psychologist

What should i expect when i see her for clearance

I had to see mine twice before surgery.  She just asked about my family, my eating habits, how I was preparing for my new life after surgery.  She just wanted to make sure that I was ready for such a big change in life. 

He/she will ask you if you have any mental health issues.  You will be asked if you know about the benefits and liabilities associated with the surgery.  You will be asked if you are ready to make the changes necessary for the surgery.  If you have mental health issues, you will be prompted to go to therapy.  You will also be asked if the surgery doesn't work to your expectations how you will deal with that....Basicially they want to make sure that you are mentally healthy enough to endure the before, during and after surgery process.

I agree and I was also asked a lot of questions about stress and how I deal with it and what kind of stress is in my life now and if I've ever felt depressed. afterward she told me that it has to do with how you will be able to handle the surgery that a lot of people are depressed and overwhelmed in their lives and seem to think that surgery will be a cure all for that and that you need to be able to be able to handle the stress already in your life or surgery will just make your mental state more strained.

thats a good thing they do thisbecause when i hadd the lap band i didnt have to go through this.

My psych eval was very thorough, more so than I was expecting. Before my appointment I had to fill out several different assessments: a depression scale, a multiple choice test about the surgery, a support system questionnaire (asking me what people were in my life, how supportive they are and how often I talk to them), and a 25 "complete the sentence" assessment. Then at the actual appointment he went through my personal and family history (mental and medical), spent at least an hour asking me various questions about why I thought I was obese, my triggers, what I thought would be the most difficult things to deal with after surgery, and other questions like that. I then had to take an intelligence test (I have a M.A. so I was surprised and slightly offended that I would be required to take an IQ test for surgical approval) that consisted of verbal reasoning and visual/perceptual (non-verbal) reasoning. Finally, I had to answer 360+ true/false questions from the MMPI. Whew! That was a long afternoon; I was there over 3 hours. At the end he merely told me that I'd get a copy of the report in "about two weeks;" he didn't tell me if I had "passed" or not. Needless to say, I was anxious for that approval letter since that was the last requirement I needed for insurance approval. I already had a letter from a therapist saying I was a good surgical candidate, however, my insurance wanted a more in-depth eval, so my approval was delayed by over a month because it took several weeks to get in to see the psychologist then another week and a half waiting for his approval letter. It was all a huge pain in the ass, but very worthwhile. I was approved last week and I have to admit, it was really interesting reading the psych eval. 

Best wishes to you! 

I was stressed about mine. It turned out to be less than an hour and very informal. Turns out our kids were at similar colleges and we talked about the amount of substance abuse in the dorms. She asked a couple of questions about my history of obesity but basically we just chatted. Honestly, I felt it should have been a lot more thorogh than it was.