Diabetic Mental Health

Mental Health America. “Diabetes and Mental Health.” Mental Health America, 2023, www.mhanational.org/diabetes-and-mental-health#:~:text=Changes%20in%20blood%20sugar%20can.

I want to look into the ways one might experience a bad mental health with having diabetes overall, not just children, so that I could get an overview of what the whole diabetic population feels. I found out that people with Type 1 diabetes have an increased risk of gaining a lot of stress and depression. Type 1 diabetics also seem to gain a lot of eating disorders. This is because once they are diagnosed, they need to start making a stricter diet of what they can or cannot eat. This would lead people to start taking a lot of extreme measures in their diet to “maintain” their blood sugars. This could also lead to other mental health issues later on. 

Specifically for diabetics, there is a mental disorder that is called “Diabetic distress”. This is when people with diabetes have a lot of fear of having drastic changes in their blood sugar numbers. For example, they have a fear of having too low of blood sugar levels and/ or too high of blood sugars. More than half of people that are diagnosed with diabetes, have a moment in their life when they face diabetic distress. However, there is no medication or therapy for this. There is, however, a way that the patient can make a better diabetic management plan to manage their blood sugars. This can lead to less stress and fear in their lives and to better blood sugars and brain health. 

Though some of these mental health disorders are really important to address, many people, about 45% of diagnosed diabetics, have had mental health issues that have gone unnoticed or undiagnosed. This can be a serious problem for people that don’t acknowledge their own feelings and decrease mental health. This could also be a serious problem for the patient’s bodily health. Once one finally acknowledges their mental health, they can look at different types of therapy that could help them. The three different types of therapies are cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), family therapy, and dialectical-behavioral therapy (DBT). CBT is where it helps with better and healthier ideas and opinions of one’s lifestyle. Family therapy can be really helpful with teens because it allows the family to talk to her child and see what they truly need and how they truly feel about their condition to better their lifestyle. DBT focuses on distress tolerance, regulations of emotions, and other ways to help with the emotions that one might feel with their new lifestyle. 

If therapy doesn’t work, then there are some treatments of medications so that could help with the patient's mental health. One of the medications that show promising results would be antidepressants. This is because it allows for controlled stress and depression. However, a study shows that 95% of the diabetics that take antidepressant, have also lowered their blood pressure which can lead to better health for not only their body, but for the mental health of the patient. This is why I want to place some educational videos on mental health for my channel!