The Only Thing We Have to Fear

It's Halloween. While there's obviously an enormous difference between the enjoyable creepiness of the holiday and the big fears about life and death from which we all suffer to some degree, it's as good a day as any for addressing the topic of fear. After all, Halloween is a day in which we, in a sense, make friends with the things we fear.

At University Bariatrics, we're no different than any other medical office in that we regularly deal with patient's fears. Before undergoing a procedures such as a gastric bypass or a sleeve gastrectomy
it's only human to have some concerns that can make many of us somewhat fearful. While all surgeries carry some risk, we've made great strides in the bariatric field and our procedures are now no more risky than many routine operations.

The important thing, however, is to not be ruled by fear of change or the unknown. After all, when dealing with a condition like severe obesity, the greatest risk of all is doing nothing. As Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." The devil we know is, in fact, a devil. Change is often absolutely necessary.

In a funny way, Halloween -- the day when we choose to face our fears and engage in all kinds of fantasies -- is as good a day to fight excessive fear as any. After all, after thinking about vampires, zombies apocalypses and the like, competently performed bariatric surgery in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks might not seem so scary at all!