Living with any chronic condition can never be an easy thing for anyone, it doesn't matter how long you've had the condition, more especially if deep down within yourself you know that things used to be better for you or how things could've been better right now.
Listen you are just human, it's normal to want the better things, but what happens if you don't have that full control of things? How do you deal with all that anxiety that comes with diabetes?
Anxiety can cloud you from seeing the bright side of things and just keep you stressing and fearing about what is going to happen tomorrow if you get worse. It is you fearing the unknown, which is the reason why most people never got to achieve their goals, that's how anxiety can be dangerous and keep you from even achieving your health goals as a diabetes patient.
In this article I share with you some of the things to do that can help you manage anxiety about your diabetes. I am no going to tell you to eat healthy food to deal with anxiety. I will tell you practical things you can do rather than the same old , eat healthy, stop smoking and all those common things.
First of all, Healthy Spell team would like to wish you all our readers a happy long life
How does stress and anxiety affect diabetes?
Stress and anxiety takes your sugar levels way up, And that's what you don't want, instead you want your sugar levels balanced. It's very important that diabetes patients also learn and practice ways to balance their emotions, it's easy said than done I know, but you've got to try to not let anything or anyone trigger you or just don't over-react because, believe you me, it will do you no good but instead take you a few steps back with trying to lower your sugar levels.
Diabetes makes you prone so many other diseases like chronic kidney disease, heart disease and cholesterol issues. In other words, if you grow your anxiety around diabetes and stress so much about it on a daily basis, that is not good for your heart, stress kills! If the anxiety becomes your habit and lifestyle, I am afraid you might opened the channels of depression and heart disease such as heart attack.
So making sure you don't end up building habits that put you at risk of these diseases, you also need to learn to deal with the disease you currently have and make sure that how you deal with it does not drive you to other chronic diseases.
5 Ways to deal with Anxiety that comes with living with diabetes
Stop over thinking your diabetes status
I know that early days after diabetes diagnose, you wont help it but to ponder about how things got to that point, what went wrong and why you or why now? Stop this already. And the best way to do this is to remain calm, and try to understand the type of diabetes you have and how to manage it. And that starts by realizing there is a lifestyle change that needs to take place, not heavy things like becoming a vegan, but simple things like dealing with how you react to stress, temper and anxiety.
Be open to Make new friends
It's understandable that you'll need comfort and feeling of safety, but trust me you don't want to be getting questions like "Steve should you be really eating that?" all day just because someone one wants the whole piece to themselves, hahaha. On a serious note, seeing different faces and having new unique conversation can really take your mind off stress and worry and this might also help you build new habits and explore new things that are obviously mind occupying and elevating you positively as a person so that you stop living inside your mind where you get reminded time and again that you are diabetic.
Be playful
I honestly don't know who told adults that playing is for children. Playing is good for our health too, please. It depends on what type of games you are playing, I am not saying go play your spouse and cheat on them.
I am saying be playful, laugh at jokes, greet dogs, don't take social media too serious, sing at the shower(You don't have to sound exactly like Celine Dion). Being an adult doesn't mean you should suppress the inner child you once was, it's just the body that keeps on changing, you are still that kid who laughed at jokes, farts and laughs. Just be yourself, the real you, not the older uptight you. And please, I am not saying you go fart and laugh, unless you know your family will find it funny, you know a family tradition sort of thing. Just embrace yourself
Take breaks from social media
Doing this does not just apply for people with a low-self esteem, it's also very good for strong willed and confident people who have got this whole life thing all figured out. Like books and video games, social media can reprogram your mind and your perspective to how the community you follow functions, reason, deal with situations and sees life. We are not the same, our situations may look alike but the backgrounds are different. Social media can be very toxic, even those mental health community can be toxic to you by sometimes setting unrealistic standards for you and your health journey.
I get that the messages can be genuine but are they relevant to you or just putting you under unnecessary pressure? You really need check yourself and don't forget how your life looks and what is useful to you right now. If you're living with type1 diabetes and can not afford the new modern expensive CGM system, don't let social media fool you into thinking that you might soon or you will never get well faster without this specific device. Stop comparing yourself to other people just because you are in the same social community.
Consider YOGA as a lifestyle
The nice thing about Yoga is that it's not only good for you body, but your mental state too. Yoga keeps you grounded and whole. I mentioned early that it's important that you stop overthinking, Yoga will train you to do that and become a master at not overthinking. It keeps you at this present moment and thinking of what is happening right now.
Once this becomes a lifestyle, you will see how you'll stop fearing the unknown and know that there is not so much you can do about things you have no control over, but your health and how to manage it? you have control over that and you'll be able to manage your diabetes like a pro, might even reverse it. It is not impossible. You can do this!
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