My brain is healthy..I guess....

Today was my psych eval.  What fun!  I am going through Kaiser nor-cal.  I went Tuesday for a pre-psych class where the psychologist explained the process and gave us some insight into what Kaiser expects from us to qualify for surgery.  Today the psych just inputted my info to my file and asked me a few questions about depression or suicide.  I have never thought about suicide and don't feel depressed.  I have been thinking a lot about my eating habits and stuff, I have come to the conclusion that I have no past issues that cause my poor eating habits.  I just like lots of food.  I told the psych this and she says, "Oh".  Then she gave me a 344 question test that asked different forms of "Are you suicidal", "Do you feel that people align against you", and "Are you supressing past issues".  No, no, and no.  It was very similar to the psych test I took prior to working for the dept of corrections.  I feel good that I am one step closer to surgery.  Nest step is orientation on the 16th.

Thanks to all of you here for providing good advice, funny stories of life pre and post op.

Paul

Was that fun or what ? Sounds about the same all the way around . That was the same type of test I think all took . Nor-Cal haa , I was born in nor-cal . Best of luck to ya with rest of it all    Nick 

Congrats on getting past that!  They Dr. I saw at my evaluation was so eager to speak that I don't think she heard a word out of my mouth.  HER: "Do you still drink carbonated drinks?"  ME:"Well, yeah but I've cut way down and I plan on being..."  HER (interrupting): Do you have other addictions that you have trouble with?"  HER: How do you feel when you don't get your Diet Pepsi?"  HER: Do you feel you'll hurt youself after surgery just to enjoy your  Diet Pepsi?"  No lie, this woman fired off three questions to every answer that I gave.  Mine was not at all what I expcted, much more about my eating habits than my "mental status".   Good luck with the rest of the journey!

Many weight-loss would hope that more people would have the type questioning you got prior to having WLS.  Yes, it is important to screen  for suicidal tendencies and they already know that the surgery can help most depressed patients.  But, many people get WLS and think their lives are going to magically change without them ever looking at any of their root emotional problems. On the other hand, I've found that many of the men on this site simply ate too much.  Most men are not emotional eaters (I'm probably the excetption).  A lot of the women are emotional eaters.  Most of the shrinks don''t have tests for the differences in the sexes with regard to WLS.  Someone could probably get a hefty grant for studying those differences.

I totally agree.  Especially after watching Oprah the other night.  She had these women that had WLS and lost a bunch of weight.  After that they ended up becoming addicted to alcohol or sex.  It was very clear that an in depth psych would have uncovered some issues that should have been a red flag for any psychologist.  They also had the surgery years ago, so hopefully now the doctors are more aware of the potential for addiction transference.  I agree, most women seem to be emotional eaters,  she asked me about those eating habits, I did think about that before the appt, I decided before I got there that I wasn't an emotional eater.  I do enjoy food in connection with family events, such as vacations or holidays.  When we plan trips I look forward to the eating out and stuff.  I can deal with that, just much, much smaller portions.  I know there are others on here that work in law enforcement.  The psych for that job was two sessions, one was a couple of hours just for the written test, like 600 questions similar to what I took yesterday, lots of yes or no that asked about your feelings and fears.  Then you came back and met with a psychologist who asked you lots of in depth and personal questions.  As uncomfortable as it was I think the psych for WLS should be more thorough.