8/11 - Need advise on explaining to family

Looking forward to starting the rest of my life, but need some help handling the "supportive" family who doen't understand why I can't adpot a new set of food/exercise rules for my life without the surgery. I try to explain that I will be going into therapy, finding a support group etc. and attacking this problem from multiple angles. Well, they say, can't you do it with all of the other angles, but not this one? They are concerned that in the long run this won't make a difference since you have to take care of the underlying reasons why you eat and if you do that you shouldn't need the surgery. They also have seen a recent WSJ article on a woman post WLS who became an alcoholic and the article suggests that post-surgrey people turn to other addictions. Does anyone have any statistics on the number of people who keep the weight off successfully in the long run? Thanks.

Hi Suzanne, I had some reluctant family members untill I sent them a copy of Weight Loss Surgery Finding eh thin person hiding inside you by Barbara Thompson. My inlaws and sister inlaws are fully behind me now. I also talk to them candidly about the fact they have seen me struggle with this for years. My family has seen it from the time I was like 7 or 8. So I told them I wanted a long happy life and did not like the timid person having weight has made me. Nor do I like that my infertility is not helped by all the excess weight so I ask them if they would like grandkids. I have full energetic support from both sides. I also said that I have counceled with my pastor and prayed much about this. Let them know you just want to be health and happy and live a long full life withourt complications due to weight! And let them see you are going in eyes wide open with a full understanding of possible outcomes. For me the book and its no bones about it streight talk worked. They got to see for themselves. The author is a bypass patient and there is a section in there for family. written by her husband.

Thank you for your speedy feedback and support. I haven't read the Barbara Thompson book ou referred to, but interestingly she co-authored Weight Loss Sugery for Dummies with my surgeon! The problem with that book is the lack of stats on successful weight maintance post-surgery. I look forward to reading Babara's other book, so thank you for the recommendation. I wish you all the best on your weight loss journey as well. Take care! PS - I just set up my first therapy appointment for later this week so I can start working on some of my feelings. I think the first thing on the agenda will be the family dynamic!

Your family cares and worries about you, but as my doctor said, there is less risk of something happening in surgery than there is not to have the surgery because of my co-morbidities. If I chose not to have surgery, living with high blood pressure and sleep apnea would be far more dangerous. Cam