Hi everyone, I just found this support group, and I wanted to talk to people who know what I am going through. I have been having a lot of mental health struggles after getting my gastric sleeve surgery right before the new year. I already see a psychologista and take antidepressants, but I thought it would be nice to get some support from people who have been through the exact same thing. So my main issues is that I have been crying all the time and constantly craving food. I won't even be hungry (physically) but I will crave so many foods to the point that I will burst into tears. Whenever I see my family eat food, it makes me so sad and I have to leave the room, and then I feel alone. For context, I live with my family, so I cant really escape the smells of food that travel throughtout the house. I'm still on the liquid phase, and I have been counting the days until i can eat normal food again. I am absolutely disgusted by protein water and shakes. I just want a sandwich so bad, and I know eventually I will be able to, but these next few months seem endless. Does anyone have any advice or encouragement?
This sounds just like my post from few weeks ago! You can see it in the general post-op thread “im new here, struggling with recovery”. I literally found this group one night at like 2am I think because I was having a meltdown. I was reading here and there that people have this type of issues after the surgery but since Ive never had any problems like this, I was 100% sure it wouldn’t happen to me. Boy, was I wrong!
I did learn a lot since then and can share my experience and what my doctor told me. You feel like you starving because you are. Your calories are so limited- even if you don’t feel the typical stomach growling hunger, your body is in starvation mode. I had dreams about meat every night and I barely eat meat! This resolved for me when I was able to add mushy foods, but the clear liquid diet was a torture. Only thing that worked for me a little was increasing my sugar intake- I was mixing cranberry juice with water and also got protein water to feed my body a little more.
That’s also supposedly partially responsible for your mood. Think about it - how irritable you can feel if you get hungry on an average day. You didn’t eat for over a week! Your body is also going through major changes on like chemical level after this surgery. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Im 5 weeks after the surgery now and all I can tell you - hang in there, it will get better (not counting in your pre-existing struggles with depression, I can only speak to the surgery side effects).
That’s what everybody was telling me in this group- “it will go away” and it did! It actually turned out that my body was starving a little bit too much and my doctor allowed me to start protein shakes early- it did help, but please don’t try to do that without consulting your doctor. Another thing I learned is that this recovery is very individual and what’s ok for me may not be good for somebody else.
In my case I think what made my mental state worse - everything I was told about this surgery before made it seem like it would be rather easy. “Leave the hospital after one day, dropped 100lbs, my life is great”. I guess that set wrong expectations, so when I was feeling crappy I also started panicking that something was going wrong. I don’t know what it looks like statistically, but once I shared my concerns here, all I was hearing from people- it was really hard for them too. It’s just what this process is and a lot of what you’re going through can totally be expected. It’s just like nobody really told me what the reality of f this journey is. It can be very hard, but it gets better. You have the worst part behind you. hopefully each day will be easier, like it is for me. Hang in there and try to dismiss this mood - don’t let it take over. It’s temporary. Your body is going through drastic changes. Everything is going to be ok.
