Back to Problems with Food and Eating Overview

Before Undergoing Weight Loss Surgery

If you have thought about undergoing weight loss surgery to solve your unhealthy relationship with food, you may end up making your psychological distress worse. There is growing concern in the mental health field about patient’s who have developed other addictions following surgery to address obesity. Estimates suggest that anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of people have developed other addictive behaviors such as: compulsive shopping, alcoholism, drug abuse, and gambling.

One way to understand this problem is “addiction transfer” (also known as symptom substitution). When someone suddenly removes a previously relied-upon manner of dealing with his or her psychological distress (such as eating), then that person will experience an increased need to find some similar manner of coping with it (such as drinking or using pain medication) unless new and healthy patterns are learned.