WLS and PTSD

I’ve seen a fair amount of discussion about WLS and depression, but not as much about WLS and PTSD.  I’m guessing that may be partly because more people struggle with depression than with PTSD.  But I also know there are a number of people that participate here on OH that have PTSD, including myself.  I’ve been thinking lately about PTSD might affect our WLS journey.  Of course I realize it will be different for everyone but I am thinking there will probably be some common threads.

I have been diagnosed with PTSD and I think one of the biggest issues for me, and I imagine for most people with the condition, is the way seemingly minor things can trigger strong emotions, memories or even flashbacks.  And while I know everyone has their own triggers, it seems like there can be lots of triggering stuff associated with having surgery.

So I’m wondering, if you have PTSD, how has it affected your WLS journey?  How do you cope with the PTSD through surgery and everything else?

For myself, I’ve learned to be proactive as much as possible during medical things that I recognize might be a trigger for me.  Most health care providers I’ve worked with seem to be pretty familiar with PTSD and are understanding and try to take steps to avoid things that might trigger a flashback.  I have to speak up and tell them what those things might be, though.  I have to let them know what I need them to do.  I figured that out several years before having my RNY.

For instance, both times when I had to have an endoscopy I let everyone there know that I have PTSD and that they absolutely had to make sure I was completely out before they started putting something down my throat.  Everyone seemed to understand and they did make sure I was totally out for the whole thing.  I’ve never had a situation where I said I needed things done a certain way due to my PTSD and professionals refused to meet my needs, but if I did I would put a halt to everything and find another health care provider (provided of course it wasn’t an emergency situation where there was not time to find a new doctor).

So…. Your thoughts?  (And if you don’t have PTSD, you can still share your thoughts if you like!)

Kelly, I was diagnosed with PTSD several years ago and I never even considered that could be a trigger to my eating. I'm so glad you brought this topic up because I need to be aware of how I eat if I go through an event of it. How I've learned to deal with my PTSD is when an episode happens to stay in the moment and talk through it in my head and remind myself it is the PTSD and not reality. I'm still so new on this weight loss journey and my PTSD episodes are less frequent now so I haven't had to deal with it but I certainly need to stay aware of it and be prepared. So glad you brought this up and I hope to see other responses. Hope you have a great day!

Good topic, Kelly. Thanks.

For me, PTSD has been at the base of depression. Working on the underlying problem has helped the depression; working on depression never helped my PTSD. Medication has helped both. Exercise helps both. Being proud of myself for hard work helps the most.

I have found as I have gotten older, and after much work in therapy, my PTSD has gotten a lot less severe. I still have the old patterns and feelings popping up, but they don't hook me nearly as much.

I think my weight was linked to self protection- people wouldn't mess with me if I was fat. Also, the eating provided comfort for the feelings of helplessness. The abuse for me happened mostly in the evening, which I think is why I crave food then.

I never think I can ask for help, the helplessness has been so ingrained. This has been a hard pattern for me to break.

For some reason, losing weight after surgery has been easy and liberating for me to handle. Perhaps because I am more focused on my health than I am on appearance. Perhaps because I have mellowed. Who knows!

I have a new lease on life, and I sure intend to keep it that way!

How interesting that you mentioned the abuse tended to happen in the evenings and that's when you want to eat.  That's when I am most likely to want to eat too, especially the carby stuff.  It never occurred to me that there might be a reason for the timing.

I told my surgeon's office to not even schedule the surgery until they could show me a plan to deal with the anxiety and flashbacks. I am extremely claustrophobic because of my past and even laying on the pre-op guerney surrounded by friendly people would have sent me into orbit.

So far I haven't noticed too many problems associated with the PTSD. I have some other diagnoses that get stirred up and need comforting - that gets tricky sometimes. Fortunately I have an amazing counselor who is trusted completely.

So they came up with the plan, you didn't tell them what you wanted the plan to be?  I've had doctors be very accommodating of my needs but it seems like I've always had to tell them what I wanted/needed them to do. 

yep...they did just about everything. He put me on a regular dose of xanax instead of just PRN (at the recommendation of the psych doc) and had his nurse write a letter to the anesthesia, OR and recovery teams as well as all 3 nurses staions of the possible wings where I would stay post-op. Then they put the letter in my chart and marked that it was to remain in my chart wherever I went. His nurse came in at around 6am and sat through peri-op with me. She said she had always wanted to watch the surgery so she even went in the OR. All I had to do was verbalize to anesthesia that my anxiety was creeping up. They were amazing about it, truly