Diabetes Burnout

Description

Someone new to the diabetes community might think it talks most often about medications, research, education, and the long-term side effects of diabetes.

But there’s also another dimension to the experience of having diabetes: our emotions. We are not just intelligent creatures; we are also emotional. One hallmark of being human is being able to feel a vast range of emotions—including frustration.

That’s the topic of our Cover Story, “Feeling Burnt Out? Take a Look at Your Approach” (page 6), which discusses the almost inevitable experience people with diabetes face: frustration and even depression from feeling they are chained to a treadmill. Fortunately, no one is alone in this struggle, as Dr. Bill Polonsky, a noted diabetes researcher, describes ways to handle burnout that make a lot of sense.

The theme continues with Daryn Stier’s look at the feelings diabetes can elicit in “The Emotions That Come with Diabetes” (page 13). Many readers may find it is consoling that the problems they face are shared by many people in the diabetes community.

“In Science Shows, We Are Harder Wired to Think Negative Thoughts…” (page 22), I discuss how neuroscience shows that one of our evolutionary quirks is that we’re more inclined to think—and believe—negative thoughts over sunnier, more optimistic thoughts. But it’s not a hopeless cause.

There are ways of pushing beyond our own negative feedback.

Aromatherapy is one approach I think you might try to address your concerns over COVID-19. In “My Holistic Antiviral Approach to COVID-19” (page 20); I relate my own experience merging aromatherapy with other behaviors that can help keep the virus at bay.

Diabetes seems to come to us with a list of demands, including careful attention to other factors that affect our health. One is “Very Few U.S. Adults Practice Top 5 Recommended Health Behaviors” (page 24), a pithy reminder of the take-care-of-yourself behaviors we should all know.

One concern that many people with type 2 diabetes is having their condition morph into type 1 diabetes. I address that concern in “Ask Nadia” (page 26). My answer is a springboard to a discussion of type 1.5, a relatively late arrival on the diabetes diagnosis scene.

We haven’t forgotten that having diabetes doesn’t mean we can’t eat well. Take a look at “Keto Lunch with 44 Grams of Protein” (page 18) and “Morning Frittata” (page 19) to see what I’m talking about.