Dr. Vimlesh Patidar explains how Diabetics feel

How do diabetics feel?

Newly diagnosed diabetics will have symptoms. The symptoms that experience won’t exactly match those of another person. However, the most common diabetes symptoms experienced by many people with diabetes are increased thirst, increased urination, feeling tired and losing weight.  Some of the common symptoms and their characteristics are as following:

• Going to the toilet a lot, especially at night.
• Being really thirsty.
• Feeling more tired than usual.
• Losing weight without trying to.
• Genital itching or thrush.
• Cuts and wounds take longer to heal.
• Blurred eyesight
• Increased hunger.

These symptoms can affect anyone - adult or child. Following consultation with doctor, the appropriate treatment can be started to avoid further complication. Although, after following the treatment for some period, diabetics can have stress regarding their diabetes treatment and it generally termed “diabetes distress”

diabetics may sometimes feel discouraged, worried, frustrated, or tired of dealing with daily diabetes care, like diabetes is controlling them instead of the other way around. Maybe they have been trying hard but not seeing results. Or they have developed a health problem related to diabetes despite best efforts.

Those overwhelming feelings, known as diabetes distress, may cause them to slip into unhealthy habits, stop checking their blood sugar, even skip doctor’s appointments. It happens to many—if not most—people with diabetes, often after years of good management.

Diabetes distress can look like depression or anxiety, but it can’t be treated effectively with medicine. Instead, following approaches will be helpful:

• Make sure seeing a specialist (endocrinologist) for diabetes care. He or she is likely to have a deeper understanding of diabetes challenges than regular doctor.
• Ask the doctor to refer to a mental health counselor who specializes in chronic health conditions.
• Get some one-on-one time with a diabetes educator so you can problem-solve together.
• Focus on one or two small diabetes management goals instead of thinking you have to work on everything all at once.

 

(Brand Desk Content)