Heightened suicide risk after weight-loss surgery

I must have missed the memo where doing a winky emoticon took the edge off the *****y statement before it.


You are really off base with your assumptions about Beth, and any others that share information. That is what this website is for. If you want smoke blown up your ass, and rose colored glasses I assure you there are other places for that. Oh wait, to take the edge off I better WINK   Oh wait I did it wrong let me try again....

i think I love you. 

 Wow! How helpful you are! Why don't we blow sunshine and roses up all the newbies asses instead of giving them a REALISTIC view of life after weight loss surgery. Depression is COMMON after weight loss surgery. There are major adjustments to be made and newbies need to know the risks so they can better prepare for ANYTHING that might happen after surgery.

Depression is common after WLS, suicide is not.  Same as in the real world- where regular people have not had WLS. 

It's just like any other side effect of WLS- you either deal with it properly, or you don't and pay the consequences.  You eat wrong, you dump, you keep doing it- you dump too much, you risk damaging your pouch, your intestinal tract, your esophagus, etc.  You skip your vitamins a day or two, don't get enough protein, your hair falls out, fine, it will grow back, but if you continue to miss your vitamins and not get enough protein, there are long term effects, neurological, physical, and psychological. If you suffer from depression, and you don't seek help, or your family and friends notice it and don't talk to you about it, then of course you have a better than normal chance of attempting suicide.

Yeah, I was *****y, the winky was intentional - Ms. Vixen. 

Why do you think so many people post that they are scared ****less right before their surgery? It's because of posts like this one. 

I am just hoping that other readers will learn to take things on here with a grain of salt, to do further research and learn the real numbers before they jump to conclusions and think "Oh God this is going to happen to me".  Because, the OH posters are just a handful of people who've had WLS, and there are so many more out there who've had successful post-op lives without complications, especially those who've followed thier doctors advice, sought help when needed.

Another poster has said on here a couple of times "we WLS success stories don't post on here that often because we are too busy out enjoying our lives. We don't have anything to report!"

So, while my previous posts on this thread may have ruffled a few feathers, I just don't want any of us newbies to be scared off by that tiny possibility that these rare things may go wrong some day off in the future.

Instead of posting these negative issues all the time, MM, don't you ever have anything positive to share with the class? 

Oh my... when that fall from your high horse comes, it's gonna HURT...

I am over 4 years out and can tell you that you are in NO position to be making all-knowing statements about this topic. I suggest you sit back, remind yourself that you are NEW to this lifestyle, and be very grateful for people who constantly put themselves out there in an effort to educate the masses. I can guarantee you that it's just not as straight forward as you like to sum it up.

 Good for you for making the effort. She will have to learn it herself the hard way though. 

"Instead of posting these negative issues all the time, MM, don't you ever have anything positive to share with the class? "

Every day.  Where are you? 

"Why do you think so many people post that they are scared ****less right before their surgery? It's because of posts like this one."

:cough:bull****:cough:

It's because surgery is scary and life-changing and they are smart enough to realize that. And most of them either don't see posts like this or blow them off. They are much more likely to freak out over stuff like the memorial pages here on OH. So should OH not have a memorial page?

I find it hard to believe that you are close to any one who has/had clinical depression either. It's the kind of disease that twists your thinking in such a way that it's extremely difficult to realize you need help. So I find your blithe assumption that all people who have depression have to do is go seek help and the problem is solved so it's not worth talking about to be rather offensive, actually. (And, if you do have experience with it, that makes it 100x more offensive because you should know better.)

And I say that even though I agree with you that some people seem to emphasize the negative aspects of WLS. But so what? There are negative aspects and knowledge is power. As long as they aren't lying or pulling fake stats out of their ass, then it does more good than harm IMO.

 It didn't ruffle feathers, please don't think so highly of yourself.

There were concrete numbers in the study and they are higher than the average. Does this need further studying, YES, if only to determine if it's regional or national. I plan on mentioning this study to my doctors and asking them about further studies that may be in the works.

I prefer truthful and factual posts. You may view them as negative while I view them as concrete information because I could end up with symptoms and instead of dismissing them as my own imagination, I now know when I need to call my surgeon ASAP or when I can schedule with my GP to go over some questions.

From reading about vitamin deficiencies, I'm much more diligent about my supplementation and I'm lucky to have a surgeon/program that is very thorough and long-term about labs. But after all the reading I've done, I know not everyone has that so MM's posts are even more valuable. I'm almost 1 year out, so I'm a newbie and unlike you, I'm not about to stick my fingers in my ears and go lalalalala since I'm not stupid.

Oh and I'm a wildly phenomenal success and have a very active life, but thanks to the examples of MM and Andrea and others, I try to post here as much as possible to GIVE BACK to people who may be new or struggling.

Before surgery I had depression. I did not every once think about suicide.

After surgery, I had obsessive food thoughts, depression AND the inability to soothe that depression with food. I thought many times of ending it all. I am being dead serious (no pun intended). I've lost loved ones...no suicidal thoughts...I've lost BABIES...no suicidal thoughts. I lost my coping mechanism (food) and I got suicidal thoughts.

So I would beg to differ about it being the same as other big life changes. In other life changes you have some coping mechanism, even if its unhealthy. WLS, for some of us, is literally taking away that coping mechanism, that security blanket, that safety net and asking ourselves to walk forward without it. I liken it to be an unswaddled baby.

For this reason, I would HIGHLY recommend someone who might be in that situation doing what I did and do...find a therapist, form a relationship, and KEEP GOING BACK.

But people should know that's possible. So they can protect themselves. There is no shame in knowing information that you can later use to protect yourself.