Getting a Grip on Diabetes
You can’t change the fact that you have diabetes, but you can change how you feel about it.
Right now you’re probably overwhelmed with thoughts such as:
- How did this happen?
- There must be some mistake
- What is life with diabetes like?
- I’ll never be able to manage this
- What do I do now?
- Why me?
Emotion overload
Being diagnosed with diabetes can bring an immediate flood of feelings that are often far from positive:
Anger.
Learning you have type 2 diabetes can make you angry. You feel cheated. You don’t want to deal with it. You hate this! Anger often comes from feeling threatened, but you can learn to channel your anger. Feeling angry about having diabetes can actually help you protect and assert yourself better in tackling how you manage your condition. Your anger can be a source of action and change.
Denial.
Feeling some denial about your diabetes diagnosis is normal. Early on, it’s a way of dealing with the shock and can help you from becoming overwhelmed and depressed. But later, denying your diabetes can lead to avoiding self-care and leave you more susceptible to complications that could’ve been prevented. Some denial is OK-it let’s you accept things little by little. But denial that continues isn’t good.
Depression.
People with diabetes are at higher risk for depression than people without diabetes. The stress of managing type 2 diabetes can make you feel alone. Dealing with complications can make you feel like you’ve lost control. Like denial, depression can get in the way of taking good care of yourself.
Overcoming negative emotions associated with diabetes can be a real challenge. It’s important to recognize your emotions, accept them as normal, and learn how to put them into perspective. A book to get your hands on:
Psyching Out Diabetes: A Positive Approach To Your Negative Emotions by Richard R. Rubin, Ph.D., C.D.E.
Blessing or curse?
With all of negative feelings about diabetes and everything that’s involved in managing it, it’s easy to understand why many people with type 2 diabetes feel cursed. Yet some people with type 2 diabetes actually see it as a blessing in disguise. Having type 2 diabetes could be the best motivation there is to live better.
With society becoming overly comfortable with ultra-convenience in our eating, traveling and communicating, it’s no wonder that obesity-the hallmark of type 2 diabetes-has become an epidemic. We’re eating poorly, moving less, and putting our health at risk like never before.
Look at having type 2 diabetes as the ultimate reason to eat healthier, exercise more, and maintain a healthy weight. It’s very possible that people with type 2 diabetes-those “forced” to live well-will live longer and better lives than people without diabetes will.
On your terms
Unlike with many other diseases, managing type 2 diabetes is focused strongly on your lifestyle and what you do with it. Type 2 diabetes can be on your own terms. You can personalize your management plan to fit your life.
Granted, there are a few basics to learn and follow-like how to eat healthy and exercise well-but these practices are things all of us need to do anyway, so there’s plenty of information out there to give you tons of options. The days of dealing with a rigid diabetes treatment plan and the restrictive “diabetic diet” are long gone.
Having type 2 diabetes is all about you and how you want to go about it. First, do all you can to get to know your body and its needs. Then, craft your own plan using a “diabetes a la carte” approach.
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