Bariatric surgery

It doesn't tell me whether the process was healthy or not.

And then things become even more interesting when we look at the bariatric surgery.

On average, many patients experience significant improvements in quality of life and the symptoms of depression improve after the surgery, particularly during the first years following that substantial weight loss.

So I don't want to give you the impression that bariatric surgery typically causes mental health problems because the research does not support that conclusion.

But there is a subgroup of patients who continue struggling psychologically and they develop new concerns afterwards.

It's one reason why when you have a bariatric surgery, a qualified psychologist needs to be doing a psychological evaluation on you.

I think most insurances and Medicaid do require that.

Researchers have reported issues involving anxiety, depression, body image dysmorphia or distress, substance misuse after having the surgery, disordered eating, and in some studies, an increase of self-harm and suicide following the bariatric surgery.

Welcome back to the Barrier Nation podcast.

If you have ever typed into Google, why isn't this diet or this exercise working for me, or GLP-1 versus bariatric surgery, which one should I choose? This episode is for you.

Today, I'm sitting down with two people we've wanted at this table for a very long time.

Dr. Monique Hassan is a board-certified bariatric surgeon and obesity medicine specialist at Baylor, Scott & White in Texas, whose soul philosophy is what she calls surgery with soul.

So you did all the things and then you made the decision.

What I mean, do you want to run us through what all the things were? And then do you feel comfortable telling us like what was the point where you were like, I'm not going to continue to bang my head against the wall and do this on my own?

So I tried to the process of getting bariatric surgery starting in twenty eighteen.

kept hitting a wall, kept hitting a wall, fighting through the system.

I'm a licensed professional counselor and a licensed mental health counse- counselor in 13 states, and I primarily work with people affected by obesity in obesity care.

And I began that specialization about 15 years ago after I had a, my bariatric surgery and had an experience in a support group where, um, one of my fellow support group members had a substance use disorder, and, um, her life ended tragically.

And that led me to specializing in this patient population because I was part of it, and I saw that there was a need.

Um, I have been- Gone on to train in eating disorders and recognizing eating disorders.

... from, yeah, very, very restrictive, uh, or like f- uh, free-range chicken that are only fed this particular type of grain, whatever, right? Without some medical basis behind it, like, oh, I have an allergy to this or an intolerance to something else.

It's defining very restrictive food rules that limit choice, that limit enjoyment of food.

'Cause we found patient may have had bariatric surgery or is on a GLP-1, food should still have some enjoyment.

We should be able to say, you know, "I don't restrict myself from eating a certain food group.