A diabetic's attitude toward his diagnosis and how he handles managing this chronic condition can have a huge impact on whether he views the disorder as a challenging opportunity to care for his body or a major medical disaster that's best ignored. You'll want to strike a delicate balance between listening to a litany of complaints about coping with the disease and staying focused on finding the positives in a situation strewn with potential negatives.
- Denial and depression. Left unchecked or untreated, denial and depression can cause the kind of pessimism and despair that leads to failure on the eating, exercising, or medications front. This can result in a vicious cycle that makes a patient's diabetes worse.
Signs of depression include a loss of interest in activities that previously provided enjoyment, blood glucose levels that are suddenly and inexplicably worse, difficulty coping with self-care regimens, or acting more stressed than usual.
- Isolation. A common problem among older adults, isolation may exacerbate a patient's denial and depression. People with diabetes are about twice as likely to be depressed as people without this medical condition. But those who have a network of friends are less likely to suffer from depression than those without such a safety net.
Potential solutions:
- Accentuate the positive. Link medications to something the patient enjoys, rather than pointing out the dire pitfalls if he doesn't take his diabetes drugs as prescribed. If he's an avid walker, for example, remind him that taking his diabetes pills will allow him to continue taking long hikes for years to come.
- Find a support group. Talk with his diabetes educator about locating a support group of peers where the person you're caring for can blow off steam with companions who share similar concerns, or look for such a group online by searching under the key words diabetes online support group.
- Get a referral. Ask his doctor or another member of his healthcare team for a recommendation to a mental health expert, such as a social worker, therapist, or psychologist, if denial or depression is a significant problem for the patient.
