The Emotional Impact of Diabetes

No one in the news media has bothered to talk much about Melvin Turpin’s diabetes other than the fact he had it.

Diabetes is generally thought of as well just diabetes rather than the severe disease it is, so you seldom read anything more in the news other than the number of people with it is rising.

Dealing with the technical aspects of diabetes is not to difficult to do. You simply try to keep your sugar levels between 100 and 150. Its not difficult to do but its a 24 hour commitment and stressful.

Dealing with the emotional aspects is another thing. Ask any family member of a diabetic and they will have a story about how (fill in Name) did something thats totally outside of their normal emotional behavior. Its one of the facts of diabetes and it can put a terrible strain on the diabetic and their family.

When you first become a diabetic its easy because your ignorant about it. As time goes by you learn a lot of things and you realize you are never going to live a normal life again.
Instead you are going to ride a roller coaster with its constant ups and downs. Except you can never get off this roller-coaster.

Every shop you pass seems to sell stuff you liked but can no longer have, your friends at work have a birthday and bring cake you cannot eat, your kids want ice-creams at the beach but you cannot share this with them, however hot and sticky you may be feeling, holidays come around and suddenly you are made aware of how often the occasion is tied into special foods.

Even planning a day out means remembering to take stuff you can eat in case there is nothing available and also your medication and BG meter and so on. Nothing is simple anymore and the stress continues to builds up.

Emotions and stress sometimes get to be to much to handle for diabetics and lead to Diabetic Burnout. Its the same sort of burnout people people experience from work except a diabetic can’t simply quit and get a job as a lifeguard to un-stress watching the bikinis.

This is just a quick article on the things diabetes can do to a person so please when you think about Melvin Turpin keep in mind that his life was much harder than you might think.

There is a book by William H Polonsky, ‘Diabetes Burnout – What to Do When You Can’t Take It Anymore’ that I recommend anyone who is diabetic or has a diabetic in the family read.