Has anyone else seen this article? I'm furious.

I agree. This woman is so full of it. If her life isn't turning out the way she feels everyone led her to believe it would after the surgery, she should be taking steps to seek therapy and find out just what the problem is with her. She should have known way before the surgeon made his marks on her belly that it was gonna take more than just putting down the fork and exercising. 

 

I hate when people go into this so blindly or with such unrealistic expectations. It's hard enough even when you have done tons of research. The bottom line is we still need to work on the "fat mind" that we will be left with and how to work out what the underlying causes for us getting in the obese state to begin with. And for me, i know i am gonna have to get counseling and the support group after my surgery. Yeah i was angry with that article as well. smh.

What I think she is saying in a back handed way is that WLS and being thin is not all it is cracked up to be.  Our society puts so much pressure on women, especially, to be thin and beautiful.  When in reality thin beautiful women are not any more happy than fat, not so beautiful women.

Bottom line, if you are not already a happy person, WL is not going to make you one.  It is foolish to think so and no amount of therapy is going to make you any happier if you think any one thing is supposed to make you happy.

Mary,

You have said this much more clearly and succinctly than I have...Thank you! :)

Agreed.

Hello My Friends!

Let's all just take a deep breath -- ok, all together now -- breathe IN .......and hold it -- hold it-- ....and breathe OUT  .....blow the air out of your mouth slowly, think "Peace, Love, and .... Bobby Sherman..."

There now.

This is a complex issue. here are some thoughts from the post-anesthesia-addled mind of Aunt Swizzlequeen (I am 9 days post-op. Am I still permitted to claim that my mind is anesthesia-addled??? No? i didn't think so!)

1. There are lots of concerns here. This is one of those moments that the media and life provide once in a while. I am envisioning every talk radio station in the USA turning to that article for discussion. Unless WE speak out, it will be an opportunity for THEM to define what is WLS and what it means...this will become THEIR opportunity to bash WLS or to point to the article as "evidence" that WLS is "the easy way out". NOW is the time to write a thoughtful Letter to the Editior, comment to Shine on Yahoo, to call into your local station when they discuss the article (I betcha it happens!), or to ask your local station to talk about it. Maybe certain well-regarded WLS surgeons and/or their patients together can ask their local station/s to give them 15 minutes of air time to facilitate an on-air discussion...NOW IS THE TIME. THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN ....THE SCALPEL. SERIOUSLY, THIS IS AN EXTREMELY TIMELY TOPIC THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO HEAR ABOUT.

2. The psychological and social dynamics of obesity are very very complex. That's why it is so unfair to tell an obese person to simply eat less, and move more. The truth is, (according to traditional schools of thought) that we are all neurotic to a certain extent. That means that there are less-than-perfectly-rational parts of all of us. I certainly include myself in that category! PLUS, we live in a social environment in which seeking emotional support and counseling can be a stigma; some people, like the many many uninsured in the USA, have limited, if any, access to formal psychological support...plus, in a social environment in which the mantra is, "stop being so lazy and just eat less!", it can be difficult to see that there IS a complex emotional part of the obesity problem. Plus, obesity itself is almost the ultimate stigma, at least in American culture. I think that that may be part of this woman's point. I can totally understand having very mixed feelings about profound weight loss, even negative feelings about it. Sometimes our OH friends write here on these boards that they are feeling depressed, and they are somewhat puzzled by it. I think that sometimes they may be experiencing these complex feelings having to do with identity and anger, etc etc that can arise  with profound weight loss. Maybe our colleague in the Yahoo article did not fully appreciate the possibilities of the emotional aspects, and maybe they just snuck up on her. Remember also  , that some of these feeling-dynamics are only now being understood fully by the psychology community.

3. Yes, it would have been better if she had said "this is MY experience, and I do not speak for all WLS surgery patients".

4. Hidden in the article is something important: the truth (I think) that (at least in American culture -- I can not speak for other countries or cultures) -- that being thin seems to be held out as a kind of Holy Grail of happiness, which I think is a disservice. Sadly -- it is very easy for me to see that obese people, myself included, readily have "bought" this idea, which of course is a falsehood. And so, it is also very easy to see that it would be difficult to talk about strange feelings of dissatisfaction, even depression, when the thinness comes through whatever means...very complex, strange, powerful feelings...

5. Go hug someone you love.

6. Go hug your cat.

7. No cat? OK, then go hug your dog, hamster, lizard.

8. Now, go hug yourself.

9. Now, go help yourself to a big, gut-busting plateful of compassion, with a big side of loving imagination, and a double scoop of humor. Go think about how to tell others about the truth of obesity and your experience of it and WLS...

Love, Aunt Swizzlequeen

Oh aunt swizzlequeen, you is so smart.....

This woman needs some serious mental health counseling, if she hasn't had it. She definitely has some emotional issues. I don't know how she could keep losing without wanting to or trying to. If I wanted to, I could physically eat what I wanted and probably gain weight already after 3 months but NO, I'm working at it EVERY DAY! I like how I am beginning to look. Do I have some extra skin, yes. Is it possible I may want some more surgery to fix it sometime in the future, yes. Her saying this is not work, is just not true!

Reminds me of the saying...where ever you go, there you are.  No matter what journey you take, your problems will follow you unless you make an effort to change (not your physical appearance).

Am I a terrible person because I'd sure like to know which surgery gets all the weight off without eating well, weighing, measuring & recording my food/drink and getting off my bum every day? AND continuing to do those things for the rest of my life to keep it off? I'd sure like to know...

I know there's no magic pill, and I don't especially want one, but isn't anyone else just a tiny bit curious??

Oh - and I'm not angry about the article, because it's pretty obvious that she started unhappy, didn't get any help figuring out what was making her so, then (surprise!) ended unhappy. Losing weight does many wonderful things, but it can't turn an essentially unhappy person into a happy one any more than it can fix a bad marriage.

I read her book Kelly-Anne. She had the duodenal switch.

I'm not understanding all the rage here. She wrote a memoir--it was her personal experience. I don't get why people are so worried that her experience will color others' attitudes about WLS. Who gives a $hi& what other people think?  We don't have any control of that, only of how we run our own lives.

The basic premise I took away from the book is that people need to learn to love themselves regardless of how they look. Period.