this way.

The doc never did mention if he was referring me or not.

Edited April 16, 200818 yr by Long2BFree
To add last sentence...

It's so great to read all the responses and learn that you aren't "crazy"! LOL! I have hugh emotional eating issues.. just deciding to take this step had tirggered some.. We aren't like crazy, crazy.. just kinda emotional! In the past few months I've had such "ah ha" moments (as Oprah says). And I'm 51!!! Now that I know them I have to make sure that they no longer control what I do. As my surgeon said he doesn't want to do surgery on crazy people. I'n not concerned about the phsy elval.. although I haven't done it. If I need more "help" from psyc I'll get it along the way.

My psych appointment was so different. He just sat me down and talked to me about exercising and portions I should eat. It was almost like he was a dietician, but not. Not once did he even ask me any emotional issues or whatever. He did make a comment that pissed me off though. he said for somebody my weight to maintain it would have to eat 4500 cals a day and I challenged him on this becuase I was eating between 1900 and 2500 calories a day. Which yes, is a lot, but it sure wasn't 4500. LOL. Anyway, I took that 700 long question test and left. It will try to trick you and ask you the same two or three questions a few different times. They scored it and said that I was perfect for the surgery.

Ugh I hated that test. They sent it in the mail and I took it a week or 2 ago. I wasn't really thinking that they were trying to trick me, so I probably did bad answering, I varied on the questions about "bending the law," hahahaha, it was like, You should ALWAYS follow every law about everything regarless of anything, and I answered no, but on the questions that said "I love breaking the law," I also said no, ugh. My appointment is Friday, so hopefully everything goes well :biggrin:

Count me in with the feeling that the psych eval is gonna be the scariest thing! I cured myself of bulimia about 20 years ago and I'm afraid that they will hold that against me. I want to be truthful, but find a way to "sugarcoat" it so they won't "flunk" me...

Count me in with the feeling that the psych eval is gonna be the scariest thing! I cured myself of bulimia about 20 years ago and I'm afraid that they will hold that against me. I want to be truthful, but find a way to "sugarcoat" it so they won't "flunk" me...

I would think that a couple of things about that would actually work FOR you. #1, it was 20 years ago and that's a long time, with the assumption you have never had any other issues, of course. And #2, you cured yourself. That shows a lot of personal strength and determination, both of which are very important traits if you are going to be successful with the band. Of course, I am not a doctor, but those are my thoughts .

Good luck!!