Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetics with a personal support system find that a great strength, especially through the first days and weeks of managing their diabetes, and in dealing with or managing any complications. A recently completed 5-year study led by Dr. Paul Ciechanowski of the University of Washington at Seattle, found people with type 2 diabetes who lead lives of suspicion and mistrust of their fellow human beings, who have no personal support system, tend to die earlier. Diabetics who have difficulty reaching out to others tend to have earlier and more serious complications leading to shorter lives.
Dr. Ciechanowski and his colleagues, 3,535 adult patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, enrolled as Group Health Cooperative patients in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. Because depression is known to shorten the life span of type 2 diabetics, people who had already been diagnosed with depression were excluded from the study.
These diabetics were given psychological testing that divided them into two groups, interactive and independent. Diabetics with an interactive style found it easier to establish relationships with others and to rely on them. In turn, they themselves were dependable friends and colleagues.
Diabetics with an independent style tend to be fearful or dismissive of close relationships. These were people who had been found to have been “burned” in relationships and who tended to want to go it alone.
The diabetics in both groups had received their diagnosis in America and all described their medical care as hurried, uncaring, and inadequate. Diabetics with an interactive style tended to give their health care providers the benefit of the doubt, while diabetics in the independent group tended to enter health care with an expectation of poor results.
And that expectation of poor results led to the reality of poor results! Over the five years of the study, these diabetics with the “negative” attitude were 33% more likely to have died. This translates to an increased longevity of 8 to 16 years for diabetics with the can-do attitude in a can’t-do system.
You can’t and shouldn’t need to try to change your personality, but you can look for positive developments wherever you can find them. If you are dissatisfied with the treatment you are receiving to help you deal with and reverse type 2 diabetes, don’t waste time knocking the system… start following proven natural protocols that work. Add to this better communication skills… this would soothe many wounds.
You may not always get the emotional or social support that you need… but hang onto your hat! You may feel like you have climbed onto an emotional roller coaster, but stop and realize this is happening and give yourself permission to deal with these up and down emotions. They will pass… hold on to your sense of humor.
Decide who you are going to share your diagnosis with and talk as honestly and open about it as you can. How you present your type 2 diabetes to those people, will help shape how they view it and help you feel less isolated and guilty, as if you are hiding a secret. You can control your condition, not type 2 diabetes control you!