Diabetes does not wait for a convenient time in life to be diagnosed. Often people are already experiencing other stresses and complications in life (work, home relationships or other illnesses for instance) at the time of diagnosis, which can make diagnosis even harder to deal with.
It is not unusual for people to experience some of the following thoughts and feelings:
- I was healthy and now I’m ‘ill’ – it feels unfair and I’m angry/depressed.
- What I eat may be risky and that makes me anxious.
- I have to change my whole life, what if I can’t manage?
- It’s all my fault.
- If I change my lifestyle perhaps my diabetes will go away.
- Complications are inevitable.
- My body is out of control, I feel helpless.
These feelings are very common and part of the process of adapting to having diabetes. Having thoughts like these does not mean that the person is not coping but maybe that they need more information or support and this should lessen once they start to learn more.
Reviewed January 2009
Next review June 2010