Diabetes care: Regrouping for 2006
Now is a good time to check on how you are doing in your diabetes care.
“We are hopeful with a new year, and it is a good time to become recommitted to your plan,” says Mark Zipper, PhD, director of mental health services for Allina Medical Clinic. “Look at what is possible and how you can do that.”
Slipping over the holidays
During the holidays, you may have over indulged on food or sweets. You may not have paid close attention to your diabetes care plan. Now maybe you’re feeling badly about “slipping.”
“The setback is not because you didn’t care about controlling your diabetes. During the holiday time there is more food and sweets available. People don’t want to deprive themselves during this time,” says Zipper. “The best thing you can do is to acknowledge that it happened, and then let it be.”
In addition to overeating, the holidays can also bring on sadness and depression. People with diabetes are more likely to become depressed than those who do not have diabetes.
Zipper says, “One way that people cope with depression is with comfort foods. They are inadvertently treating depression. This can keep them from attending appropriately to their diabetes care.”
Getting back on track
Zipper offers these suggestions to getting back on track with your diabetes care:
- Keep moving. Don’t judge yourself, just get back on track. We often treat ourselves harder than we treat others.
- Connect with something other than diabetes. What do I want to do with my life? What is the part in my life that I want to focus on? Distraction from diabetes can help put your illness in a productive context.
- Dream big. How would my life be different if my diabetes care was solid? What do I have to look forward to?
“Diabetes is a lifelong disease. But you can do the things that will help you have a good life. Reflecting on ‘how bad you are’ will keep you from doing that,” says Zipper.
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Working with a certified diabetes educator Depression and diabetes: How to cope
Source: Mark Zipper, PhD, director, Mental Health Services, Allina Medical Clinic; Allina Health System Press, Basic Skills for Living with Diabetes, dia-ahc-90196 (10/05)
First published: 01/18/2006
Last updated: 01/18/2006
Reviewed by: Mary Frederick, RN, diabetes program manager, Allina Medical Clinic; Paul Kleeberg, MD, medical director, Allina.com
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