Source – Shari (WLS Support Contributor, Naniamo Support Group Leader)
June 17, 2009
During the June/2009 Naniamo Support Group meeting there was an excellent discussion about addictions and transfer addictions as they relate to WLS. What made the discussion was the openness and willingness of everyone who shared their personal struggles. STANDING up and talking about personal struggles is never easy, but when people share their stories, it provides a deeper understanding for everyone participating.
An excellent book that was discussed at the meeting was: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté M.D.
One of our group mentioned a couple of therapies that Shari did a quick search after meeting and found the following: ( You may want to investigate these in more detail)
EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
This is a therapy that is often used with victims of post traumatic stress disorder, but it can be applied to anyone with small or prolonged social trauma. My understanding is that it helps a patient learn to break out compulsions by interrupting the process as it happens. It helps us to re-route the habitual, well travelled, pathways in our brains.
It is not only major traumatic events, or “large-T Traumas” that can cause psychological disturbance. Sometimes a relatively minor event from childhood, such as being teased by one’s peers or disparaged by one’s parent, may not be adequately processed. Such “small-t traumas” can result in personality problems and become the basis of current dysfunctional reactions.
Shapiro proposes that EMDR can assist to successfully alleviate clinical complaints by processing the components of the contributing distressing memories. These can be memories of either small-t or large-T traumas. Information processing is thought to occur when the targeted memory is linked with other more adaptive information. Learning then takes place, and the experience is stored with appropriate emotions, able to appropriately guide the person in the future.
quoted from: http://www.emdr.com/theory.htm
other links:
http://www.emdria.org/displayc…..ticlenbr=2
http://www.emdrnetwork.org/des…..ption.html
DBT Therapy (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy)
Again, my understanding, this therapy intends to use mindfulness, among other things, to help re-focus negative self-talk and behaviours into something useful.
DBT is based on Dr. Linehan’s theory that the core problem in BPD is emotion dysregulation, resulting from mixing biology (e.g., genetic and other biological risk factors) and an emotionally unstable childhood environment (e.g., where caregivers punish, trivialize or respond erratically to the child’s expression of emotion) together. The focus of DBT is on helping the client learn and apply skills that will decrease emotion dysregulation and unhealthful attempts to cope with strong emotions.
- Mindfulness Meditation Skills. These skills centre on learning to observe, describe and participate in all experiences (including thoughts, sensations, emotions and things happening externally in the environment) without judging these experiences as “good” or “bad.” These are considered “core” skills that are necessary in order to implement the other DBT skills successfully.
- Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills. The focus of this skill module is on learning to successfully assert your needs and to manage conflict in relationships.
- Distress Tolerance Skills. The distress tolerance skills module promotes learning ways to accept and tolerate distress without doing anything that will make the distress worse in the long run (e.g., engaging in self-harm).
- Emotion Regulation Skills. In this module, patients learn to identify and manage emotional reactions.
quoted from: http://bpd.about.com/od/treatm…..troDBT.htm
other links:
http://www.behavioraltech.com/…..q_Cons.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D…..or_therapy
Other Links
Addiction Transfer After Gastric Bypass Surgery The Hidden Danger
http://www.locateadoc.com/arti…..-1570.html
Weight Loss Surgery Support Groups Keys to Weight Loss Success
http://www.locateadoc.com/arti…..-1497.html
Bariatric Surgery Stands No Chance against an Untreated Food Addiction
http://www.docshop.com/2007/10…..addiction/
Think Gastric Bypass Surgery is the Quick Fix? Think Again.
http://psychcentral.com/blog/a…..ink-again/
Overeating Replaced With Other Compulsive Behaviours
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH…..10565.html
Many Who Have WLS Struggle with Food Addiction
This and many other good articles can be found at http://www.nawls.com
Mood-Food Relationships
http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/…..ships.html
