ESD907

I'm wondering if anyone else had this problem after surgery? I believe there is a connection in escalation of drinking.

sugarbear1

I've done that search online and there seems to be a correlation

talk with your doctor

gracetuesday

I do not have personal experience, but have heard of this trend. I believe the weight loss surgery my alter how alcohol is processed in the digestive tract.... maybe reasearch that. I was in treatment with 3 women who had gastric by-pass surgery.

21Hope

I think there is! Food addiction turns to alcohol addiction. Addiction is addiction. My mom's friend died a few years ago. Drunk and hit her head. She had weight loss surgery and never really drank much, good was her thing. Turned yo booze instead. Really sad to see it happen. We researched it and yes, very common!!

Anna

You might want to read "Gut Feeling" by Carnie Wilson.

She experienced the same thing, and I've met several people here who have the same problem. I think part of it could be that weight loss surgery helps remove the weight, but the issues are still there. And, afterwards, they manifest themselves in a different way.

brasa

I had gastric bypass and it happened to me. I never had any problems with alcohol before. In fact, I had a very high tolerance and rarely felt a buzz. It seems like there are 2 aspects... A physiological and a psychological. Physically it seems I metabolize alcohol much faster and there is also a type of cross-addiction. What once I was addicted to food, now I seemed to have replace it with alcohol.

With that saying, I would have done the surgery all over again.

noexcuse

Happened to me, that's for sure. I did not have gastric bypass, but rather the lap-band. For bypass, I know that there is less time for the alcohol to metabolize and it will basically hit much harder, much faster. A very small amount can get someone very drunk after bypass. For me, I couldn't eat as much or I would get sick. In either case, though, alcohol can easily be substituted for food. Can't eat your feelings anymore, so you may as well drink them. Granted, I had a drinking problem before my weight-loss surgery, but it became FAR worse after. I currenlty don't have any restriction in my band, so I could have potentially turned back to food, but instead I adopted both addictions and became a horrific, FAT drunk, lol. I'm on my way to kicking both of these addictions, this time with real support.

I think it's a shame that the doctors that perform these surgeries don't require some kind of long-term counseling after surgery. I think that alcohol and drug addiction is far too common because none of the underlining problems are ever treated, just the surface problems.

Ready2beSober

My sister had gastric bypass. She already had a drinking problem and prescription drug problem but after the surgery her drug problem got so bad. She went from vicodin, to percocet to mixing methadone and xanax to make it stronger and before long she was doing heroin. She eventually passed away from a drug overdose at 32.

I agree, if the doctors had done any research on her past of abuse, it might have been addressed. After the surgery theres no counseling, nothing.

ESD907

Thank you all very much..had the surgery back in 98, then had all my children from 2000-2006, so non drinking at all. But when I had a drink it hit me so quickly, but the high disappeared really quickly. SO you'd have to have a drink constantly to keep the high. I will be downloading Carnie Wilsons' book tonight. Glad I was not alone in this. I always liked to drink, but was wise enough early on to realize I liked it more than others and I left it alone (father and grandfather both alcs) But......like all great plans........ Anyway, thanks for the input.

Mhubbard

In a woman's meeting I attended a woman who had it shared that it's common enough that alcohol counseling prior to surgery was part of her screening process.