Maintaining Emotional Well-Being When You Have Diabetes

For most diabetes patients, a diabetes diagnosis is a life-altering event that changes the course of the emotional, physical and mental health of their lives. Diabetes brings a new routine and lifestyle changes that are emotionally draining and can cause many mental health conditions. Therefore, you must take care of your emotional well-being with diabetes. 

Just as you exercise and eat healthy to prevent physical complications, you need to take care of your mind to prevent mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. Mental health conditions can make diabetes worse, and diabetes can make mental health worse. It is a loop that needs to be broken.  

Know Your Mental Health Conditions In Diabetes

• Depression

Diabetes management typically requires lifestyle changes and added responsibilities that can drain your emotional health. Therefore, people with diabetes are often at an increased risk of having depression. 

Some of the common symptoms of depression include lack of interest in activities, changes in sleep pattern, sleep disturbances, changes in appetite, loss of energy, the feeling of guilt, sadness or emptiness, suicidal thoughts etc. 

But, having diabetes does not mean you cannot treat depression. With the help of therapies, medications and stress management, you can easily treat depression and manage your diabetes better. 

However, it may become difficult to detect and diagnose depression in diabetes patients. Hence, if you have diabetes, you must go for regular mental health screenings to maintain your emotional health. 

• Stress And Anxiety

Managing a chronic disease like diabetes can cause stress and anxiety and lead to a persistent feeling of nervousness and worry. At the same time, anxiety and stress can affect a person’s diabetes management plan adversely. Therefore, it is important to manage your stress and anxiety well in diabetes. 

However, if you have diabetes, it may become difficult to diagnose anxiety disorders as the symptoms are generally the same as hypoglycemia. Some of the common symptoms of anxiety include persistent worry, panic attacks, confusion, excessive sweating, disrupted sleep and irritability. 

If you experience any of these symptoms, you can take therapy and medications to manage your stress. Strategies such as getting physically active, practising relaxation exercises like meditation and yoga, talking to a friend, doing something fun and improving your sleep can also help manage anxiety. 

• Diabetes Distress

Your daily diabetes care can often make you feel discouraged, worried, exhausted or frustrated. These overwhelming feelings are known as diabetes distress and can cause mismanagement of the disease. You may slip into unhealthy habits like not monitoring your blood sugar levels, skipping doctor’s appointments, etc.  

Some of the common symptoms of diabetes distress include anger and frustration, constant worry about managing the disease, low motivation and feeling isolated. These symptoms may often look like depression and anxiety. However, it is a different mental health condition. It stems from diabetes and therefore can not be treated through medications. 

Improving your diabetes management plan and taking therapies to reduce the underlying symptoms are a few of the best ways to treat diabetes distress.    

How To Maintain Emotional Well-Being In Diabetes?

• Therapy

Take the help of therapies. They not only provide you with a safe space to talk about your problems but also to find solutions. 

Ask your doctor to recommend you to a psychiatrist, psychologist or therapist and together, as a team, your doctors can devise a perfect treatment plan for your physical, emotional and mental well-being. 

Some of the common types of therapies include:

• Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT): This therapy helps you develop positive beliefs about your life and learn healthier actions. It is mostly used to treat depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder but can also be used to cure other mental health conditions.
• Family Therapy: This type of therapy helps family members communicate better, handle conflicts and solve problems together. It is mostly used to treat eating disorders and bipolar disorder.
• Dialectical-Behavioural Therapy (DBT): DBT helps develop skills in four key areas of emotional well-being, namely mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
• Medication

You can also take medications in addition to therapy to improve your mental and emotional well-being in diabetes. For this, talk to your mental health care expert about your diabetic condition and devise a treatment plan that does not interfere with your existing medications for diabetes. 

• Stress Management

While monitoring your blood sugar levels, be aware of your stress levels and try to identify the pattern between stress and blood glucose. Once you understand this pattern and warning signs, you can take actions to prevent stress and manage your diabetes. Your mental health care provider can assist you in learning relaxation and coping techniques, like meditation and yoga and help you alleviate stress.   

More Tips To Improve Your Emotional Well-Being

• Pay Attention To Your Feelings: If you experience frustration and stress regularly, you might need more help managing your emotional health.
• Discuss Your Feelings And Problems: Talk about them with your healthcare team, friends and family members. They will be able to help you cope better with negative emotions.
• Allow Your Loved Ones To Help You: You do not need to bear all the responsibilities of managing diabetes. You can take help from your friends and family in managing medications, monitoring blood sugar levels or following an exercise routine. 
• Take The Help Of A Diabetes Support Group: Talking to others going through the same thing helps you deal with it better.
• Do Not Multitask: Make a list of tasks you need to do and work on them one by one. It will help reduce your stress and anxiety levels. 
• Participate In Some Recreational Activities: It is important to take out time to enjoy and have fun. 

The Bottom Line

Diabetes can take a toll on your emotional and mental health. It may lead to many mental health conditions like depression, stress, anxiety, diabetes distress, etc. However, if you take therapy and manage your stress well, you can improve your emotional well-being and also manage your diabetes better. 

References

• https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/14/6/669
• https://www.diabetes.org/healthy-living/mental-health
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6166557/
• https://www.mhanational.org/diabetes-and-mental-health
• https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/managing/mental-health.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/managing/diabetes-distress/ten-tips-coping-diabetes-distress.html
• https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317458
• https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/professionals/diabetes-discoveries-practice/diabetes-distress-and-depression