The Emotional Cost Of Childhood Diabetes

Childhood diabetes brings many emotional and psychological problems to children. It involves a demanding regimen of medications, dietary regulations, doctor’s appointments and exercise. All of this can put a lot of mental strain on children and disrupt their day-to-day life. Kids may even have to compromise on attending social functions like sleepovers, birthday parties, etc. 

Such lifestyle changes may eventually induce stress in children and impact their emotional development, giving rise to mental health problems like depression, anxiety, eating disorders, etc. 

This emotional cost of diabetes often gets neglected. However, it is essential to understand these emotional and mental health problems associated with childhood diabetes to promote the overall health of children and manage their diabetes better.

Mental Health and Emotional Problems Faced by Children With Diabetes

Depression

Developing depression in diabetes is extremely common. There are a lot of negative feelings around diabetes that can trigger depressive symptoms like sadness, distractibility, sleep disturbances, loss of appetite, low motivation, anger, headaches, etc. In many cases of childhood diabetes, depression has even led to suicide. 

Therefore, it is important to recognise these symptoms at an early stage and get the appropriate treatment. Psychotherapy, medications, and support groups are some of the best ways to deal with depression and diabetes distress. 

Anxiety Disorders

Many children with diabetes also suffer from anxiety disorders. One of the leading reasons for anxiety is the fear of hypoglycemia. Children live in constant fear of facing hypoglycemic symptoms like slurred speech, blurry vision, tremors, etc., in the middle of school or playground. 

There is also an underlying fear of developing diabetes complications like foot problems, eye problems, etc. To tackle this anxiety disorder, parents and caregivers should try to create a peaceful and less anxious environment around kids. Support groups and awareness programs can also help cope with anxiety. 

Eating Disorders

The dietary regulations imposed on kids can result in the development of several eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, a condition in which children think excessively about food and its impact on their body weight. 

These eating disorders can adversely affect the metabolic activities in the body and increase the risk of diabetes complications. They are also linked with high mortality rates in children with diabetes. Therefore, it is important to look out for symptoms and treat eating disorders at an early stage. 

Behavioural Problems

Childhood diabetes can make children feel frustrated over time. This frustration can fuel aggressive reactions toward high or low blood sugar levels and affect their behaviour towards everyone. In addition, childhood diabetes can also make kids rebellious towards controlling their blood sugar levels, making it extremely challenging for parents and caregivers to manage their diabetes. 

The best way to deal with these behavioural problems is by being empathetic towards children. Parents should try to connect with them more and find out the root issues and concerns.

Tips for Parents and Caregivers

Parents and caregivers are the keys to managing childhood diabetes. It is important for them to handle mental health and emotional problems properly to avoid future complications. Some of the tips that can help them are: 

• Be empathetic towards the kids. Listen to their problems, acknowledge them and make them comfortable to share their distress and concerns about diabetes.  

• Appreciate the kids for all minor and major achievements. Remember that every step counts. 

• Share the responsibilities with your kids. Remind them of their medications, check their blood glucose levels, exercise with them, take care of their diet, etc. It will help relieve the burden from their shoulders and make them feel supported. 

• Do not make diabetes the main topic of conversation in your house. Make your kids understand that diabetes is only a part of their lives and not their whole life. 

• Educate your kids about diabetes to make them feel less fearful and negative about the disease. 

• Spend quality time with your kids. Go shopping, watch movies or take part in any other recreational activity. All this can help alleviate depression and anxiety. 
• Provide treatment for mental health problems. Encourage your kids to take help from the healthcare team, a therapist or a support group. 

The Final Takeaway

Childhood diabetes can have a profound impact on the mental health and emotional development of children. It can cause many mental health problems like anxiety, depression, aggression, eating disorders, etc. However, parents and caregivers can reduce this emotional cost of diabetes by being aware of the symptoms and providing treatment to their kids as soon as possible.  

References

• https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/38/3/453
• https://www.idf.org/component/attachments/attachments.html?id=439&task=download
• https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/emotional-mental-wellbeing-children-diabetes
• https://bmcendocrdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6823-14-83
• https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0092473
• https://www.diabetes.co.uk/emotional-issues-for-diabetic-children.html
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3721971/#R21
• https://spectrum.diabetesjournals.org/content/16/1/7