Journal of Diabetes Management and Metabolism

Opinion Article

Living with Diabetes and the Fear of the Future

Rosa EC*

Psychologist and Diabetes Educator, Brazil

*Corresponding author: Elaine Cristina Rosa, Psychologist and Diabetes Educator, Brazil, Tel: 55(11) 97609-9300; Email: lanitasilvarosa@gmail.com

Citation: Elaine Cristina Rosa (2019) Living with diabetes and the fear of the future. J Diabetes Metab Manag: JDMM-10006

Received date: 19 September, 2019; Accepted date: 27 September, 2019; Published date: October 04, 2019

 

Introduction

The diagnosis of diabetes comes abruptly altering daily life in a physical, emotional and social way. The threats of not being able to maintain good control of the disease, a constant fear of suffering from diseases due to poor control of diabetes generates insecurities. Changes in present and future plans adding to the urgent need for changes in the present, along with unsuccessful attempts at good control, the frustration of being unable to cope with the disease, trigger emotions of anger, sadness, and much fear of being unable to deal with this new lifestyle.

Feeling afraid is normal, but cultivating it without producing an action, can be very harmful when guaranteeing success in your treatment.

Our mind can be our greatest ally just like it can be our greatest enemy in daily diabetes care management, so self-awareness of how to deal with our emotions is a predominant factor for you to succeed in this management and care-management journey of diabetes.

Even today with all the developments in terms of medications and technologies that should result in good control, current research points out that chronic complications resulting from poor control of the disease are frightening and lack of adherence to treatment is a worldwide concern of the organs. of health.

It is worth remembering that Diabetes Mellitus is a disease that emerged over three thousand years ago in ancient Egypt and unfortunately today it continues to keep on killing thousands of people.

Therefore, we must be aware that there is an imminent need to deal with the internal factors that are the emotions that drive our thoughts that generate our actions of caution, taking into account the complexity of coping with change which is one of the factors of resistance adherence to care.

Assimilating the need for dietary re-education, physical exercise, daily medicalization (whether insulin or oral medication) end up generating emotional distress that culminates in a major problem for living with Diabetes.

And what does our mind do to prevent problems? It anticipates the problems to prevent today what we don't want to happen tomorrow.

By imagining that something bad happened to us, our brain reacts as if it was actually happening. Our mind doesn't understand exactly if you are imagining or if it is real, and that generates a lot of anxiety. Concerns about the future, fears of the chronic consequences of poor diabetes control should lead us to a defined goal that tends to mobilize us for action.

If you look at your present and are not being mobilized for action you need to seek professional help to generate this resource to help you act now, enabling present action that tends to reduce fear of the future and complications.

Now is the only place where we are not invaded by anxiety. When you live in the now you tend not to be anxious.

The psychological illness of fear is not bound by an immediate, concrete and true danger, it manifests itself in various forms such as agitation, worry, anxiety, nervousness, restraint, and so on. This kind of psychological fear is always something that might happen and not something that is happening right now, you are here and now while your mind is in the future, forming each day a space of great anguish. We can always deal with the situation the moment it presents itself, but we can't deal with what is just a mental projection, even if uncontrolled diabetes results in other illnesses, they can only manifest if I don't take the necessary steps. today.

Discussion

Therefore the importance of turning your attention and seeing things as they come and taking action even if they are good or bad, comprising ourselves with a thought committed to caring for us, assuming the condition of a man who is committed to his own authentic existence, reviewing its concepts, redefining the notions and observations that are made about living with the disease and controlling the diabetes, always undergoing a process of assessment, verification and resolution, so through this ability to analyse and correct while revealing to us the capacity to live towards autonomy, feeling free to recognize and elaborate experiences and feelings, starting to elaborate the conditions of an experience in the face of a past that cannot be changed, but interpreted and understood differently. Modify a gift that does not satisfy, thus allowing a better future with quality of life and health even with a chronic disease like diabetes.

Getting rid of the misconceptions that being diabetic means conforming to being sick, thus reconciling feelings of nonconformity, sadness and anger that lead to denial of the disease, transgressing the needs that require treatment and perceiving the diabetic as a slow process of death.

Each one of us attributes unique and personal significance, through what we experience, which is translated through our actions when living with disease, the statements that express conformism, having envision a future that cannot be changed, in contrast, with the statements that express a positive image regarding the disease that leads to feelings like being in the right direction and in control of the disease in the present,  focusing on the your health, makes it possible to broaden the horizon in building an authentic life knowing that you are developing your role as a protagonist in diabetes management and realizing the possibilities of living with the disease.

Conclusion

It is very easy to become hostage to multiple negative thoughts, especially when life presents us with the challenge of living with a disease that can trigger other limiting diseases without giving you time and without considering the resources we have to deal with it.

Have you ever wondered how this context is fertile ground for the negative thoughts that feed fear? we do not have the control of not thinking, but we can be aware that thoughts are just thoughts and by directing our thoughts, being aware that we have been through a past that cannot be changed but can be interpreted and understood in a way that can modify your present which is not pleasing you to allow to have a better future.


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Citation: Elaine Cristina Rosa (2019) Living with diabetes and the fear of the future. J Diabetes Metab Manag: JDMM-10006