Weight loss surgery patients with bipolar disorder

[susi1662]

I asked this already , but I don't think it was understood because I just wrote WLS instead of weight loss surgery.
I am 6 months out from having gastric bypass, and if you've read my other post, you know that I am in a pretty bad mixed episode right now. The doc and I both think that the surgery (plus other major life events( is what triggered this.
Are there any other weight loss surgery peeps out there who have bipolar disorder? I'd like to discuss this with others to see what they've gone thru and how they manage it.

[colette4321]

hi I had the gastric bypass in aug o9 and have lost 5 stone.  I had put on the weight  mainly due to my medication, as i was not overweight before starting to take it.  the surgury did play havoc with my moods and it took a long time to feel stable again.  now i struggle with my diet only when I am down because I find it hard to eat the right things at the right time, and not eat sweet and easy food.  I also have a mad sleep pattern and may get up at 4 am for breakfast and so cannot stick to 3 meals that our dietician advises.  after discussing my weight gain with her i now stick to my diet rigidly when I feel ok, and when I am very low I eat as I have to, not ideal but the guilt of putting on weight and eating wrong was making me feel suicidal!
hope this may be of use, we suffer from having a life long illness we can only try our best with our weight, not beat ourselves up over it.  As you can probably tell I am on an up at the moment and feel in control of my life in all areas!
Colette

[freddie8605]

Thank you for your advice about cutting back on carbs, My mom kinda said the same thing but its so hard, as you probably already know. :) So i have been trying that, for me the problem is suger and sweet things. YUM. but not good for you. I'm meant to be doing the lemon detoxes diet but so far haven't manage to do it.

I am sure there must be others on here who can help you.
Congrats on your weight loss too. :) Don't know if you have the weight tracker on this website but might be helpful for you.

Freddie

[susi1662]

Hi freddie,
I had to do a supervised diet and exercise program for six months before surgery, and I did lose 35 lbs in about 8 months. My surgery was done on Valentines Day, and since then I have lost 56 lbs, for a total of 94 lbs in a year and a half.
Some advice I can give you is if your meds are making you want to eat and eat, try eating lots of protein, and cut out carbs as much as you can. The biggest things to cut out are bread, rice and pasta.
I am losing kinda slow right now, I don't know if it's the tegretol I just started taking, or if it's just because I have been making bad food choices and not exercising as much. It's probably the latter. But, I do have a "tool" so to speak now, my stomach is now a much smaller pouch that can't hold a lot of food, so that helps. But, if I'm grazing, that is not helping!
Anyway, I was just looking to find people who have some insight on the emotional issues of having had WLS and having bipolar disorder.
Thanks for responding though, I appreciate your input!
Susi

[freddie8605]

Sorry, I had read your other post, but I haven't had a weight loss surgery, but i am trying to loss weight but i am not bad enough for surgery, so sorry can't help you much. Did you try exercise and diets? That the moment i am trying to cut down how much i eat and try and exercise more but not having much luck as my meds just make me want to eat and eat an eat, which is NO fun.

I wish you for the best in your recovery.
Freddie