There should be little doubt that living with diabetes can sometimes be difficult to the point of making you feel overwhelmed.
Having a good support network is key to helping you manage the times where you feel like you're not sure where to turn or what to do for the best. Many of us are fortunate enough to have a group of close friends or a supportive family to help us when we need it; to listen to our problems and offer a sympathetic ear.
Some people are a little less fortunate or may even feel worried or embarrassed about revealing a particular problem or concern to someone they have a close relationship with. In these cases, Peer Support can be an effective tool for people with diabetes.
Peer Support is an incredibly valuable service that's run on a purely volunteer basis aimed at providing anyone affected by diabetes, whether it's you with the condition or you're a parent or carer for someone with diabetes. All volunteers go through training provided by Diabetes UK to ensure they're able to listen to whatever you have to say and provided support, advice or guidance wherever possible. Anyone can get in contact via phone or e-mail and you can read more about it on the Peer Support page
Recently I've become involved, along with another volunteer Louise, in a new strand of localised Peer Support that is being piloted by Diabetes UK. The overall aim is to be able to offer the same Peer Support service described above, but also offer informal support in a more social environment on a group or face to face basis within our own local areas.
Louise and I are offering Peer Support through a number of different mediums (Twitter, Facebook, and via a shared blog) as well as looking to utilise the Diabetes UK forums if at all possible. That support will be open to anyone who feels like they need to get something off their chest, just needs someone to listen or simply needs pointing in the right direction for some support or advice.
On a local level, we're hoping we can promote the service by getting local doctors and healthcare professionals on board and by asking our diabetes specialist teams to make sure everyone in hospital clinics knows what we have to offer. As interest hopefully grows, we'll be looking to arrange informal meetings for people to get to know each other.
Our new Peer Support work hasn't been going very long but it's starting to gather momentum and the more we can spread the word, the more we'll be able to help people affected by diabetes with anything they might need.
Louise and I aren't experts with years of medical training, but we do have a wealth of experience in living with diabetes and know that sometimes, having someone who's able to listen will do you the world of good.
If you want to find out more about what we're hoping to achieve, please visit our Peer Support Blog which also details how to get in touch with us by e-mail.
You can also connect with us in the following ways:
Andy (Sheffield area)
Twitter: @AndyPeerSupport
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Diabetes-Peer-Support-Sheffield/534756433284902
Louise (South East)
Twitter: @LouPeerSupport
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diabetespeersupport
If you've got something that's been troubling you then please consider using Peer Support as a means of unburdening yourself. We use the hashtag #talktosomeone on Twitter so if you need help, support or advice then do Talk To Someone.
Important: All Peer Support volunteers have been through training and checks to ensure you're always discussing any issues in a safe environment. Your details will be kept confidential at all times.
Showing posts with label help. Show all posts
Showing posts with label help. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 December 2013
Friday, 11 October 2013
Mental Strength
This blog was first posted on the Diabetes UK blog site
When discussing diabetes, it can be quite easy to revert to familiar topics depending on who you speak to. Talking to other people with diabetes can lead to trading war stories about particularly unpleasant hypos or serious hospital stays as well as what type of therapy they use to manage their condition. Talking to people who don't have first hand experience of diabetes can turn into a discussion about being type-aware or explaining (for what may feel like the millionth time) that yes, you can have a biscuit/chocolate/piece of cake without needing serious medical attention.
What doesn't get possibly as much discussion are the mental aspects of having diabetes. I'm by no means an expert but I think it's important to make time to give these 'hidden' aspects as much consideration as other factors.
I think it can be quite easy to bypass how you feel about having diabetes because living with it becomes such a normal part of your day, you don't necessarily stop to think about it.
What prompted me to consider this quite recently was the set of forms I received as part of my REPOSE 6 month follow up. The premise is quite simple - you're faced with a number of statements and asked to score them on a scale of 1-5 based on your experiences over the last 4 weeks (e.g. very likely to very unlikely, extremely important to totally unimportant etc.)
That sort of process in itself isn't anything new, but what it does offer is a chance to reflect on those moments when you might have felt sad, angry or frustrated and not consciously understood the reason why.
Some of the questions are quite generic and deal with how you rate your quality of life overall, how you feel on a daily basis and so on. Others ask you to consider how living with the specifics of diabetes affects your relationships with the people around you and your day to day activities or future ambitions.
Whilst I wouldn't dream to speak definitively for anyone else, I'm sure that at some point, many people with diabetes have experienced some sense of anger or frustration that relates to their condition and I know I certainly have. What I don't tend to do is reflect on those feelings and either rationalise them or find someone who can help me with them.
If I were to ask you how much you feel burdened about having to think about your nutrition or how frustrating you find the fact that others don't understand your treatment, you might not give them too much thought. Hopefully for the vast majority of people, such things really aren't factors in your day to day life. However, for some people, struggling through on new regime of insulin therapy or coming to terms with a recent diagnosis can leave them feeling stranded and alone.
Whether you've been diabetic for 12 weeks for 12 years, you're bound to go through difficult times at some stage and but it's being able to manage them that is important.
My lowest point came after about seven years after my diagnosis (I'll have been a fully paid up member of the T1 club for 12 years in October). I got to a point where testing my BG and seeing constantly high numbers would make me feel depressed so I stopped testing regularly. I don't mean that I'd test once a day, I'd be lucky if I tested once a week. As a result my HbA1c rose steadily and I was going to 6 monthly hospital reviews armed with more and more constructive excuses and promises that things would be different next time. I'd be economical with the truth with my family because I felt ashamed I wasn't looking after myself when really I didn't want to admit that I either felt too exhausted to do it, or I couldn't remember how. This continued for about 18 months before I eventually came clean and with the help of my wonderful wife, I started to get things back on track.
I'm incredibly lucky that I have a very supportive family and a great relationship with my specialist team that helps me through the tougher times. There's also a lot of other support out there in various other guises and there's also a growing online community of people with diabetes who can listen and help you.
Filling in my 6 monthly review forms has been a cathartic experience and a reminder that whilst things might feel good today, I've also experienced some serious low points and managed to come through them relatively unscathed. If I'd had to fill in the same forms a few weeks after getting my insulin pump, I know for a fact that the answers to some questions would have been markedly different but being able to reach out for support to the right people at the right time has made me stronger.
When discussing diabetes, it can be quite easy to revert to familiar topics depending on who you speak to. Talking to other people with diabetes can lead to trading war stories about particularly unpleasant hypos or serious hospital stays as well as what type of therapy they use to manage their condition. Talking to people who don't have first hand experience of diabetes can turn into a discussion about being type-aware or explaining (for what may feel like the millionth time) that yes, you can have a biscuit/chocolate/piece of cake without needing serious medical attention.
What doesn't get possibly as much discussion are the mental aspects of having diabetes. I'm by no means an expert but I think it's important to make time to give these 'hidden' aspects as much consideration as other factors.
I think it can be quite easy to bypass how you feel about having diabetes because living with it becomes such a normal part of your day, you don't necessarily stop to think about it.
What prompted me to consider this quite recently was the set of forms I received as part of my REPOSE 6 month follow up. The premise is quite simple - you're faced with a number of statements and asked to score them on a scale of 1-5 based on your experiences over the last 4 weeks (e.g. very likely to very unlikely, extremely important to totally unimportant etc.)
That sort of process in itself isn't anything new, but what it does offer is a chance to reflect on those moments when you might have felt sad, angry or frustrated and not consciously understood the reason why.
Some of the questions are quite generic and deal with how you rate your quality of life overall, how you feel on a daily basis and so on. Others ask you to consider how living with the specifics of diabetes affects your relationships with the people around you and your day to day activities or future ambitions.
Whilst I wouldn't dream to speak definitively for anyone else, I'm sure that at some point, many people with diabetes have experienced some sense of anger or frustration that relates to their condition and I know I certainly have. What I don't tend to do is reflect on those feelings and either rationalise them or find someone who can help me with them.
If I were to ask you how much you feel burdened about having to think about your nutrition or how frustrating you find the fact that others don't understand your treatment, you might not give them too much thought. Hopefully for the vast majority of people, such things really aren't factors in your day to day life. However, for some people, struggling through on new regime of insulin therapy or coming to terms with a recent diagnosis can leave them feeling stranded and alone.
Whether you've been diabetic for 12 weeks for 12 years, you're bound to go through difficult times at some stage and but it's being able to manage them that is important.
My lowest point came after about seven years after my diagnosis (I'll have been a fully paid up member of the T1 club for 12 years in October). I got to a point where testing my BG and seeing constantly high numbers would make me feel depressed so I stopped testing regularly. I don't mean that I'd test once a day, I'd be lucky if I tested once a week. As a result my HbA1c rose steadily and I was going to 6 monthly hospital reviews armed with more and more constructive excuses and promises that things would be different next time. I'd be economical with the truth with my family because I felt ashamed I wasn't looking after myself when really I didn't want to admit that I either felt too exhausted to do it, or I couldn't remember how. This continued for about 18 months before I eventually came clean and with the help of my wonderful wife, I started to get things back on track.
I'm incredibly lucky that I have a very supportive family and a great relationship with my specialist team that helps me through the tougher times. There's also a lot of other support out there in various other guises and there's also a growing online community of people with diabetes who can listen and help you.
Filling in my 6 monthly review forms has been a cathartic experience and a reminder that whilst things might feel good today, I've also experienced some serious low points and managed to come through them relatively unscathed. If I'd had to fill in the same forms a few weeks after getting my insulin pump, I know for a fact that the answers to some questions would have been markedly different but being able to reach out for support to the right people at the right time has made me stronger.
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