Making Diabetes Care Easier and More Effective
A journey toward easier and more effective diabetes management based on mastering five specific skills
My younger sister Mary Sue developed diabetes in 1959, when she was nine years old, and my son Stefan was diagnosed with diabetes almost exactly 20 years later, when he was seven. I don't have diabetes, but because I am so close to Mary Sue and Stefan I too have been living with diabetes for almost 50 years.
I'm a psychologist, and I have devoted most of my professional life to helping people manage their diabetes more easily and effectively. Over the past 25 years I have seen lots of people succeed, including countless patients and many people who have participated in my research studies.
Each diabetes success story is unique, but when I think of all the success stories I have heard over the years, it is clear that there is a specific set of skills that make for easier and more effective diabetes management. What do people who live well with diabetes have in common?
- They tend to be good planners.
- They get help when they need it.
- They manage stress well.
- They avoid diabetes burnout.
- They maintain their motivation.
The skills that spell success
Plan to succeed: Making changes to live healthier takes work—hard work with no vacations. That's why a critical-and often overlooked-first step toward living well with diabetes is knowing exactly why you are doing all that work. Some reasons might sound good, but aren't really good enough to keep you motivated, like "my doctor told me I should," or "I know it would be better for me." I have found that people stay motivated longer when their reasons are more personal, more specific, and more positive: "I want to be around to see my grandson get his high school diploma," or "I want to still be working in my garden when I'm 90," or even "I need to stay healthy to enjoy whatever life has in store for me."
Planning to succeed also means being realistic; "slow and steady" definitely wins the race when it comes to living well with diabetes, or even preventing it in the first place. One of my research studies found that people at high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes who lost just 10 pounds and kept it off cut their risk of developing the disease during the study period (about 3 years) by 58 percent! This powerful "small steps, big rewards" message also applies to people who already have diabetes—lowering your weight, or your blood glucose, blood pressure, or cholesterol levels just a little bit can make a big difference in your health. The American Diabetes Association has a new service called Diabetes PHD, that lets you enter personal health information and see how much healthier you could be-and how much longer you could live-with small changes in your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. To try this service, go to http://www.diabetes.org/diabetesphd/default.jsp.
Get support when you need it: Diabetes is a family disease in many ways. Your diabetes affects the people who love you, and their actions affect how you manage your diabetes. Are you getting enough support? Or are you instead getting too much "support" from some people, who seem to have joined the "diabetes police"? Do you know how to locate help for improving your diabetes management from other sources, like the Internet, magazines, books, or education classes?
Manage stress well: Some people are really good at managing the stress of life with diabetes. They know how to resist tempting desserts without feeling deprived, they manage low blood glucose reactions without much fuss, and they seem to cope well with all the other demands of their disease, large and small.
These people tell me there are two keys to success when it comes to stress management-maintaining your sense of hope, and maintaining your sense of humor. Hope and humor are the closest things to magic in the world. Use the power of hope and humor to lift your spirits and improve your health.
Avoiding "diabetes burnout": No matter how well you manage the stress of life with diabetes there will be times when you feel down about it. That's normal, even inevitable, given how demanding diabetes can be.
If your diabetes blues linger, you might be suffering from "diabetes burnout" or even from depression, serious conditions that often require help to resolve. Fortunately, both conditions are treatable. Good diabetes education can often relieve diabetes burnout, and counseling or medication can relieve depression. Effective treatment of these conditions can also improve blood glucose control.
Maintain their motivation: Diabetes lasts a lifetime: 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (Or 366 days on Leap Year, as a young patient pointed out to me.) So your approach to managing diabetes has to last a lifetime as well. But how do you maintain your motivation, day-in and day-out, 365—or 366—days a year, every year for the rest of your life?
So that's the plan, a journey toward easier and more effective diabetes management based on mastering five specific skills.
