Counseling Before Surgery?

[vinesqueen 2]

But that's just it Donna, not everyone has done the soul searching they need to prior to being banded.

Some folks are just not ready for this step, not really. And some folks have unrealistic expectations about the band. Some think that they will never be able to eat again, other people expect to lose an unrealistic amount of weight in an unrealistic amount of time. Some folks expect too lose like a by pass patient and while some people do in fact lose that way, most people lose 1-2 pounds a week, not faster.

[sleepyjean 0]

My surgeon makes everyone see the program's social worker as part of the eval. I went into it thinking it was a complete waste of my time. Turns out it was very very helpful. I'd heard stories about people having to see a shrink and fill out some stupid test or something. When I met with the social worker, yes we did talk enough for her to get a sense of my state of mind, but that took about five minutes. The rest of the time was spent discussing how I could start preparing myself mentally for the changes during and after. She was also very interested in having me identify any roadblocks I could foresee getting in my way. I realized that every time I've lost a lot of weight in the past, I gained it back because I couldn't handle the changes and I was scared. If I don't want that to happen again, I need to start working on it now. I left that place and found a therapist who is helping me become stronger mentally so I can face this change and push through it rather than running from it as I have in the past.