I was reading my scriptures this week preparing my lesson for my Sunday school class (I teach 6-7 year olds). While reading I came upon a verse in Mark 4:39 “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm’. This saying “peace, be still”, I have heard over and over again and for some reason it really jumped out at me this time. I have been dealing with some stress lately and quite a bit of anxiety. Maybe this is why this scripture really spoke to me this week.
From my experience dealing with patients and also from my own personal experience, it seems most people with Type 1 Diabetes suffer from one or both of the following, anxiety and depression. I never really knew I had anxiety until a few years ago when my husband announced he was unhappy and was leaving. This sent me into a total tailspin and this anxiety I never realized I had become a dominant force in my life. I had daily panic attacks. I would feel shaky and have chills and be unable to do anything. I couldn’t eat, and if I did I felt sick to my stomach. It felt a lot like a hypoglycemic episode, which I now know is actually a symptom for me, feeling anxious can be a low sugar. Makes it hard sometimes to decide if it is anxiety or low sugar.
I have never really gone through much depression, however, I have had to battle anxiety at times. Whenever I feel like things are spinning out of control and I can’t fix them, I become anxious. I have come to realize that this reaction stems from when I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 9. The little 9 year old girl who is still inside of me, whose whole life changed in a day and who no longer had control over her life. This little girl couldn’t cope with it well and so it has been inside of me this whole time, coming out in times of extreme stress and loss of control. I did go through therapy during my divorce and I was able to find a way to work through my panic attacks and anxiety without medication. I am able to do as the scripture says and stop myself, to calm myself and to focus on what I can change or control. What little thing or things can I do to resolve the issue at hand. I am able to still my mind and find peace, then fix those things that I can control and do have power over…
Although I don’t know if all anxiety can be managed without medications, I do know there is a way we can identify what triggers our anxiety and find ways to prevent it from happening. I also believe it is possible for most people to learn, like I did, to resolve their anxiety. I wonder if other patients with Type 1 DM suffer from anxiety, for a similar reason as mine. If others feel this loss of control and have anxiety as a result. From my research, it does seem like anxiety is a result of inappropriate coping, usually from a feeling of being totally overwhelmed and unable to cope. When our conscious mind can no longer make sense of what is happening or figure out a way out of the situation, anxiety sets in. Anxiety can be crippling at times and definitely interferes with going about your daily routines.
My experience from working as a practitioner has shown me that almost everyone who has T1D suffers from anxiety or depression. Most of the time these conditions are not addressed in practice and most patients seem to need help but don’t know where to turn. Mental health issues like anxiety and depression are very common in all areas of chronic illnesses and diabetes is top on the list. Sadly, studies show that if these conditions are untreated, they will result in poorer control of the patient’s diabetes. So, what can we do, as a patient who suffers from one of these two ineffective coping methods? Is there anything we can do, on our own, to help work through some of these issues? I for one believe there is. I had a friend who once told me something very easy. Don’t worry about those things you can’t do anything about. If you can not control it, why stress about it? My mantra for life has become the same for every situation. All we can really control in this life is us, what we say, how we feel, what we think and what we do. So if someone is a jerk to you, can you make them stop being a jerk? Nope. However, you can control how you react to it. You can chose to take a breath and walk away or to be a jerk back (which is strongly advise against), or you can treat them with kindness. Even if they don’t deserve it, they most likely are struggling with something internally and taking it out on you. Learn to let things go, to not take everything so personally and to take the higher road. As you start to do this, you will notice that everything slowly becomes better and easier to handle. Anxiety sucks, but I have no doubt in my mind that we can all figure out how to get through it.