results of poll about mental health and WLS
19 people answered altogether, although some did not answer all questions.
It’s interesting to me that most that answered did suffer from depression. I wonder if that’s because most of us do or if that’s because those that don’t felt the poll didn’t apply to them and so just didn’t answer.
Did you suffer from depression before you had WLS?
Yes-16 (84%)
No-3 (16%)
Did you suffer from any other mental disorders, and if so, if you’re comfortable answering, what were they?
Yes-12 (63%)
Anxiety-8 (42%)
Post traumatic stress disorder-4 (21%)
Postpartum depression-1 (5%)
Bipolar disorder-3 (16%)
Agoraphobia-1 (5%)
Traumatic grief disorder-1 (5%)
No-6 (32%)
Not sure-1 (5%)
Were you on psychotropic medication before surgery?
Yes-12 (63%)
No-7 (37%)
Did you expect your mental health to improve after surgery?
Yes- 6 (32%)
Wasn’t Sure-3 (16%)
No-10 (52%)
This one surprised me a little bit. I had expected more people would have expected WLS to improve their mental health. I’m glad to see people are being realistic in their expectations. As we say on this board, they operate on our tummies, not our minds.
Did your mental health improve after surgery? And if so, can you briefly say how it improved?
I had trouble quantifying these answers. It seems some people experience minor improvements, mostly in self esteem and sometimes in decrease anxiety, but no one seemed to have huge improvements.
Did your mental health get worse after surgery? If so, can you briefly say how?
These answers were kinda hard to quantity, too. It seems to come down to, some people experienced some increase in depression or anxiety right after surgery as they adjusted to things but not an ongoing thing. A few developed issues around their body and appearance and some developed disordered eating.
If you were on meds before surgery, did you seem to have trouble absorbing them after surgery? Did you have to change them after surgery in some way?
Yes-7 (37%)
Some of the others were not on meds, some were on meds and thought they might need to make changes, and some felt their current meds were working just fine.
Has your surgeon seemed on the ball when it comes to keeping an eye on your mental health and addressing any problems?
Yes- 4 (21%)
It troubles me to see how few surgeons seems to pay any attention to the mental health of their patients and how few patients bother to mention how they’re doing mentally/emotionally to their surgeons. WLS brings up all sorts of emotions and can affect our mental health, affect how we absorb psych meds, etc. It seems like our surgeons ought to at least discuss it briefly.
How about your psychiatrist or whoever prescribes your meds and treats your mental health conditions? Have they seemed on the ball?
Yes-11 (58%)
It seems most of those that answered no are either not on meds or have not made appointments to discuss their mental issues with their psychiatrist or PCP, so it’s not really a matter of the doc not being on the ball.
Anything here particularly interesting to anyone? Anything you didn’t expect to see?
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
1) people realize that problems that they attributed to the weight (and expected to disappear when the weight came off) turn out to have had nothing to do with the weight and still exist
2) "real life" kicks back in once the losing phase ends (and all the compliments, etc. stop) and some of their expectations were unmet expectations (did not lose as much as they wanted, body does not look as they expected, etc.)
3) realization that keeping the weight off can be just as much a challenge after surgery (depending on type of surgery) as it was to lose/maintain weight BEFORE surgery
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
