Taking a stand.

it could be the major it of women were abused period. no matter what size, I mean.  sad.

anyway, surgery itself is stressful and major weight loss is stressful and this can make things worse.

people flat out need support.

I still think for reading so many of the psots on here that way too many younger people go into this thinking it will solve all their problems.  They will lose weight, become an entire new beautiful person, meet the man/woman of their dreams..etc..then life will be perfect.    Not so folks.  We all need to be aware of how serious this step we are taking is.  It is not just to make us prettier and more attractive to a mate.  These issues may be few and far between, but it can happen to you!  Each of us may be that one out of however many that it happens to.  So all of these things need to be considered before the decision is made.

 Numerous experts agree that psychopathology and various psychological difficulties existing prior to the surgery can have direct adverse effects on the postoperative outcome. However, findings of studies investigating underlying psychopathology or other emotional obstacles have yielded inconsistent results.

 Whereas earlier studies gave little indication of higher incidence of psychopathology in obese persons, more recent studies suggest that morbidly obese patients may have significant symptoms of depression, evidence of eating disorders, negative body image, low QOL, and other coexisting mental disorders.[3-10] Moreover, various studies of bariatric surgery candidates have identified a variety of psychiatric and behavioral problems, including but not limited to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and history of sexual abuse.[8,9,11-13]

                                           - Carol Bradley, RN, CS, MSN,  The Value of Ongoing                                                              Psychological Support for the Bariatric Patient, Surgeon, and                                                  Multidisciplinary Team, Bariatric Times June 2007

When I was in graduate school over 20 years ago, many of my colleagues were specializing in eating disorders and other forms of self injury.  I spent most of my career working with abused women from battered women, rape victims and survivors, Cambodian victims of the sex trade, and everything in between.  The topic is alive.  People are paying attention.

When any one of us posts here, I think it’s very important to weigh what kind of benefit/harm we’re bringing to readers.  Yes, everyone needs to know about mental health issues, yes there needs to be access to more pre and post operative mental health care.  I believe that’s happening – this is still a very young field.

My concern is that too much of this will dissuade many fragile but deserving and capable people from having this surgery .  If you’re depressed and believe you’re a failure excessive exposure to complications might do more harm than good.  “See, I’ll even fail at this.  I’ll probably be so out of control I’ll commit suicide.  Nevermind."  Of course no one should have surgery while suffering from untreated severe depression, however surgery can be one piece of a treatment plan, implemented at the right time (largely by her), designed to empower her. One of the things almost every battered woman I worked with told me was some variant of "Everyone is telling me what to do."   We have a responsibility here to empower women to make her own choices based on the best available research, outcomes, and probability. 

We have control over our bodies, sisters!  And, we have control about how we think about what others have done to us.  We don’t have to agree w/ all the trauma!  This is the power or psychotherapy, working w/ abused women, and facilitating or owning one’s own transformation from victim to empowered, in control person.

Women like to share scare stories about pregnancy and childbirth.  So much can go wrong! Of course post-partum depression happens, complications occur and we live in an aware time; our doctor, midwives, nurses and friends mostly monitor us and offer remedies for suffering. And very few of us have no access to this help.  And if we don't we can find it.

All caps, and bold face is often construed online as yelling online – I know I read it as such. We also have to keep that as well as our personal/axes to grind, issues in check.  Because those don't serve others who deserve a balanced view.  I have a learning disabled child - I could persist in warning parents about signs in their children, I could do it repeatedly and forcefully, on LD message boards as well as boards about neuro-typical kids and it's tempting to do it here with we talk about out kids.

Some of us have had bad outcomes and those of us who have should share.   To a point. And always bracketed by the hope,  probability, and the fact that there are ways to cope.  

It's just as negligent to catastrophize as to trivialize complications.

 Sharing your experience -- if not typical -- is peeing in the pool?

Aren't most "pools" filled with pee? 

Does this mean we should pretend the pool is clean?  We all know it's not, we're all swallowing pee.

I haven't had any major complications, my issue is not related to WLS, so far as we know.   So, if you think I'm peeing in your pool, I'm not.

 I removed the "pee in your pool" metaphor - not elegant at all!

 Do you think it's safe for "fragile" people to go through weight loss surgery?

 "My concern is that too much of this will dissuade many fragile people from having this surgery . "


They should be dissuaded, they're that FRAGILE. If they're not getting help before surgery, what makes you think they'll get it afterward when their depression is running rampant and suicidal because they think they should be happy since they're thin, but they're not feeling that? If they are getting help, this won't dissuade them because they have something to bring up in counseling sessions and discuss strategies for this event. The FRAGILE ones are fragile because they won't get help, they refuse to see what's going on BEFORE surgery. Scare them off. 

I've yet to see MM post without including some hope and her desire to marshal on and cope with her complications. The original post was the article which was pretty clear in encouraging more studies and encouraging people to seek help. She didn't post personal commentary around it and she shouldn't have because it's factual information. There's plenty of time to comment on coping strategies and encouraging seeking counseling throughout the thread which is the correct way to get people to dialog and think through the communication.

 I have yet to talk a SOUL out of WLS.

I have zero interest in doing so.

If you're so fragile that you can't handle reading about someone else's rough go of it -- you need to get past that LONG before a scalpel is in your GUT.

fragile people need to be getting help ANYWAY and anyone having WLS needs help.  common denominator?

HELP.

we all  need support, dammit!  life is stressful and people need support. that is the take-home message.