Am I Blue?

Last week, I wrote about how anxiety interfaces with my diabetes. Then, this morning, while I was thumbing through a magazine for people newly diagnosed with our condition, I noticed a bit of news. Apparently, a new study has found that people with diabetes are disproportionately likely to suffer with both depression and heart attacks. The connection between diabetes and these other two issues is not new news. What came out in the study, however, is that the three separate conditions are a trinity of trouble. So addressing any of them addresses all three. And ignoring any of them ups the likelihood of their making us sicker -- and maybe even killing us -- no matter what our lives are otherwise like.

It reminded me of a page in Your Life Isn't Over ~ It May Have Just Begun!, the book of tips and hints on managing diabetes I published last year. It reads:

"I once knew a man, who, when I asked him what he believed in, thought for a moment and replied, “I believe…food.” I thought it was a very clever answer and I never forgot it. Whatever belief systems humans may have developed over time on this planet, we all certainly believe food. We can’t live without it. We derive major pleasure from it. We create rituals around it and the sharing of it. We craft cultural traditions based on it. We grow it. We prepare it. We talk about it. We even take pictures of it to send out to our friends on our cell phones. We believe food.

"When a newly diagnosed diabetic is introduced to the rigor of managing his or her food intake, it can feel as if we’re being cut off permanently from the rest of the human race. We haven’t committed a crime. But we’re being punished. We still want to eat what others are eating. But we can’t. Or at least we can’t if we want to keep living. Yet we need to eat to live. It’s complicated.

"Our family and friends may be supportive. They may even feel sorry for us. And they may try to get us to 'stick to our diets.' But they don’t have to forego the things we can no longer even think about, if we’re smart. And it hurts. It’s hard for them to get their brains around it. Just yesterday, we were all eating smothered chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn on the cob, and hot biscuits, washing it down with big glasses of sweet tea and finishing it all off with apple pie a la mode. And one day later, they still can. But we can’t. It’s not their fault. They’re not going to give it all up just because we have to.  We don’t want to give it all up and we need to.

"So we tell ourselves we’ll be careful tomorrow. Or that this is a birthday party after all (it would be rude not to partake). Or whatever comes to mind that allows us to make the decisions that can cost us our lives. Until we wind up in the hospital and then life goes on as usual for everybody else. But not for us. It’s no wonder diabetics as a group are said to be the most depressed people in America."

So far, we have no cure for diabetes. For most of us, the diagnosis is permanent. But there's at least one way to avoid the depression, heart attacks, and strokes: we can manage the diabetes. If we're depressed, though, we don't feel like trying. And the next thing you know, we're lying in the hospital, having suffered a major health crisis on top of our diabetes. And we're more depressed than ever.

How do we shake the blues? We all have our own special remedies. What won't work? Using food as a drug. Because that might feel good for a minute, but then the blood glucose level goes through the roof, the guilt sets in, and -- again -- the depression gets worse. Along with other accompanying problems (like gaining weight).

I'm going to write some more about depression next week. But in the meantime, I hope you'll come up with a list of things that make you feel happier without feeling unhappier afterward. Taking a walk on a sunny day makes me feel happier. Doing something nice for somebody else (without expecting anything in return) lightens my mood. Watching reruns of America's Funniest Home Videos gets me laughing in spite of myself. And I've discovered many more that work for me. What is something you can do for yourself right now that will lift your mood without negative repercussions?