Addiction, Alcoholism, Gastric Bypass Surgery, Nutrient Deficie

Nov 17, 2011

In my last blog, I wrote about how they recently showed that gastric bypass surgery significantly increased your risk of developing alcoholism and substance abuse as well as suicide attempt and depression, much more so than merely restrictive procedures such as the lap-band.

Early on this was attributed to a psychological phenomena they called addiction transfer - theorizing that once a food addict could no longer eat they would “switch” to another substance in order to feel good.   It seemed to make sense.   Except to those of us who were experiencing it.  We knew things were different.   We felt “different”, “wrong”.  If this were truly psychological, we should see similar rates of this transfer among all weight loss surgeries:   duodenal switch, sleeve gastrectomy, lap-band, etc.  

Many chemicals in the brain are responsible for that sense of well-being, your ability to feel happiness:  serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, endorphins.   But what about all the other nutrients your body must have in order for these chemicals to function properly?  They all work together.  Now what if those nutrients started to slowly diminish over time?  Say over the next 12-14 months? And longer?  How would you feel then? 

What if you’ve suddenly achieved something you’ve yearned for, perhaps your entire life, and now find yourself having difficulty finding pleasure in things you know should find pleasure in?   Trying on new clothes?   Meeting new people?   Peoples reaction to the new you?   And what if that ability experience pleasure and joy just is not there.   You know it should be and it isn’t.   What if you start having trouble sleeping, maybe having anxiety, and you have no idea why?  

And then you experience something and you feel “good” for the first time and a long time.   Maybe that something is alcohol, which if you’ve had gastric bypass, even a little bit might feel really good.   Or maybe your doctor writes you a prescription and that medication is what you take that you find is what makes you feel “good” when nothing else has in so long.  Or it might be shopping, etc.   Or maybe you just tough it out and feel awful.   The brain is incredibly amazing at associating what you need to not feel awful and is very crafty and effective at convincing you to keep it from feeling like crud all the time.  

But I’m convinced that if the “feel good” chemicals in the brain had not been so deteroriated by the many months and months of depletion, so many people would not have vulnerable in the first place to this scenario.   And the solution is to renourish the brain and body, and I don’t think that is the advice people are being given.

If this sounds at all familiar to your story, let me know.

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