ADD and Gastric Bypass surgery

[Anonymous]

**** A Gastric Bypass is (for you who don’t know) a weight-loss surgery. A tool for losing weight when you suffer from obesity. The surgery requiers you to have a pretty tight eating schedule; you should always eat every 2 or 3 hours – 6 to 8 times a day – every meal should take about 20-40 minutes to eat – and you should not eat more than 1.5 to 2.5 deciliters at a time. You constantly have to plan your shopping, cooking and your food intake to match the hospital’s recommendations (above). Food with high fat and/or high sugar is basically banned from the menu. You need to be aware of which time you should eat, how much, for how long, which foods are big “no no’s” and which foods you need to eat to stay healthy. ****

I had the surgery about 4-5 months ago (before I even knew that ADD was a part of me) and every single day has been such a struggle; with the planning and the time management, the cooking, the actual EATING… Everything! I’m slowly losing my motivation to even bother anymore, cause it drains too much energy. I can’t focus on anything! If I had known about ADD before the surgery – I probably wouldn’t have gone through with it… At least not at this point in time.

I’d rather be overweight than to juggle 50 000 extra thoughts and *musts* a day! 😯

Is there anyone here that has had a GBP..? I’m seriously struggeling here and I could really use some advice.. I’m almost at the point where I want to call my hospital and tell them that I can’t live like this and that they have to undo this mess.

I’m 22 years old, had my surgery March the 4th – 2011 and I’ve lost 40kg.

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[Anonymous]

I’m tired of always traveling on a mental highway. I just want it to stop before I give up completely and starve to death. I don’t have time to eat 6-8 times a day, my mind is elsewhere all the time. If I’m lucky – I eat 3 times a day… IF I’M LUCKY. I don’t even eat food, I eat fruit and veggies (completely against the directions I got from the hospital)… But hey, it’s better than eating nothing at all.

It doesn’t seem to matter how many alarm reminders I set on my phone about eating… if nobody’s around to make sure that I stop what I’m doing to go cook something – I just press the Reject-button (as if I’m on autopilot) and continue losing myself into whatever it was that fascinated me at that time. I barely even acknowledge that the alarm went off.

Tonight I got the task to decide what me and my family will have for dinner tomorrow… I’ve done some MASSIVE brainstorming… and I’ve spent 7 hours trying to find ONE recipe that might flatter my taste buds. 7 HOURS! Am I insane?!

I loved to cook and bake before the surgery… It calmed me down, cause I could cook, eat, bake whatever I wanted, whenever I felt like it. But now it’s all infected by anxiety and the hundreds of “I have to do this, I have to do that, I can’t eat this, I need to eat that, I shouldn’t use this, I should find ‘something else’…”. And what that ‘something else’ is… HOW DO I KNOW..? That’s like a whole new project to deal with! This is tearing me apart from the inside and I’m pulling my hair in pure frustration. I’m feeling so overwhelmed by all of this. I’m near crisis!

I really hope I’ll get medicated, cause this is ridiculous.

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[memzak]

I have not had gastric bypass but when I weighted 450lbs they were pushing it big time. I said no. I was in my 40’s at the time and had a job and a young daughter and a disabled husband so that kind of thing was just not an option. Can you have it reversed?

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[Anonymous]

ElectricNights: Thanks for sharing. I heard that something like 50% of obese people have ADHD. I’m being told to have gastric bypass (roux-en Y) now. My surgeon required a psych eval, and I was lucky enough to find someone who was helpful, so I went for regular therapy and she told me about my ADHD. I’m thinking of medicating instead of surgery and your post is very helpful.

I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble, and I hope the meds help. If it helps, my brother went through lap band surgery about 2 years ago. He struggled at first, but he really got into exercise and the natural stretching of his stomach now allows him to eat more normal foods. I would tell you to get off the veggies (not enough calories per volume). Try to get good protein bars (these are great: http://www.familybariatric.com/store/product/73/Bar—Brownie-w–Caramel/), but talk to a nutritionist.

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[Anonymous]

memzak ➡ The surgeons only reverse a Gastric Bypass (here in Sweden) if you’re experiencing some serious complications and the quality of your life decreases dramatically, if you’re very sick (i.e. cancer) or if something life threatening occurs (i.e. a car accident resulting in massive internal injuries). I’ve heard of someone who got it reversed because she developed an eating disorder… She was just skin and bones. I haven’t heard of anyone who’s gotten it reversed due to psychological obstacles.

And also, if you would get it reversed – life won’t just get back to normal again. Most people get even more complications afterwards. My friend’s mother had her surgery reversed at a private clinic in Germany (if I remember correctly…) and she had to use a colostomy bag for quite some time. I don’t know if she still needs it though.

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[Anonymous]

pete-puma ➡ Hmm, I think you may have got it backwards..? Isn’t it more likely that 50% of ADHD’ers are obese, rather than 50% of obese people having ADHD? Cause gosh, that’s a HUGE number of people 😉 Just a thought, but I might be wrong!

Typically we’re supposed to get a psych evaluation as well before getting granted the surgery… But I was moved to another hospital to speed up the waiting time and at that hospital they didn’t have access to a psychologist. It differs from region to region… My cousin didn’t get her surgery done until she’d been on 3-5 psych appointments.

I really wish I had known what impact this surgery would have on my life as an ADD-person. I don’t even remember the doctors asking if I was by good mental health (which is crucial in order for this kind of surgery to be a success).

I think these weight loss surgeries are a bit too glorified. It aint all roses and daisies! At least not for me, even though I researched these surgeries for over a year before I felt confident enough to apply for one. I just had no idea that I should have done research on GBP combined with ADD instead, cause that’s really a whole other ball game. It changes everything.

I wish I would have tried the LCHF-diet one more time, or the Weight Watchers, or some pills, or join a gym for the “fifty eleventh” time. I’m living in slight regret and hopefully – I’ll get some help soon.

Thank you for your advice and I’m happy to hear about your brother! I hope things are still going well for him. Remember to really think 50 times (not just twice) before you go ahead with the surgery, if you start leaning towards going through with it. I cannot stress enough about the importance of research! Join weight loss surgery forums, read people’s stories, ask questions and try to imagine how the GBP way of living would fit into your life and your ADHD (?). That’s the advice I have for you and anyone else who’s looking into losing weight by surgery.

Thank you for your reply!

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[memzak]

Dr. Russell Barkley said in a lecture that is on the CADDAC website that it appears that the higher the body mass index the more chance the overweight person is ADD. I believe he said that 30% of people with a BMI at 40% are ADD and it increases dramatically with increasing BMI. Apparently its a fairly new discovery and they are doing research on it.

ElectricLights I hope you find your solution and i think your right about glorifying the weight loss advantages of surgery. I personally prefer to take more natural approaches. I have lost 200 lbs in the last 10 years, unfortunately not all of it on purpose but its gone and is not coming back. My BMI is 38.7 right now; I just put my former weight in a BMI calculator and it used to be 72.6, Yikes!

Take care

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[Anonymous]

ElectricNights: It is startling, but I’ve heard the stat a few times. Also in the US about 30% are obese (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity) and about 14% in Canada. That would mean 15-7%. Factoring in that obesity is a broad range, it’s not too much of a stretch to get to 50%.

I agree with memzak that Barkley said it. So did Dr. Oren Mason here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cRrjJCgRcQ) (great lecture).

One thing that the ADD community should and can do is to aggressively educate nutritionists, GPs and bariatric surgeons about ADHD.

memzak: wow. Congrats. Any chance you can give us the highlights of how you did it? I need to lose about 150-200 to be healthy.

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[Anonymous]

memzak ➡ Really? 😯 I had no idea about this. I’m looking forward to hearing more about this research in the future… indeed very interesting!

WOW, congratulations on the weightloss! Even if some of the weight wasn’t lost on purpose – it’s still a tremendous achievement! I’m happy for you and I’m glad to see you’re determined! Good luck and I wish you all the best!

Take care!

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[Anonymous]

pete-puma ➡ Thank you for sharing the links! I have no idea who these Dr.’s are, but since you both (you and memzak) seem to be educated in the subject – I’ll trust in what you’re saying 😉

I agree that the ADD community should educate people who work with healthcare. I think people in general should be educated in the subject for a better understanding of people under the condition of AD(H)D,

Not sure if the sentence above is gramatically correct, but I hope you understand.

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[memzak]

The weight loss I experienced is not something that someone else can duplicate. I started creating a post to explain and it is sooo long and seriously would not help to anyone else that I decided not to post it. I will say that the last 70 pounds was lost with mostly portion control by eating really cheap small TV dinners instead of creating large dinners and being too busy to even graze in between. Kind of like a poor persons Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers.

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[Anonymous]

@memzak, LOL. I hear you. If only they made a protein version of ramen noodles; the coed diet. You’d be surprised what would help, though. I know we’re all individuals, but there’s something about this ADHD that makes us see the world in the same, weird way.

Speaking of, I don’t know if it’s me or ADD, but I don’t really get hungry. I can fast for a whole day with little or no notice if I want to, and all I get is a mild headache. (I drink tons of water and distract myself with video games or TV).

The doctors and nutritionists are always saying, “eat some carrots, or have a protein shake to fend off hunger.” Lady, I didn’t eat a pound bag of M&M’s because I was hungry. I don’t go for the Twizzlers instead of the banana because of the caloric values. Bananas are boring, sugar is more exciting. For me, eating is not usually about hunger. It’s lack of planning (I’m late, so McDonalds it is); impulse control (ooh, they have Yodels!) or boredom.

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[memzak]

OOoooo Ramen noodles, that would be great a protein version. Unfortunately, Ramen is one food I had to cut from my diet when I became a diabetic. I could live on Ramen except for that and the salt. I’m sensitive to salt and have been on a low salt diet since I was 16 and my fingers swelled up so big that I could not close my hand and could barely bend my fingers. I still sneak some now and then though. As long as that’s the only salty thing I eat that day I can get away with one or two packs.

I do get hungry at all the wrong times for all the wrong reasons. If I am hyper focusing on something I forget to eat, if I’m stressed out either I don’t eat at all or I eat everything in sight! Being on insulin I have had to be careful about waiting too long. They say routines help ADDers a lot and I am building a routine for the morning that reminds me to eat but even then things happen and my routine gets disrupted and I forget to do things. Having routine days is boring; being interrupted from the things you have to do can be dangerous especially if you’re on medication that you can’t survive without.

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