Surgery stimulates the body to secrete adrenaline and steroids and these are stress reactions, says Cohen. Around day three, those hormones start to drain out of you, and it s common to feel down, he says. That s the time when people look in the mirror and regret what they ve done. Patients need a lot of nursing in the early period following surgery. Pollack says he sees the majority of buyer s remorse in the first 24 hours.
Patients are tired, they are in pain, and sometimes it s the effect of the anesthetic.
I ve found the depression to be related to the amount and complexity of the surgery, he says. If someone has a facelift, bralift, cheek implants and eye surgery, they are going to look like someone beat the hell out of them, and they need to be prepared for this. Most women and men go through something akin to postpartum depression. Nash s postoperative depression was relatively short-lived, but the effect of the facelift on her body image was difficult to overcome. I didn t recognize myself, she says of her experience postsurgery and during recovery.