Psych evaluation?

[Neostarwcc 33]

Hello so my surgery is being planned in November assuming I pass the psych evaluation on Wednesday. I'm extremely worried about passing the evaluation and what the evaluation is going to entail can somebody give me a basic idea thats been through it before? Im getting the gastric sleeve operation.

I've already filled out their questionnaire and they gave me about 150 questions to answer but the questions give me no clue about what questions the psychologist is going to be asking me aside from trap questions like "I can eat whatever I want after the surgery." Obviously clearly a trap and you're supposed to clearly answer strongly disagree to that question but other questions were not so straight forward. I also have a history of mental illness (I'm schizoaffective) does that mean that I automatically fail my evaluation?

[FifiLux 464]

I am sure it varies for everyone depending on the approach of the psychiatrist and the medical programme but from what I remember I was asked about why I believed I put the weight on, what I had done in the past for weight loss, did I suffer from depression, did I have an eating disorder, how my weight impacted my life, did I have a supporting family and friends group etc. Then I was asked about what I wanted from the operation, he made sure to explain that the op is not the treatment alone and I would have to put in the work on myself and my body, how the op was a tool to help me and I would have to make changes and choices for the rest of my life. He also then asked would I be happy with the changes to my body such as saggy skin as that is what a lot of people are left with.

We discussed my weight journey over the years, how I am an organised person so if I am given a set of rules (with a few bendy grey areas 😉) I felt I could follow the changes that would be required without much of an issue and that while I would love to not have saggy skin I knew that would be impossible but that being a healthy weight with less risk of health issues was more important.

If you already put down about being schizoaffective on your medical forms and they considered it an automatic fail I would hope that that they would have already told you.

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,637]

Mine wasn't very involved, honestly. I was asked why I wanted the surgery, what I expected from it, what I would do differently, did I have anxiety or depression or any other mental health conditions and if so are they controlled, what caused my morbid obesity (other than just eating poorly), what meds was I on and why was I on them, etc... It lasted about 30 minutes and was over a zoom call.

Did you already tell them you have schizoaffective disorder, or are you not saying it until your psych eval?

[ShoppGirl 4,844]

On 9/29/2024 at 7:23 PM, Neostarwcc said:

Hello so my surgery is being planned in November assuming I pass the psych evaluation on Wednesday. I'm extremely worried about passing the evaluation and what the evaluation is going to entail can somebody give me a basic idea thats been through it before? Im getting the gastric sleeve operation.

I've already filled out their questionnaire and they gave me about 150 questions to answer but the questions give me no clue about what questions the psychologist is going to be asking me aside from trap questions like "I can eat whatever I want after the surgery." Obviously clearly a trap and you're supposed to clearly answer strongly disagree to that question but other questions were not so straight forward. I also have a history of mental illness (I'm schizoaffective) does that mean that I automatically fail my evaluation?

Every dr is different. My doctor was more of a formality. He didn’t ask me anything about my eating or much about my mental health. I have Bipolar and I was cleared. He just wanted to know that I’m on meds and regularly seeing a psychiatrist. I told him I see both a psychiatrist and Psychologist. After that we moved on to talking about my home situation. What kind of Support I will have and what other responsibilities I may have that make it harder and stuff like that.

[Neostarwcc 33]

20 hours ago, SleeveToBypass2023 said:

Mine wasn't very involved, honestly. I was asked why I wanted the surgery, what I expected from it, what I would do differently, did I have anxiety or depression or any other mental health conditions and if so are they controlled, what caused my morbid obesity (other than just eating poorly), what meds was I on and why was I on them, etc... It lasted about 30 minutes and was over a zoom call.

Did you already tell them you have schizoaffective disorder, or are you not saying it until your psych eval?

They gave me a questionaire to fill out online and sign. One of the questions was what meds are you on and do you suffer from any mental illnesses and I put yes and told them I was on some antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. I'm sure that will come up during the interview but I was afraid that would make me fail the evaluation but if it's easy to pass as long as you're getting the surgery for the right reasons than I guess I have nothing to worry about. The evaluation is today in about 5 hours from now. Mine is through video too. I had the option of driving to my psych eval but I decided to do it through telehealth instead.

[Neostarwcc 33]

19 hours ago, ShoppGirl said:

Every dr is different. My doctor was more of a formality. He didn’t ask me anything about my eating or much about my mental health. I have Bipolar and I was cleared. He just wanted to know that I’m on meds and regularly seeing a psychiatrist. I told him I see both a psychiatrist and Psychologist. After that we moved on to talking about my home situation. What kind of Support I will have and what other responsibilities I may have that make it harder and stuff like that.

So pretty easy general stuff then. Ok. I shouldn't be too afraid then. Worst case scenario is they fail me and I have to wait a couple more months for surgery. My bariatric team did mention that if I failed that they would be working with me on the issues that the psychologist found and it doesn't mean I can't get the surgery It just would delay it.

They want to make sure my surgery is safe and effective. I get it.

[ShoppGirl 4,844]

51 minutes ago, Neostarwcc said:

So pretty easy general stuff then. Ok. I shouldn't be too afraid then. Worst case scenario is they fail me and I have to wait a couple more months for surgery. My bariatric team did mention that if I failed that they would be working with me on the issues that the psychologist found and it doesn't mean I can't get the surgery It just would delay it.

They want to make sure my surgery is safe and effective. I get it.

Absolutely. I had the sleeve four years ago and now the revision and you definitely want to make sure that you’re in a good place with your mental health because it takes just as much mental energy as it does physical to deal with all the changes you will be going through. It’s like a whole new lifestyle post surgery if you’re doing it right. They are really great changes, but it is still alot in short time. Be honest and trust their judgment- they have done this a lot of times and they just want to make sure that you’re in the right headspace when they do it so that you can be most successful immediately post surgery to keep you safe but also long term so that you will be successful in your weight loss.

One thing I did too was to ask my team if it would be okay for me to just check in with them a little more often than they typically require. They agreed to that and it has made the process a lot less stressful this time. I just get super anxious about everything and medical stuff is even worse so stuff like this creates a million questions and it’s hard when you call the front desk and they don’t know about your mental health for them to not be annoyed when you call a bunch of times.

This time I just go in and have a chat with the NP about all my concerns and she reassures me everything is fine and I’m on my way. Also, you will want to let your prescribing Dr know about your surgery at some point if you haven’t already. They will want to check in with you a couple of times post op because sometimes with the absorption changes in the body your medication doses may need to be adjusted a bit. And keep posting on here. There are so many people who have been through anything you may have a question or fear about or if you just want to vent about a stall. People are so wonderful here and eager to help. Staying active on here and the in person support groups has really helped me.

Im excited for you. It’s a pretty incredible journey and you will get there soon enough.

[Neostarwcc 33]

1 hour ago, ShoppGirl said:

Absolutely. I had the sleeve four years ago and now the revision and you definitely want to make sure that you’re in a good place with your mental health because it takes just as much mental energy as it does physical to deal with all the changes you will be going through. It’s like a whole new lifestyle post surgery if you’re doing it right. They are really great changes, but it is still alot in short time. Be honest and trust their judgment- they have done this a lot of times and they just want to make sure that you’re in the right headspace when they do it so that you can be most successful immediately post surgery to keep you safe but also long term so that you will be successful in your weight loss.

One thing I did too was to ask my team if it would be okay for me to just check in with them a little more often than they typically require. They agreed to that and it has made the process a lot less stressful this time. I just get super anxious about everything and medical stuff is even worse so stuff like this creates a million questions and it’s hard when you call the front desk and they don’t know about your mental health for them to not be annoyed when you call a bunch of times.

This time I just go in and have a chat with the NP about all my concerns and she reassures me everything is fine and I’m on my way. Also, you will want to let your prescribing Dr know about your surgery at some point if you haven’t already. They will want to check in with you a couple of times post op because sometimes with the absorption changes in the body your medication doses may need to be adjusted a bit. And keep posting on here. There are so many people who have been through anything you may have a question or fear about or if you just want to vent about a stall. People are so wonderful here and eager to help. Staying active on here and the in person support groups has really helped me.

Im excited for you. It’s a pretty incredible journey and you will get there soon enough.

I actually did tell my GP it was actually his idea. I am 440 pounds and was 435 ish when he recommended the gastric sleeve surgery. He did make my next evaluation in Janurary because he's expecting my weight loss surgeon to do the surgery sometime in November if I pass my evaluation. I'm all the way ready and just have the evaluation left to do hopefully all goes well this afternoon! Still a little nervous but I'm feeling MUCH better than i was several days ago.

But anyway my GP did mention that if i got the surgery in November that I'd need to get labs done for Janurary. So I'm assuming he's going to adjust my meds then and my psychiatrist knows I'm getting surgery too although I told him I was getting it done in Spring because that was the plan then. I moved it back to November because my GP recommended i do so. I'm still gaining weight so he wants me to have the surgery as soon as possible.

Edited October 2 by Neostarwcc

[RuizAyres 27]

I have already had my Psychiatrist evaluation and the ok letter plus 3 others, I had to get. My first visit to my new psychiatrist was my one he used to okay me! We started at the beginning since he was new. We didn’t really cover a lot about the surgery but I did tell him about it in the beginning. I’ve been depressed, anxiety and grief since 2005. But no problem getting letter! Actually that’s when my weight gain started with behavioral meds.

[Neostarwcc 33]

I completed the evaluation. She didn't tell me if I passed or failed but she did mention a few things. 1. I didn't know a lot about the surgery and couldn't remember the side effects so I should talk to my doctor before the surgery and get a refresher. I looked them up on chatgpt after the interview and was reminded that my doctor did talk about them but it was over six months ago and I forgot. 2. She did mention that my wife and I should be working on "her giving me everything I wanted" before I have my surgery and not afterwards like I mentioned. She also mentioned that I cannot have diet soda at all or anything carbonated although my nutritionist said it would be ok after my stomach heals. Umm what else. It was an almost hour long interview but we got a lot done. She had a lot of questions. I'll call my bariatric team on Friday and ask them if they got the results in yet. If not I'll ask Monday. Because I'm really curious on what she's going to say I need to work on. I know she's probably going to recommend I sew my nutritionist again before my surgery which they're already doing. I might have to see my surgeon too to get my questions answered and for him to personally go over the surgery with me and what he's going to do. But, all in all I think it mostly went well.

[FifiLux 464]

That is good news, hopefully it gets signed off or at least with some points that can easily be ticked off.

That is strange to be asked about side effects. When I had my psych call it hadn't even been decided which surgery it would be so it didn't come up that I recall but as we have said each doctor has a different approach.

[Neostarwcc 33]

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11 minutes ago, FifiLux said:

That is good news, hopefully it gets signed off or at least with some points that can easily be ticked off.

That is strange to be asked about side effects. When I had my psych call it hadn't even been decided which surgery it would be so it didn't come up that I recall but as we have said each doctor has a different approach.

Yeah she wanted to make sure I was aware of the side effects and what the procedures of the surgery that I wanted were because I told her at the beginning of the interview I wanted the gastric sleeve so she asked me to describe what the gastric sleeve consisted of. Aside from telling her that my surgeon was going to take out 70-80% of my stomach I couldn't tell her much because I was told about the surgeries, their side effects and everything else six months ago so i couldnt really remember. I didn't tell her that but I did tell her I wasn't sure on the side effects. Hopefully she doesn't give me too much to work on because I'm looking forward to getting my surgery in November.

Edited October 2 by Neostarwcc

[ShoppGirl 4,844]

4 hours ago, Neostarwcc said:

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Yeah she wanted to make sure I was aware of the side effects and what the procedures of the surgery that I wanted were because I told her at the beginning of the interview I wanted the gastric sleeve so she asked me to describe what the gastric sleeve consisted of. Aside from telling her that my surgeon was going to take out 70-80% of my stomach I couldn't tell her much because I was told about the surgeries, their side effects and everything else six months ago so i couldnt really remember. I didn't tell her that but I did tell her I wasn't sure on the side effects. Hopefully she doesn't give me too much to work on because I'm looking forward to getting my surgery in November.

Part of the process is then determining that you are of sound mind to make this decision. They probably just wanted to be sure that you understand that the surgery does carry risk and that things are going to change in terms of what you can eat and what you have to do to take care of yourself during the post op diet and forever after that like lifelong Vitamins and smaller portions. Stuff like that. I doubt it was a right or wrong answer kind of thing, just more of them making sure that you know that it’s not a magic wand or a quick fix without risk of complication and what to expect after the surgery. I’m sure that your surgeon will go over it all with you again and that’s not such a bad thing. There is alot of information to take in and some programs kind of rush the process. I had to do extra appointments during the preop part too in order to get all of my questions answered.

[BlondePatriotInCDA 496]

My evaluation was pretty useless. It took at most 15 minutes and the only thing they asked is why I thought surgery would work and what I was going to do differently.. Maybe a few more but I do remember thinking it was a complete waste of time and money, just one more hoop completed I had to jump through to get the surgery.

I wouldn't worry about it. I also completed a questionnaire.. But if they were already made aware of your health history and you're still going through the process you're good. Just remember its not a session to unload all your emotional baggage - its a time to go through their hoops to get approval. Say all the right things unless you personally feel that you're not emotionally ready for it.

[Neostarwcc 33]

How long did it usually take you guys to get your results? It's only been 3 days and I'm already nervous as heck. I was going to wait at least a week before calling the bariatric clinic to see if they have my results yet but... yeah... nervous.