Question:
Coping with emotional eating after surgery?

I was approved for surgery today and had my first dietician visit. We talked about eating for comfort and for other emotional reasons. I know that food is one of my major preoccupations. I fear hunger. When I go to a party, I'm thinking more about, "will there be enough to eat?" than about the people who will attend. Is that weird? One of my major concerns is how to change my head along with my eating habits. Does anyone have advice about what works? Self-help books, therapy, etc? Is it possible to really retrain ourselves? My dietician gave me the following article that I wanted to share: "The Last Supper" by Gaye Andrews, PhD. "For almost 14 years, it has been my privilege to provide pre- and post-surgical support for patients having obesity surgery. In my work I have observed a presurgical experience common to many patients that might be called the "Last Supper" syndrome. The syndrome involves having a special meal in anticipation of the restriction obesity surgery places on the ability to eat. The meal usually includes eating large portions of favorite foods and/or going to a favorite restaurant. A number of patients have confessed to having several Last Suppers and/or visiting many favorite restaurants before having obesity surgery. When sharing their Last Supper experiences, patients invariably ask, "Is this normal" The best answer to this question is that it certainly is not abnormal. While not every patient has a Last Supper, many, many patients do. Having a Last Supper is a reasonable response to the anticipation of losing the freedom to eat whatever and as much food as one wants whenever one wants to eat it. The more restrictive the obesity surgery the patient is having or the fewer foods allowed or tolerated after surgery, the greater the feeling of loss may be. In simple terms, the Last Supper syndrome is an experience of grieving. Grieving is the normal emotional distress felt when someone we love dies, a valued relationship ends, or when something important is taken away. A process, not an event, grieving may start before the actual loss when one knows that this loss is going to happpen and continue for some time after the loss actually occurs. For most obesity surgery patients, food is not just a means of nutrition. Food is often a best friend, a source of comfort, a stress reliever, and more. The thought of losing this friend or the emotional support it provides may cause mild to severe feelings of grief. Often having a Last Supper shortens the grief process and allows patients to move forward into a new relationship with food. When grieving is felt deeply, a Last Supper may not relieve it. The distress continues after surgery and may become clinical depression. Clinical depression may result in behavior that contributes to a poor surgical outcome or even places the patient at medical risk.    — PT LawMom (posted on April 23, 2001)

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