Behaviors and mental health

Weight loss after surgery depends on your ability to change behaviors in eating and exercise. Also, being in good mental health is important for the demands of following your treatment plan. Your team's goals are to identify psychological or behavioral risk factors, address any problems, and decide whether you're ready for surgery.

Your health care team will talk with you about the following:

• Motivation. Are you motivated to embrace lifestyle changes, set goals and educate yourself about healthy nutrition? Your team will track your ability to follow recommended changes to your diet and exercise routine.
• Weight-loss history. What dieting and exercise plans have you used in the past to lose weight? Did you lose weight or regain weight? Patterns in weight loss and weight gain can help your team understand challenges for you and recommend strategies for post-surgical plans.
• Eating behaviors. Irregular eating behaviors or eating disorders may contribute to obesity. These include binge eating, nighttime eating and unplanned grazing between meals. Some eating disorders are associated with other mood disorders and other mental health conditions.
• Mood disorders. Depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or other mood disorders are associated with obesity, and these conditions may make it difficult to manage your weight. Also, people with untreated mood disorders often find it difficult to stick with new diet and exercise habits after surgery.
• Alcohol and drug use. Problems with alcohol or drug use, as well as smoking, are associated with poor weight loss and continued substance use problems after surgery. Untreated or unmanaged problems likely prohibit the option of weight-loss surgery.
• Suicide risk. There is an increased risk of suicide among people who have undergone weight-loss surgery. The risk is higher among people with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, schizophrenia or other disorders.