I am not a medical provider. If you think you or someone you love is clinically depressed or needs professional help, please seek out that help immediately. Now. You have everything to lose.
People often ask me if I think there is a link between depression and diabetes. In short: you can bet I think there is a link! However, I do not think there is necessarily a genetic link between depression and diabetes. I think depression in people and in kids living with diabetes is more situational than chemical, at least at the outset.
Diabetes and Depression—My Rundown
Trying to tie it all together a bit here when it comes to living with type one diabetes: We have a goal. We have information. We have tools. We have factors we can control and we have factors we cannot control. We know that if we control what we can control, it may consume us. We know that if we don’t control any of it, it may kill us.
We know that living with type one diabetes requires a constant unyielding attention and there is never a vacation from that requirement. We know that our response to a specific event on one day may not work the next day in response to the identical event. We know that we have a socially misunderstood disease, overall, and that knowledge makes some of us want to hide from public acknowledgement of something we must face every moment of every day.
This is not a system that appears structured for success or for emotional health, if you ask me. So what are the main things can we do?
- I think it is important to be open about your disease with the people you care about. Don’t hide from it—that gives the disease much more power than it deserves.
- Know that your blood glucose meter reading is giving you information, not telling you what kind of person you are.
- Talk to others living with the disease. We are all our own experts and can always learn from each other.
- Learn about how different factors work on and in your body. Keep trying, keep learning. Do your best as much of the time as you can.
- Plan for what you can plan for, prepare for what you can prepare for, and let go of the rest of it. Live your life.
Because, at the end if it all, that’s what matters. It’s how we lived our lives, not what our blood glucose readings were.
