Advice - Social Worker follow up visit.

Hi.. I have been obsessively reading all the back posts and have found so much good information here! 

I think I may have a problem in my follow up visit with the Social Worker on Monday ... I have TONS of stress in my life - I am an emotional eater .. something goes awry and I immediately look for the golden arches.  

I may have been TOO chatty with the Social Worker on first visit .. explaining how my mother has double lung cancer (just had surgery prognosis is excellent) and my daughter suffers from severe depression, and other mental ailments .. I am stressed the &#(# out every day ... I explained how I cope, and that is with food.  I have been consciously eating healthy since my orientation - but of course I still have my bad days .. 

Today I met with the internist and she said I was the perfect candidate physically .. but had to make sure I was mentally prepared .. this worries me.   

The Social Worker said she wanted to follow up with me and would be discussing my stuff with the psychologist, because of binge eating etc. . .. I read the one girls surgery was pushed back a year because of this.  I do not want that... I cannot wait that long.

Do I go in whistling Dixie, and state everything is ok? I feel I am ready NOW .. if I wait for my life to be less insane it just may never be ? 

Advice please ! 

Thanks ! 

H

Keep the focus of the conversation on your awareness of emotions and eating and the conscious eating you've been able to do since your orientation. Explain the steps you are taking to be mindful and how you are handling stress without eating (mostly - hey no one's perfect).

Just be honest but perhaps avoid letting your eyes glaze over if the golden arches comes up in conversation.

K. ;)

Honestly, they will be able to tell if you are lying. They are trained professionals. You NEED to be mentally stable for this surgery, and honesty is the best policy. Why would you want to put yourself in a situation you may not be able to handle after surgery. I get very upset with people who think its ok to lie to get what they want even though it may hurt them or others in this process. 

They will only operate on your stomach. You are about to go through major surgery. You need your mental state to be in the right place. The emotional eating will not go away. It will be something you will always have to work on. Surgery will ot change this.

Be honest and try to get any help they suggest

Be honest up front and deal with your emotional eating issue's because yes at first after surgery there is a honeymoon phase but things change and so does your ability to eat more etc. So if you don't deal with those issue's before they are still there and you can revert back I am having some of those issue's now and I am 17 months out. 

It also not about waiting for your life to be less insane because sometimes we can not change that but we can deal with the way we cope with it. 

Thanks for the feedback. 

I just feel that of course I have food issues, if I didn't then obviously I would not be getting this help I need. 

I am 300% ready. I have to be. I have lived the last 5 years in the dark, worrying about everyone but me. NOW is my time. 

I am going to go into the Social Worker tomorrow with the truth, and also arm myself with what has been helping me these last couple of months.  

Hopefully a surgery date is right around the corner. 

Hi there - I have a decade of history with mental illness. I have had my surgery. The most important thing in my opinion about social work visits is that while they are assessing any concerns, stresses, etc you may have - more importantly they want to know the treatment you have in place. They want to know what you have done to address emotional health concerns and maladaptive coping strategies, such as emotional eating. Further, they want to know the plan you have in place to deal with the stress added to your life by having this surgery and your plan to deal with ongoing concerns in the future. They want information on your support network and your proactive steps to lay the groundwork for an overall successful outcome. My experience was that there was no judgement about my having issues, but that the assessment was more about what am I doing, aside from my surgery journey, to address my issues. For example, in my case I spent 3-4 years with a psychiatrist and counsellors, along with medication to get my emotional health stable. Only then could I explore surgery as an option to address my physical health concerns i.e. diabetes and high blood pressure. So, ultimately, it's not what is bothering us, but about what we are doing to find help for ourselves. Gastric bypass surgery is not a treatment for emotional health issues. Morbid obesity and emotional health issues aggravate each other so I guess it goes to follow that stability in both areas is essential for long term success and improvement in health. I hope this was helpful. All the best with your appointment.

m1randa55 : very well stated and very good advice.