Psych eval

I have been approved by psychiatrist! !!!  I'm not sure why this seems like a great accomplishment but it does. Dietician and physiologist today then I will be half way to surgery date. Hoping for last week of September. Any suggestions on how to spend the next 3 months preparing?

Use this time to practice how you are going to eat and live for the rest of your life. Take this time to deal with why you eat?  I tell people I talk to "you have to get it right between your ears before you re-arrange your plumbing".  Try to identify why you eat, when and then set up counter moves for all the red flags.  Attend as many meetings with the surgeon's staff as you can. Dietician and Support groups.  

When the surgery day finally comes you will be prepared for what you need to do to be successful for the "rest" of your life.

Keep us posted on things are going

I'm pretty new to this. I'm 4 weeks post-op.

The biggest thing I wish I would have done was exactly what was already said. Use this time to get the eating under control. Lose a few pounds now, because you know what? You're not going to gain it back like you did in the past! Anything you lose now adds to your total weigh loss that much faster... 

I'm fine, and my eating habits are going very well thus far, but I do have moments when I think to myself that if I had jumped on the bandwagon sooner, Id be that much thinner... Carb withdrawal is a ***** too... and you have to go through it, so may as well do it now.

Congratulations! Enjoy the ride!

Congratulations - very happy for you!  It always find it interesting that people assume that obese/overweight all suffer from some form of mental illness.  I think most of use have tried all sorts of methods to loose and only to be disappointed in trying to keep it off.  It is certainly not from the lack of trying.  Do we all overeat nonstop? I say yes and no.  Not everyone sits and eat "addition" 24 hours/day.  There are other health/medical components why people are overweight that people should look at and not automatically assume someone is mentally ill.  So my rant is - the psychiatrist that meets a potential client and makes a decision based on a 20 minute chat is absolutely ridiculous - it makes them look like idiots.  People go to these appointments all stressed out and try to figure out the proper answers.  I bet most lie - I know I did, because we want to make sure we are not declined.  That part of the program is crazy.  The "system" need to come up with a better system. 

I honestly don't think they go in thinking everyone is mentally ill.  When I had my psych eval they wanted to make sure that I was being honest with myself about my expectations for the surgery.  They also wanted to be sure that I had the mental capacity to understand that I was changing my anatomy and it would cause lifetime changes and consequences.  If they didn't do a psych eval and the small percentage of clueless people that have to be out there slipped through, it would be a damn shame.  Better to screen us all and stop the ones who do need more help.  It's only a small blip on the radar.

Plus, 99.9% of the time, if you got big enough to need weight loss surgery, you have some sort of mental issue with food. 

Lovely Caprice you are so right.  When I met with the psychologist she was very, very young and I was not at all comfortable talking to her.  I'm 64 years old and have been around the block a few times.  I know EXACTLY why I was over weight.  It was because I was beating myself up for some life decisions I made.  She may have been book smart, but she certainly wasn't life smart.  I had to take a 400 question test and then another 75 question test after that and be evaluated.  I obviously passed, but I was scared to death that I wouldn't.  She ended up telling me that I have a tendency to be sarcastic.  LOL  (yes I do).  Anyway, I passed and I'm now 11 days post op and have lost 20#.  No I NEVER sat and ate for 24 hours straight.  And yes I was very stressed out going to my appointment.  Thanks for your post.

Of course I agree with a lot of what you said, but what I'm saying is that it is not possible to determine if one is stable mentally after only a 30 minute evaluation done by a social worker.  People feel stressed and might not be truthful after such a short evaluation.  I speak for myself when I had my evaluation done - it was a joke.  Questions like - do you like yourself?  do you think you eat too much?  and why is that?  do you think people like you?  seriously you got to laugh at questions like that.