HI, I'm Dan.  I have an eating disorder and have tried for years to control it.  A lot of times, in the Church, you get the feeling that you have something to repent about when you have a "weakness" like this.  But only someone who has been subject to irrational impulses that are self-destructive can understand what it's like when they take over.

I resisted the idea of bariatric (weight loss) surgery for years.  I'm a nurse and I know all of the risks.  Plus, my health insurance company would not pay for any procedure like that.  Then I had a relative who volunteered to pay the fee for me to have a LapBand procedure.  I studied it, talked to a lot of people, and finally went into the procedure.  I felt like I was having "will power" installed.  And, to a large extent, that's what it was.

It all went well for more than a year!  I lost a lot of weight and was even featured as a success story on our local hospital's website.  Then it all went horribly wrong.  I began to have life-threatening symptoms and ended up in the ER a number of times before someone finally identified that I was suffering from erosion of the band into my stomach.  I went to surgery to have it removed, but that was only the beginning of a series of infections, abscesses, hospital stays, and illnesses. 

Now the weight is back and I am really discouraged.  There are a thousand weight loss approaches, but no real therapeutic approach for the root cause - the emotional need to feed discouragement and anxiety.  I really hope that there are people around that can read this and help me in some way.

Dan

Tags: Support Weight Loss

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