I had gastric bypass and understand exactly how you feel...it doesn't go away Jane, surgery fixes the stomach not the brain. I went into counseling about a year before surgery (didn't think the process of approval would take a year and I'm glad it did.) I needed to find the reasons why I eat, say good bye to a lot of the old ways of dealing with life.
The common misconceptions that surgery will either make it impossible to eat emotionally any more, that being thin and eating well will make life so much better that we won't want to overeat or that we can eat whatever we want and still lose weight...are all myths.
It is a fabulous tool to start the snowball down the mountain in a different way...to HELP us with a push in the right direction but eating emotionally is a coping mechanism that needs to be dealt with in counseling, by journal ing, by finding a good hobby that comforts us in those times we are alone and the fridge's contents begin to beckon or are just in need of something to do.
People help, be it in a Weight Watchers group or in Overeaters Anonymous, in Church or in a group of friends laughing and dancing the night away or coming here on this board and asking these important questions.
Helping other people helps you...get out and give back to the community, volunteer at the food bank, go and sing with the elderly or come here and answer questions, offer support or just listen...use whatever skills you have (volnuteer lawyer? Shopping for the disabled?) to put a smile on the face of those that need a lift... it's a beautiful, enriching feeling that gives us more then a chocolate whatever ever could!
There is no easy way out. We have to learn to deal with life in a different way.
In the immortal words of Jim Henson on Sesame Street...(in my day anyway, could be Dora the Explorer now a days LOL) "Can't go over it, can't go under it, can't go around it....have to go through it!"
Angela