It is World Diabetes Day tomorrow, 14th November and much focus is spent on prevention of diabetes and living well.
World Diabetes Day (WDD) is celebrated every year on November 14. The World Diabetes Day campaign is led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and its member associations. It engages millions of people worldwide in diabetes advocacy and awareness. World Diabetes Day was created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to growing concerns about the escalating health threat that diabetes now poses. World Diabetes Day became an official United Nations Day in 2007 with the passage of United Nation Resolution 61/225. The campaign draws attention to issues of paramount importance to the diabetes world and keeps diabetes firmly in the public spotlight.
World Diabetes Day is a campaign that features a new theme chosen by the International Diabetes Federation each year to address issues facing the global diabetes community. While the themed campaigns last the whole year, the day itself is celebrated on November 14, to mark the birthday of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in 1921.
Healthy Living and Diabetes is the World Diabetes Day theme for 2014-2016.
Life with diabetes is closely connected with the word “control. When diagnosed with diabetes there is usually a sense of being “out of control” and talk around you from mostly well meaning people, that you need to “take control”. There can be many reasons why it is hard to get, maintain, or hold onto, control – not just of diabetes but a range of things in life. We believe that learning how to take control and feeling ok about life with diabetes is critical to healthy living when you have diabetes.
Much of the talk about control in diabetes relates to the practical management – “eat healthy, exercise, don’t smoke, don’t drink, cut down salt, sleep well, take your medication/insulin and check your blood glucose”.
But not a lot is said about how to do these things on an ongoing, forever kind of basis, like, for life!
- What choices do you have and what impact might these choices have?
- What about the rest of your life?
- How can you make these changes when you actually have a life?
The practical tasks of diabetes sit on the background of the emotions, thoughts, feelings, worries and anxieties you may have about diabetes and about the rest of your life.
Often the way we think about things, including diabetes, can distract us from being “present” and getting on with life – if we hold on too tightly to our thoughts and problems it is really hard to see what is happening around us. Nobody wants diabetes, let’s face it – there are many times we experience pain and negative or unwanted thoughts and feelings about it, but being able to “hang” with our diabetes, sit it on our laps in a sense, enables us to get on with life – including the tasks required in diabetes care. This can help to maintain a sense of control.
BEING A PARENT
If you are a parent or loved one, you will also have a role to play in the “control” of diabetes in yours and your child’s lives. Many thoughts and feelings will fill you up when your child is diagnosed with diabetes and these thoughts and feelings can bring pain.
Parents later have to let go of control in their children’s lives as they grow up and this can be especially tough for parents of children with diabetes who can struggle with who has control of various parts of their young person’s life and their diabetes.
If we could switch off this pain with a magic button, you would never have to feel it again, but you would also never care again about your child – what would you choose? Most people say they would choose to keep the pain, as with caring comes pain – that is part of being human.
CONTROL AND GUILT
Control is something that can have both positive and negative meanings. Sometimes things like “guilt” get wrapped up in this, for example when it seems things are not in control. People who live with problems such as Eating Disorders tell us that they try to gain control of their lives by controlling food, their weight, or both.
Uncomfortable thoughts, experiences, worries, feelings and so on, can take over our every waking moment and things like controlling food, exercise, use of drugs or alcohol – these are all ways we try to avoid these painful thoughts and feelings. This type of control is destructive to both the person and their loved ones, as well as their diabetes.
In the short term you may have some relief, but in the longer term, this increases the negative and painful thoughts and feelings and a vicious cycle is set in motion. If you constantly try NOT to think about something it tends to have the opposite effect! Learning to “accept” or hang with these things is more helpful.
There is no question that feeling a sense of control over your life gives you a sense of wellbeing and of peace in your life. People need to feel in control and we need to be able to find ways to control diabetes as far as is possible.
Guilt is often present in diabetes – guilt about getting diabetes; about passing it on to your child; about your child going away to camp, or not having sleep overs when they have diabetes, or leaving them with a sitter for the first time; about being overweight and “causing it” yourself; about eating or not eating something; checking or not checking blood glucose; taking or not taking medication and insulin – and the list goes on.
LETTING GO OF GUILT
Guilt is unhelpful and often based on unfounded facts – it is better to be gentler on yourself and see that you are first and foremost a human being and somewhere lower down on the list, you are a person with diabetes or loved one of someone with diabetes; and/or you made the best decision you could at the time, then move on.
If the decision was not one you want to repeat – learn from it – and make sure you have the knowledge and support to make a different choice next time.
This is especially true with things like food choices, insulin doses, BGL’s and exercise choices. If it is more a scary but important decision being hampered by guilt, such as learning to leave your child with someone else, make sure you have support so you can take these important steps without the guilt.
Taking control does involve making healthy choices about food, exercise, alcohol, drugs, socialising, blood glucose management, and so on – but it is also about looking after your wellbeing, your mental health, your social and family lives, the impact that diabetes has in your life and how to make this as small as you can – a feeling you can live a happy and healthy life – a sense of hope and positive energy about your future despite diabetes.
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Helen
Helen Edwards has lived with type 1 diabetes since 1979. She is Mum to 3 sons, the founder of Diabetes Counselling Online, a diabetes educator, social worker and PhD Candidate studying diabetes distress in pregnancy for women with type 1 diabetes. She is also a successful Interiors Blogger and Stylist at www.recycledinteriors.org and runs creative workshops, an online store and studio in Adelaide – just for a life outside of diabetes.
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