Psych evaluation - details?

[ardelia 41]

I see that everyone who gets banded needs a psych eval. Can someone who has had one enlighten the rest of us? The more details, the better. ( I am not particularly interested in the insurance/financial aspects, but more of the actual psych exam itself.)

(I go for my surgery consult on July 15th and I am getting nervous ...trying to kill time here before that, so please help!!)

Edited July 2, 2010 by ardelia

[losethemess 14]

I went did my Psychiatric Evaluation on Monday. You have to answer a series of questions You have to complete the Beck Depression survey. And some other questions about your mental state, what you know about the surgery, what you know about the risks involved, what you know about post-op and preparing for surgery psychology,

I hope this helps

[Jess55 97]

I'm curious. Does it count you out if you suffer from depression? I know I get depressed sometimes, in the past growing up I was put on antidepressants, but never felt they worked, so I stopped them and haven't seen a psychologist in many years. Will they say you can't have surgery if I am depressed, if so I will have to make sure not to sound depressed. Honestly I feel if I finally get this weight off I will be less so.

[losethemess 14]

Jess55 don't mention that. I think that they are trying to determine if you are psychology fit to have the surgery. Mentioning that you previously suffered from depression, may hurt your chances of being approved. I'm not sure and I haven't been approved myself, it's just my opinion. Don't give the insurance company any reason, not to approve you.

[Jess55 97]

I will have to try to be as positive as I can and not show how I really feel, I hope I can pull it together. I have to schedule some appointments tomorrow, one of them being the psych eval.

[spoiltmom 44]

I haven't been approved yet either so I could be wrong but I was told that it's fine if you have depression b/c the majority of overweight people do have depression.

I have depression and my surgeon and family doc both say it's fine I should still pass the eval.

[RaSCal 0]

I would tell the truth during your psych eval. I don't think they would disqualify you from what you described. However, it could be really helpful for you to talk through those feelings and prepare for the surgery.

My psych evaluation was quite anti-climatic. My wife has had the bypass surgery and she had the same psychologist. She said that she cried all the way through the evaluation. So, she had me all ready for the wringer. In my case, he asked me a few questions about me, marriage, kids, etc, then I had to take a 300+ question test on the computer. It was really, really simple. Guess, I did ok though.

[LRTAB 0]

I agree with RaS - the doctor is only looking to make sure that you are a viable candidate for surgery. Your insurance company wants to know that this will be a success and that your weight problem is not due to some mental health issue that will cause you to sabotage your success, or that you have unrealistic expectations about the surgery.

Coming to grips with weight issues, including the depression that I'll bet most of us have shared partially due to the struggle, will be therapeutic and I advise that you use the time to be a little introspective. Learn something about yourself that you can use to your advantage in losing the weight PERMANENTLY this time. Unless you are mentally incapable of having surgery, they are going to approve you.

Mine, too, was no big deal. Face it, your surgeon is not going to recommend a psychologist who sabotages his/her patients without a just cause. Enjoy it and learn from it!

[Llyra 3]

I have a lifelong history of clinical depression and was on antidepressants at the time of the exam. I don't know if they discriminate between controlled and uncontrolled depression. I do think if a person is currently suffering severe clinical depression it might make the whole lap band journey more difficult since depression makes everything else in life more difficult.

I signed an agreement to not reveal details of the psych test so I can't help you there- sorry.

[reverie 49]

The psych exams are nothing..I was worried too but mine was pretty easy. I didn't like the guy but he was like grilling me with questions. Just pretty basic things.