Entry Date: 28/03/2009
I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago in my WLS Support  Group about what I term  ... the weird psychological dynamics that seem to be present in the wider WLS community. There is a definite line that has been drawn in the sand between those who are successful ( so far ) and those who are suffering from complications. I've done a lot of thinking about this recently mainly because I was so saddened and concerned about the WLSers out there who, even though they have lost a lot of weight are still suffering with horrible health issues ,,,, health issues that are consuming their daily quality of life .... yet they still believe this surgery is the best thing they have done. I personally think, that this is a phenomenon, that in itself needs some serious exploration and research.  Most people who have had or are considering weight loss surgery will tell you that they are making or have made a decision to have WLS based on health problems they have experienced due to obesity, and I think for all of us that is part of what we consider .... but it is easy to see that beneath the veneer of obesity health concerns ... there are a lot of people who deep down are struggling with self esteem problems and social acceptance issues. And at the end of the day this is not something that we should be whipped for. Back in the days when Rueben's was painting his delightfully voluptuous women, who were the sex symbols of that era .... I imagine the skinny women felt a bit insecure back then too.

Having said this, I think it is clear that we need to be looking at the puppet masters that are pulling the strings in our current social climate. Sure the media and the fashion industry  have a lot to answer for in regard to what they dictate to us as being "the most acceptable kind of body image, shape and size" ... they have most definitely set the stage for one hell of a
performance. And like sheep, over the past few decades,  a lot of us have whole heartedly bought tickets for the show. But then there has also been a large cross section of people who have been herded into operating theatres by the promotional experts of our era. And let's get realistic about "who" in our society are working in the promotional forum for WLS? The puppet masters that are pulling the strings ... because let's face it that's where the money is. These are the same people that are responsible for these "weird psychological dynamics" that turn WLSers into feuding segregated factions. Where the "non acceptance" of the world of the obese, flows over into another form of "non acceptance" in the world of those fighting obesity. How else do you make some sort of sense out of the absurdity of the "mock war" that is present in the larger WLS community ... it is plain to see that there is a common denominator here ... the presence of an agitator. Why should our anger and frustration be directed at each other when .... we are all victims of the same agitator. Let's stop and take a good look at who is holding the spoon that is stirring the WLS pot. In all wars there is a dictatorship that must eventually be held accountable for "the delirium" it creates .... they are called "war trials". In our WLS war ..... the dictators are not yet being held accountable ... we can only hope that they will be held accountable eventually. But in the mean time should we not make
an effort to look for ways to stop the "division" and work towards some kind of "reunification".

I am 30 years post op and I have never met a post WLS, that has lost the weight and kept it off for 30 years ... nor have I met anyone who is 30 years post op and healthy. I came out of the pioneering age of WLS as have some others in this group ... our surgery was apparently not meant to cause any long term complications ... they were considered to be simpler procedures. But they were abandoned as being ineffective and fraught with problems. ( And considering these surgeries were first performed in the early 70's and abandoned by the mid to late 80's .... obviously the long term results were not good 15-20 years post op). The surgery these days is much more complex and creates complications that match and in some cases far out weigh the complications of the original surgery of the pioneering era ... and they do so in a shorter time span even with the addition of vitamin therapy and aftercare, which was not available in my era. This era of WLSers cannot afford to cross their fingers and hope that history will not repeat itself, especially when the medical profession is so close to introducing WLS that involves procedures on the brain. Ultimately I think as a society we have surely learnt enough about weight loss to know that changing the digestive system creates many more problems than it solves. It took one being of a much higher intelligence than us to create the digestive system, why would we presume to tamper with HIS work, especially when there is already 30+ years of complications and voided successes that suggest .... the puppet masters don't know what they are doing.
Vicki's Journal