What WLS will NOT do for your life

Great thread!

As a fully paid up member of the single after WLS club - it will also not help you find the man of your dreams because you are thinner!  If anything WLS gives you more stuff to stress about:

What to eat on a date
When to tell
What to do with all that extra skin when you get naked etc

 Oh yeah...I need to get my dues in for the year! ;)

We have to pay dues?!?  Maybe that's why I have not received my newsletter, LOL.

It is amazing how many people expect that losing the weight is automatically going to help them find Prince Charming (and within a short period of time, to boot).  As with other "problems" (although I'm not always sure that being single is really a "problem"), the weight is not usually the core issue and losing weight alone does not solve the problem.  I find that people (friends, clients, even myself to some extent) who are single and lose a lot of weight and don't meet someone right away have a hard time with the realization that "maybe it wasn;t the weight keeping me form a relationship after all" because -- as with other issues -- it is easier to blame the weight than to look for, and address, the non-weight things that are contributing to the problem.

Lora

Yep...I'll say it...I ain't GOT no man! Because...

I got more issues than the New York Times y'all.

Hopefully I will get it together someday but I HEARD you are actually allowed to fall in love at any age. This is encouraging.

O Wise One  

Thanks for the info. It is a great insight for a person who has not had  sugery yet.

This discussion was part of my psych consult.  I loved the guy who did my consult.  He said that he had had patients early on in his WLS consult career that would come back mad at him that the weight loss didn't fit their head issues.  So he decided to make it a large part of the pre op consult discussion.

It is all so true.


Sarah

Thanks for posting this Nik, that was awesome.

Thank you, Nik!!!   
I love that you are so up front when it comes to WLS and what it can and cannot do for us!  

I mentioned earlier this week that I think most of people with chronic (and serious) weight problems need to seek some kind of counseling, at least for the short-term.  I know there are some obese people who think they're "just fat" because of genetics or not eating right.  But, it's not that simple and if that were truly the case, we'd be carrying around maybe an extra 20 pounds - not 100+! 

I'm squarely in the "not sure this will really work" stage (2 weeks out).  But, I'm also already dreading that point where I hate my body because I'm thinner but saddled with tons of extra skin.  That's why I'll continue to go to my counselor so that I don't end up sabotaging myself and end up at 200+ again even after RNY.

 I called it the magic wand mentality.

It used to make me so mad to sit in group preop and listen to the stuff grown adults came up with.  

Sheesh.