The “Terrorism” of Diabetes
From Diabetes Self-Management Blog
The “Terrorism” of Diabetes
Joe Nelson
Since the fall of the twin towers on 9/11, we who live in the United
States have collectively experienced a new way of lifeone that is
affected by the possibility of something horrible happening.
Before this tragedy, most of us were relatively innocent, not
intending to harm anyone else in the world and somewhat naive about
the potential for bad things to happen. We found out on 9/11 that
that some things cannot be controlled, and we are finding out now
through our fear about more bad things happening that the cost is
high, emotionally and energy-wise, when trying to prevent future
events. It would be great if we could ignore and deny this reality,
but if you’ve been to the airport recently or watched the news, it’s
hard to stay unaffected.
Diabetes has its own parallels to terrorism. It would be unusual if
you were unaware of possible complications of diabetes, such as heart
disease, retinopathy (eye disease), nephropathy (kidney disease), and
neuropathy (nerve disease). Almost everyone hears about
these “terrors” from health-care professionals, and even if you
don’t, you are at least likely to have heard about Uncle Bill’s
amputation or Aunt Betty going blind from “well-meaning” family or
friends. No matter how you get the message, you do get the message
that if you don’t take care of yourself, bad things may happen to
you.
This threat of bad things is likely to get your attention and, for a
time, motivate you to really get on track. However, the effect of
constantly being on guard is not likely to help your motivationit is
actually more likely to be draining on your resources. As with going
through security at the airport, if you are subjected to the same
thing every day, it no longer gets your attention; you may find that
your energy to stay on top of things begins to wane and you get lazy.
The problem is that the threat doesn’t go away, and if you are not
dealing with it the anxiety about it gets bigger. It’s the same with
diabetes: The threat of complications doesn’t go away, and if you are
not doing what you need to do to care for yourself you are more
likely to have anxiety about it.
This situation of being fear-driven is familiar to many of us. We
often think that this is the stuff that helps us change, and for some
it really works, but as I pointed out earlier it can backfire and
cause us to quit paying attention. Change is really a combination of
(1) fear getting our attention, but then (2) us redefining our
situations in positive terms so we feel drawn to keep up positive
changes. This is where a support group can be useful, to help you
keep up hope. It is also where seeing a therapist to work on changing
your belief system can help in the battle against being discouraged.
When you find positive support, it will help you have the energy to
persist with your self-care in spite of the psychic shadow of
complications.
The threat of diabetes complications can be scary. It can act as a
motivator to make you begin to pay attention, but it is important to
focus on the positive when trying to effect behavior change. This
strategy can help you remain diligent as any lurking terrorist waits
for you to look the other way.