Diabetes is not only a physical challenge, but it can also take a toll on your mental well-being. The internist-endocrinologist Dr. Behiye Özcan and clinical psychologist Dr. Sasja Huisman share ideas on what diabetes distress, also known as ‘diabetic stress’, just means and how it can affect a person’s daily life. They also tell you what you can do to reduce the stress around diabetes.
What is diabetes?
The suffering of diabetes is a broad concept that everyone can experience in their own way. “Some people may suffer more from stress due to diabetes, while others feel depressed or anxious,” said Dr. Sasja Huisman. She works as a clinical psychologist and senior researcher in the department Internal Medicine (Endocrinology) of the LUMC. ‘All these feelings and complaints fall under the affliction of diabetes. Although the distress of diabetes itself is not a disorder, it can lead to disorders such as anxiety disorders, depression or eating disorders.’ Fortunately, this is not always the case and many of these complaints usually remain minor.
Impact on daily life
“Diabetes treatment includes lifestyle changes, such as a healthy diet, regular exercise, stopping smoking and getting enough rest and sleep, along with medication such as insulin tablets or injections,” explained the internist-endocrinologist. “The main goal is to maintain stable blood sugar levels. All foods and activities can affect blood sugar levels, requiring people with diabetes to constantly make choices to maintain their balance.”
When you have diabetes, you have to check your blood glucose every day and you also have to inject insulin regularly. That’s no small feat.
People with diabetes experience not only physical challenges, but also psychological burden. Day-to-day management of diabetes can be stressful, including monitoring blood glucose levels and making diet and lifestyle choices. “Diabetes distress occurs when there is an imbalance between a person’s mental resilience and energy (capacity) and the burden of diabetes (capacity). Although everyone with diabetes has some burden of disease, complaints can arise when the burden of diabetes becomes more than someone can handle.’
Who suffers from diabetes?
Symptoms of diabetes distress can vary from person to person. They can be mild, such as fatigue, irritability, sadness, lack of motivation, changes in eating behavior, tension and insecurity. Generally, these complaints disappear on their own over time. Unfortunately, they can also be more serious and manifest as symptoms of depression, anxiety disorders, eating problems, stress, or physical symptoms such as fluctuating blood glucose levels, sleep problems, headaches and/or weight changes. .
About one-third of people with type 1 diabetes and 10 to 30 percent of people with type 2 diabetes experience diabetes. Women suffer from it more often than men. Furthermore, according to Özcan, ethnicity can also play a role. People with a non-Western immigrant background often experience more diabetes than people with a European background. The reason for this is unknown.
Recognize and treat
Recognizing the distress of diabetes is key to dealing with it. “This way you can prevent complaints from continuing or becoming more serious and, in the worst case, leading to serious mental complaints or complications of diabetes,” says Huisman. ‘A moreover, it is important to recognize and deal with diabetes distress because it is not pleasant for someone with diabetes to experience additional complaints and/or burden high rate of disease in addition to the chronic disease that bothers them and is difficult.’ So she believes it is important that health care providers try to make life with diabetes as ‘pleasant’ and ‘easy’ as possible.
Symptoms of diabetes
Symptoms can range from anxiety and depression to changes in blood glucose levels and difficulty with self-care. Discussing these feelings with a health care provider can be the first step toward treatment.
It varies from person to person whether and how badly you suffer from diabetes. Symptoms of diabetes may include:
- Frustration due to lack of control over blood sugar levels causes the following feelings
- People are very afraid of going out (hypo- or hyperglycemia)
- Feelings of shame due to stigma and discrimination
- Feeling that others do not understand
- Chronic problems are greatly feared
- Financial concerns as a result of your treatment or cure
- Confusion about the effect of specific activities on glycemia
- Feelings of guilt about limited control of your diabetes
- Symptoms of self-blame and feelings of failure when not reaching target values
Long-term consequences
“Untreated diabetes distress can lead to diabetes burnout, characterized by physical or emotional exhaustion. Or other problems such as depression complaints, anxiety disorders and even physical problems of diabetes,” says Özcan. “Long-term stress due to diabetes can lead to sad feelings. This could be accompanied by changes in eating habits, exercise and blood sugar levels. These changes affect your mood and increase the risk of complications. It’s a vicious cycle you get into.’
Diabetes distress is a challenge that many people with diabetes face. Through awareness, recognition and treatment, the mental consequences of diabetes can be reduced, allowing people with diabetes to experience a better quality of life.
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Dr. Behiye Ozcan is een internist-endocrinoloog in het Erasmus MC die zich bezighoudt met diabetes. Ze werkt samen met andere specialisten om mensen met complexe problemen van diabetes te helpen. Haar wetenschappelijke interesse gaat vooral over hoe diabetes mensen stress kan bezorgen, ook wel diabetes distress genoemd. Ze heeft zelfs ‘het beste diabetesidee 2023’ gewonnen voor haar idee om dokters en diabetespatiënten beter te informeren over deze specifieke vorm van stress. Haar doel is dat dokters leren om stress bij diabetes te herkennen, erover te praten en z nodig mensen door te sturen naar een psycholoog.
Dr. Sasja Huisman is een medisch psycholoog en onderzoeker bij het Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum. Ze gelooft sterk in een persoonsgerichte aanpak en heeft geholpen deze aanpak te implementeren in het diabetesteam van het LUMC. Ze heeft ook de Diatech-gesprekskaart ontwikkeld, waarmee ze in 2021 ‘het beste diabetesidee’ heeft gewonnen. Veel mensen met diabetes weten niet goed wat de mogelijkheden zijn van diabetestechnologie, waardoor ze kansen missen om hun bloedsuikers beter te reguleren. De Diatech-gesprekskaart biedt een beginpunt voor gesprekken tussen zorgverleners en mensen met diabetes over diabetestechnologie.
2024-04-20 22:14:49
#Diabetes #diabetes #impact #mental #health
