The Role of Your Thoughts in Managing Diabetes
Managing diabetes well requires a number of changes to behavior. It may also require some changes to your thinking! Why? Your thoughts can affect many factors which are important in the management of diabetes. For example, how well you followyour healthcare providers’ recommendations about physical activity and diet may be affected by your thoughts about these changes. This handout will provide you with some information that may help increase your understanding of the role your thoughts play in the management of your diabetes.
Your thoughts determine the feelings (physical and emotional) you have in response to a situation. Your thoughts and feelings in turn have a lot to do with how you choose to deal with a problem. Thoughtssometimes can be inaccurate, unrealistic, or unhelpful. Unhelpful thoughts can interfere with your ability to take effective action in managing diabetes.
Inaccurate, unrealistic, or unhelpful thoughts often lead to negative emotions and physical tension. These physiological changes, in return, can impact how your body manages blood sugar. So, managing your thoughts is an important way to help manage your diabetes. For example, imagine how you would feel if you were given a task to do and you had thoughts like:
“I’m never going to get this work done. I’m terrible at this kind of thing. I’m sure I’m going to just mess it up somehow.”
Most people would feel miserable if they had these beliefs. We refer to these inaccurate, unrealistic, or unhelpful beliefs as “Alarming Self-Talk.”Alarming self-talk like this can be bad for our physical and psychological health.
The first step in changing alarming self-talk is to pay close attention to your own thoughts, particularly when you are feeling upset or distressed. Next, begin trying to change your unhelpful thoughts into more helpful or reassuring ones. You may find it useful to write down your thoughts. This helps you to slow your thinking down and gets the thoughts out in front of you where you can evaluate them more objectively. As you continue to practice, you will find it takes less effort. Eventually you will even develop a habit of thinking reassuringly. It may take awhile to change your prior patterns of thought, so be patient and keep working at it!
ABC’s of Diabetes Management
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A(Activating Event)
This is a potentially stressful situation such as: a high glucose reading, a disagreement with your doctor, or failing to make your planned changes in eating or exercise.
Example – You’ve skipped your insulin several times in the last few days and you have a doctor’s appointment today.
B (Beliefs or Self-Talk)
Alarming Thoughts are thoughts which often lead to intense emotional responses. An example would be “My doctor is going to chew me out. I’m doing terrible managing my diabetes.”
Reassuring Thoughts lead to moderate, healthy emotional responses. An example is “He won’t chew me out, but he will probably want to talk with me about improving my adherence. I’m doing well with my diet and exercise but I do need to work on taking my insulin.”
C (Consequences)
Potential consequences of alarming thoughts fall into three categories:
Physical- Such as headache, stomach upset, or changes in glucose levels
Emotional–Such as frustration, guilt, anxiety, or depression
Behavioral – Such as snapping at your spouse, giving up on improving health behaviors, overeating, or avoiding medical appointments
Alarming vs. Reassuring Thoughts: Examples
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Alarming Thoughts:
1. I’m being treated by a bunch of fools.
2. Things couldn’t be worse.
Reassuring Thoughts:
1. My doctors are probably as frustrated as I am with not being able to effectively manage my diabetes. They are not giving me the information I need. I will be more assertive.
2. Things can always be worse. Thinking like this will just get me depressed about my diabetes. I need to do something I will enjoy to help myself feel better.
3. They’ve got to have a cure for this.
4. Those who really care about me will want to know about my medical problems.
3. Diabetes is incurable, but many people have learned to manage diabetes well and enjoy life at the same time. I can, too.
4. My diabetes is chronic and stable;therefore people may get tired of asking about it. This doesn’t mean they don’t care.
5. This is more than I can bear.
5. I sometimes feel overwhelmed, but that’s normal. I can keep learning how to cope even when it’s not going as well as I’d like.
Alarming vs. Reassuring Thoughts: Practice Exercises
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For each alarming thought about diabetes, develop an alternative reassuring or helpful thought. Then re-train your brain to generate these instead of the alarming ones. Once you’ve developed the reassuring thought, practice it a few times and think of the activating events which might prompt these reassuring thoughts and the coinciding alarming ones you are trying to decrease.
1.Alarming Thought: “The doctors should be able to get my glucose under control! Why do they put all the responsibility on me?”
Reassuring Thought:
2.Alarming Thought: “My diabetes has ruined everything!”
Reassuring Thought:
3.Alarming Thought: “I shouldn’t have to give up so much of what I like!”
Reassuring Thought:
4. Alarming Thought: “I’ll never be happy again as long as I have diabetes!”
Reassuring Thought:
5.Alarming Thought: “My glucose is high this morning and I’ve been sticking with my diet all week! Why do I even bother doing this stuff?”
Reassuring Thought:
6.Alarming Thought: “These people are idiots! They have no idea how hard it is to make all the changes they’re asking me to make.”
Reassuring Thought:
- Alarming Thought: “People won’t want to be around me since I can’t do what I used to do.”
Reassuring Thought:
- Alarming Thought: “Managing my diabetes will never get easier!”
Reassuring Thought: