depression - question for post ops

i have a question for those of you who are post op and took medication for depression prior to your wls.  have you noticed your symptoms increasing or decreasing after surgery?  or maybe no change either way?  this is the next phase of concern of mine as i sit here and await approval. 
thank you for sharing your experience............

Hi Dee,

As you are on the forum longer, you will find that I'm pretty open about my struggles with severe, debilitating clinical depression. First of all, I have to say that I don't believe that my WLS has had a negative impact on my mental health. My depressive issues are significant and while probably somewhat impacted my weight, my weight was not the root cause of my depression before, nor did my weight loss 'resolve' the depressive issues that I had. I actually didn't pursue surgery earlier because I had to get myself more 'stable' before undergoing the rigors of surgery, recovery, and weightloss. I'm glad I did so. I was very upfront with my medical team about my depressive disorder. My medical team WLS and physc wanted me to undergo weekly counseling for a time preceeding and following my surgery. I think that turned out to be a wise Rx for me. While, I wasn't suffering so much from depressive issues related to the weighloss itself, I had some major depressive episodes and no longer had my primary coping mechanism... Stuffing my face. I had to learn to find new ways to cope. To be honest, I'm still working on that... and to be honest, I can now 'cope' by stuffing my face again if I choose. Now, I'm working on choosing not to engage in that dangerous behavior that got to a point that I required the surgery. I guess, I'm saying that while the surgery didn't seem to cause me depressive problems, my depression could undo my progress if I let it. 

I am drug therapy resistant. While the drugs have 'some' impact, they don't come near to resolving my issues. There was some concern about how effective my surgery would be after the surgery, especially since I take (among other things) Cymbalta which is a time released medication. It continues to work for me as well as it did preop... My husband also uses it and it works as well for him post op as it did preop too. 

You are welcome to check my profile/blog and you will see my depression ups and downs woven through it. 

I hope that my candor has helped you some. You are always welcome to contact me if you would like to 'talk'.

Wishing you all the best,

I too struggle with issues with depression.  I have for years and on both sides of the WLS fence.  I would agree with Barb and say that I have not seen a difference since my WLS.  The thing about depression is that is is a chemical imbalance in your brain.  I cannot see how being larger or smaller would impact that.  

I am bad about feeling better and stopping my meds because I dont think I need them anymore.  I just started back on my meds and I will say that I have felt better sooner this time.  I am not sure if that is because of my weight or not.  

Good luck and keep us posted!!

Thanks to both of you for your response........i appreciate it more than you know.