Psychotherapy for Better Diabetes Management

Why does diabetes take so many lives years after doctors have found ways to manage the condition so well?

A part of the answer, for poor and illiterate communities, is that diabetes is simply not detected in time. However, this does not apply to people with access to modern health care. Medicine has also made great strides in helping people live with some of the complications of diabetes.

We have therefore to dig deeper to find out why people continue to jeopardize longevity through poorly controlled diabetes, even though they are aware of the dangers: the solution to this tragic problem can be found in a single word.

Medicine no longer accepts the term ‘addiction’ for any psychiatric condition. However, the craving that a person with diabetes tends to develop for sweets, fat-laden food, sodas, and alcohol, makes me wonder if such conditions should not be termed as substance abuse.

Words apart, everyone with diabetes need psychological help, both to cope with the news that the disease has set in, as well as to accept its permanent nature. Physicians are trained in primary psychiatric methods, but often lack time for sustained psychotherapy.

5 key steps can help a person with diabetes live well with the disease:

1. Explanations of the meaning: what is the nature of diabetes, and what are the implications of the complications which can result from neglect, or by giving in to temptations to over-eat, or to skip exercise sessions.

2. Helpful support: there is no useful purpose in recriminating about preventive steps which should have been taken in the past. It does not help to confuse patients with premature information about cures or new medicines either. It is important to provide people who have diabetes with plans which they can use, and with information which they may not have already.

3. Empathy: an aspect related to meaningful and relevant support can be its source. Patients may not respond well to hectoring by care givers who have never experienced diabetes themselves. People who have lived successfully with diabetes can best inspire others who are new to the disease.

4. Alternatives: people with diabetes will gain confidence about their abilities to cope with the disease, when they are offered choices in terms of food, drink, exercise regimens, and even the ways in which they can take medicines such as insulin.

5. Relaxation techniques: life with diabetes can be full of stress, tension, worries, and missing forbidden or restricted foods and beverages. However, it need not be so: patients can learn and use a variety of mental relaxation techniques to build the mental strength and equanimity needed to lead productive and happy lives with diabetes, and to keep complications at bay.

The benefits of psychotherapy are often missing in clinics which deal with diabetes. This may account for some of the gaps which exist between the present state of diabetes management, and the rising incidence of cardiac, renal, eye, and nerve damages to people ostensibly under treatment for the condition.