Arizona Psychiatris and/or Psychologist Recommendations

I am in the Phoenix area and was sleeved on 10/24. I have had depression/anxiety issues my entire life but they have been well controlled until this past week. I don't have a psychiatrist since moving back to AZ 2 years ago and the one I had here prior passed away. I'd like to find someone who has worked with WLS patients before to avoid having to educate them (I've been down this road before) and I am dreading the medication rootlet, but fear my meds need adjusted.

I also have a call into the psychologist at my surgeons office, but I am working several angles.

Any recommendations are appreciated!

Hello

We are glad you are working with your surgeon's office as that is the best source for professionals that are familiar with our issues having WLS. For what ever reason that does not work out, here is a link to all the WLS in your area, call the offices and they can give you a few more names.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/find/bariatric-surgeon/?location= Phoenix,%20AZ

Keep us posted on how you are doing!

Here's what I did when I was looking for a therapist pre-op, maybe my method will help you?

I went to my insurance company's website and did the "find a provider" thing for mental health (I think the mental health providers were separate from the physical health providers?). Then I sorted that list by distance and printed it out. (You don't really need to print it out, I just like printing things.)

I started at the top of the list and started calling. My questions went like this:

1. Do you take my insurance?
2. Are you accepting new patients?
3. I'm pursuing weight loss surgery and looking for someone to help me through that process, do you have someone in the practice (since they were all multi-provider practices) who might have experience with this?
4. I'm poly and I live with my two partners, will this be a problem for this therapist?

I didn't want to waste time scheduling with someone who couldn't help me OR who would try to tell me that I was a horrible person for being poly. I've had experience with the later issue in the past and I'm unwilling to go through it again.

Even so, I expected, and you should expect this as well, not to strike gold on your first appointment. First it might take a few appointments to click but you might realize on appointment number one that this is NOT the person for you. And that's okay. Therapists are used to this. Finding a therapist that works for you is sort of like finding a partner - it might take time and don't get discouraged if the first one, two, or even five don't work for you. Keep trying!

I agree with Gwen that starting with your insurance company is a good strategy.

I'd suggest cross-referencing their list against this one from Psychology Today. A provider who has experience with eating disorders and/or body dysmorphia issues is your best bet for working to address post-WLS challenges.

https://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/

Call the surgeon's psychologist and he had three names that he was vaguely recommending. Sounds like I may be the first person to ever ask this? I did find a great one who is affiliated with Mayo, but apparently all the mental health providers at Mayo are not taking new patients? How is that possible.

One of the surgeon's recommends was a guy who I went to in AZ years ago for medication maintenance and ultimately left and went to the guy who passed away.

So I have one more name from them to try or I will be doing the hunting. I've been to many therapists and psychiatrists and it's just so much work to find the right person and then the WLS element and taking meds as an entire extra layer.

I actually ended up having an 8oz cup of real coffee today and that got me through the day at work beautifully. I'm actually not supposed to have it for another 3 weeks, but the lesser of two evils at this point.

Thanks for all the responses.

Please let me know if you find someone....I just moved to AZ (Maricopa) and I've been trying to find someone. My PCP's group has a psychologist...but she looks like a baby -- and I went to Banner Health Weight Loss Clinic last week, and I asked them for a recommendation...no luck there.

Echoing Julie's recommendation of using Psychology Today's website. You can search by areas of specialty and read about their approach to mental health care. I found my therapist in CA on there.