Is Weight Loss Surgery Right For Me?
I am a member of several support groups for weight loss surgery on Facebook. A recurring post that I continue to see is people asking if others regret having weight loss surgery or doubting getting the surgery due to the outcome of other people and the way their journey turned out. My first response is always do not base your journey on anyone else’s journey. Someone may not have lost all the weight that they could have, another could have been sick majority of the time and another could have started gaining weight again. At the end of the day every person is different and their body reacts differently to things. One post that I saw was someone stating that she saw someone in another support group post about becoming an alcoholic and struggled with depression after having the surgery. My response was that it sounded like she replaced one addiction (food) with another (alcohol). I told her that she should not worry about becoming an alcoholic after the surgery. I also recommended that she find a therapist to start talking to prior to her surgery if she is thinking that she will have trouble with depression after the surgery.
Having weight loss surgery is not a quick fix to losing weight and being healthy. There is a lot of work that goes into having the surgery and the life after surgery. Prior to getting weight loss surgery there is a lot of research that should be done to see what you will have to change after the surgery as far as your eating habits are concerned. You are not able to eat as much as you once were (the whole point of having the surgery) and there are some foods that you should avoid as they contain zero nutritional value to them. There are some things that you will not be able to eat because they will just not agree with your new tummy. These are all things that you will see if you do your research prior to surgery. It is also a good idea to see the program requirements for different facilities. I know that sounds silly but every facility has different requirements for their program. Some facilities require you to see a therapist to get approval prior to surgery even if your insurance does not. This is a good idea in my opinion as there is a lot that happens when you have the surgery. Sometimes people use food as a way to cope with things going on in their life and taking their coping mechanism away may cause them to find something else to use.
The moral of this entire story is to say do what is right for your body and do not go based off some else’s journey. Do your research and make a sound decision. Should you ask questions from other people that have had the surgery? Of course you should ask questions. If you want to know something about the surgery and the process please ask but, do not use what someone else says deter you from making a decision that you feel is right for you and your health. At the end of the day you have looked into having the surgery because you want to have a longer and healthier life so do not get scared away by someone telling a horror story of all the things that went wrong on their journey.
