Psychologist assessment

Hi there,

First post ever...signed up tonight but have been reading for some time now.  Great place and a lot of great topics to read about.  So my referral went in today.  Very infant stage of this process.  Im wondering what to expect when speaking to a social worker or psychologist?  Anyone care to share?

Lots of questions.  

We can't give you a crib sheet (although I bet $20 someone "helpful" will try) because there are different ways of doing the assessment.   Just answer the questions truthfully - one of the biggest problems on here is people having surgery when they are not ready. 

Most of us go through the assessment without any problems (unfortunately even those who have some!)

I'm a psychotherapist, and have done evaluations for surgery.

The psychological evaluation is primarily to evaluate your ability to handle weight loss surgery and the requirements of diet and exercise ha*****ange that will come after. It is major permanent surgery, and the evaluation will help determine your readiness for those changes.

It also evaluates for preexisting conditions such as depression, anxiety, or other forms of mental illness that might impact your ability to respond well to the surgery and those changes which are essential for short term as well as long term success. In addition pre-existing mental health issues can effect the risk of complications.

Surgeons have gotten stricter about the mental health requirements for surgical workup than they used to be because so many people have had difficulty managing the requirements post-op.

The other thing is that surgery does not operate on the brain and can't cut away emotional pain. Therapy can be very useful post-op with adjusting to new body image, which is very resistant to change. It can also be helpful with working on old thinking and habit patterns and establishing new ones, which simply has to happen, especially after the honeymoon ends.

But don't be nervous, just honest. Remember the therapist is on your side!

Mine was a sit down with the doctor, to discuss why I wanted this surgery, what I expected to happen once I lost weight, how I planned on coping with life without eating as my go-to for stress/happiness/reward etc.  And then a 500 question multiple choice test.  It was nothing really.  They aren't trying to exclude you, just make sure you are mentally prepared.  I was, never had an issue.

I have bipolar disorder, so my surgeon required 2 psych clearances.  He just wanted to make SURE that I was up to the challenges and had established connections with the mental health community. I have been very stable for the past 4 years and my psychiatrist was able to write a letter attesting to my compliance with treatment. My surgeon also required that I find a therapist, have 2 pre-op sessions with them, and commit to at least 6 months of therapy post-op. No problem. I figured, it's only going to help me in th

As for the actual visit, mine were easy.  With both psychologists, we started with testing for about 45 min-1hour and finished up with a 40 min interview during which the psychologist asked me about my family, my support system, my parents, my upbringing, etc. There's not lying on the couch or anything like that--you only see that on TV. Well, I guess you *could* lay on their couch, but they'd probably think, what the heck?!

I think they're all different.  Mine was basically like this:

Me: Hi, I'm here for a psych eval for weight loss surgery.

Him: I don't even know why these are necessary anymore.

Heh.  It was easy :P

My insurance doesn't even request a psych evaluation.

Oh boy this is a bit of a two parter. Before I got to my eventual surgeon I was at a different office and had a different psychologist. She also decided for some reason it was her job to play part time NUT. Even though there is a separate NUT clearance you have to get from a completely different person I might add. Don't ask me why she tried to do this. But she was a lot more obsessed with my nutrition (how much water I was drinking, protein vs carb intake, things that the NUT should be covering not the psychologist) than she was with my psychological health it seemed for reasons I still don't understand.

When I switched offices because of a bit mix up at the old office I still didn't have clearance. Well I thought I had got clearance for a couple of months. And then found out I hadn't gotten it(again related to nutritional aspects). I ended up going to psychologist approved by my current surgeon. He went over dietary history, mental health history, made sure I knew what was to be expected of the surgery and such, and also had me do a test mostly going over behaviors of the person. Never went into nutritional aspects though. Actually told me point blank when I mentioned what had happened at the other office that that should never have happened since that wasn't supposed to be their jobs.

I got a call about a month later from my surgeon's office saying that they had received the evaluation finally (he had said at the time of the appointment it would take around 2 weeks to put my file together it took nearly double for some reason) and that I was all clear. Which for me was a big thing since this was the last thing I needed to get things set up before my surgery (I had all of my other tests done all ready).