Coping with diabetes burnout

Daily management of your diabetes is a key factor in living a full and active life. Having to pay attention to so many details on a regular basis, though, is not easy.

Many people who have had diabetes for a long time suffer from a condition called “burnout.” Psychologist and certified diabetes educator William H. Polonsky, defines burnout as “what happens when you feel overwhelmed by diabetes and by the frustrating burden of diabetes self-care.”

If you’re feeling defeated by diabetes, if you’re angry and filled with negative feelings, if you feel that diabetes controls your life, if you’re thinking of quitting your diabetes care, it is likely that you are in the throes of burnout.

Diabetes Burnout

Is very common among people who have diabetes
Reduces your energy and interest in taking care of yourself
Can be defeated

You may need professional help to overcome your feelings of burnout. Talk with your healthcare provider or diabetes care team about how you are feeling. They can refer you to other specialists as needed.

You can also work on changing how you respond to diabetes and its challenges. Instead of reacting from a feeling approach, try a thinking approach. For instance, if your blood glucose level goes up, when you react by feeling, you might respond with “Oh no, I’ve failed again!” With a thinking approach to the same event, you might focus instead on, “Okay, my level is up. Now what actions can I take to bring that number down?”

Here are some other tips that can help you cope with diabetes burnout.

Coping with dietary changes

One of the key things you can do to manage your diabetes is to eat healthy. But following a healthy meal plan can be difficult for many people.

Here are some things that may make it easier to follow a healthy meal plan:

Learn more about how to eat healthy
Get help from a registered dietitian. Ask your doctor for a referral or contact the American Dietetic Association at 1-800-877-1600 ext. 5000 or eatright.org to find a registered dietitian near you.
Adopt a healthy meal plan that is realistic
No one – including you – can eat right all of the time. So don’t expect to be perfect. Know that you will bow to temptation now and then. When it happens, though, get back on track as quickly as you can.
Try some new menus and recipes
Healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring. Try the Changing Life With Diabetes online Menu Planner to plan a 7-day menu complete with delicious diabetes-friendly recipes and a grocery list!

Coping with a lack of motivation to stay active

Staying active can help you keep your blood glucose level as close to normal as possible. However, you may find it difficult to stick with an activity plan month after month, year after year. But, if you do stick with it, you’ll enjoy some powerful benefits to your mental and physical health. Your hard work will be worth it!

Sometimes the barriers to staying active seem to outweigh benefits. If this is true for you, these tips may help you stay more active. Be sure to talk to your healthcare provider before beginning or changing your physical activity program:

Find fun ways of being active that fit into your daily routine and match your present physical condition. It’s important to start out slow. If this means only moving around or walking for a couple of minutes at a time in the early stages, that’s okay. Over time, you’ll be able to increase what you can do.
Keep it safe and comfortable. Check your blood glucose before exercising. Also, be sure to keep glucose tablets or a high carbohydrate snack handy in case you experience hypoglycemia.

Coping with the demands of blood glucose monitoring

Keeping track of blood glucose today is fairly quick and easy. However, many people fail to monitor as well as they should or stop monitoring at some point. If you do stick with it, though, you’ll have the tools to manage your diabetes in a much more proactive way. You can see how what you eat and do and the medicines you take all affect your blood glucose.

One reason people struggle with monitoring can be because the “hassles” of checking seem to outweigh the possible benefits of knowing the results. Often, that’s because they don’t really know what to do with the information. Talking with your healthcare provider is the best way to get over that barrier.

Here are a few more tips to help you stay on track:

Recognize that your blood glucose readings are just information, not a pass/fail grade on a test. Your blood glucose monitor is not your enemy and it does not sit in judgment of you. It is nothing more than a tool that can help you identify patterns in your blood glucose that will enable you to take actions toward managing your diabetes.
Make it as easy as possible to remember and do your blood glucose checks. If you find that daily life gets in the way of doing your glucose monitoring, try setting alarms or writing yourself notes to remind you when it is time to check.
If remembering to take your monitor with you is a hassle, think about getting extra monitors that you can leave in the places where you spend most of your time.

In summary

Remember, managing your diabetes can be easier when you are able to follow your diabetes care plan over the long term. Coping with diabetes burnout in a healthy way may benefit your long-term emotional and physical health. There’s is a lot to do to manage diabetes, but you can do it. If you stick with it, you are sure to find that life – even with diabetes – can be good.