TEXT ON SCREEN: Sun Life
TEXT ON SCREEN: What you can do about diabetes distress
Xania: “When someone is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, what kind of emotional impact…”
TEXT ON SCREEN: Xania Khan, Host, Director Content Strategy, Sun Life
Xania: “…do you see most often in those early stages of diagnosis?”
Joy: “I think the first part is the shock and the struggle to come to terms with it…”
TEXT ON SCREEN: Joy Sereda, Senior Consultant, Registered Psychotherapist, Sun Life
Joy: “I think that acceptance, it's not only realizing that, well, now I have this condition... but then it's also realizing how it's going to impact and touch every part of their life. Then there's the anxiety about it, and that can drive some people in two different ways. It can drive them to seek out, and they try to learn as much as they can as quickly as they can. And sometimes they kind of fall down a rabbit hole with that one. Or they're like, I can't, I don't want to know.”
Xania: “Denial.”
Joy: “Denial. And then there is the stigma that comes with it. They feel like they're being judged by others. And whether people are judging them or not, it's what they've internalized. So, I kind of see those three things happening the most, right at the beginning. And then you put all this together and then the end result is we have someone who is now faced with this condition that impacts so much of their life. They can feel scared. They can be incredibly self-critical, and then they feel isolated. So they feel like they're handling that all on their own. It's a lot.”
Xania: “What is that happy medium for you in order to level them before they start looking at what their options or what their next steps are?”
Joy: “An important part of it is helping people slow down and recognize: what thoughts are coming up here? What beliefs are showing up and how are we reacting to those things? Because some of the automatic thoughts may not be accurate, and some of these, like, very automatic or deeply entrenched beliefs, you know, may not be helpful. And then looking at some of those patterns and slowing down. And once we have someone who has that self-awareness of, okay, yes, I've been diagnosed with this condition and I'm recognizing how, you know, my thoughts and my emotions are showing up – that's a really empowering moment and then we can kind of move forward.”
Xania: “We hear a lot about – and you mentioned it already – the stigma around having type 2 diabetes. How do you help people through feeling judged and normalizing it?”
Joy: “With feeling judged, the one thing I wanted to do is say, you know, some of that judgment may be coming from yourself. And recognizing some of the language that we use to even talk to ourselves – that self-talk – and then also reframe judgment that they may be feeling from others. Is this judgment or is this lack of understanding? Is this lack of awareness, lack of education? What happens is we have someone who is experiencing tremendous anxiety, experiencing stress. They're feeling isolated, and then they're having to defend and explain these sorts of things as they're...”
Xania: “As they're trying to figure it out."
Joy: "Exactly."
Xania: "Yeah. Talk to me about fatigue, decision fatigue, the constant pressure of monitoring food intake and numbers. And I'm not just talking about that day-to-day reality of bearing that weight and the decision fatigue that comes with it.”
Joy: “Yeah. I've read some studies and some data that an individual who experiences diabetes, I think it's like upwards of, like nearly 300 decisions a day just on their diabetes care. And so when you think about that additional load, of course you're going to hit fatigue.
Xania: "Yeah."
Joy: "There is a condition that we refer to as diabetes distress. It is the result of the psychological and emotional toll and all those decisions. It results in, you know, feelings of helplessness, isolation. Withdrawal avoidance. It feels and can look similar to depression. But the big thing is, it's because of the diabetes. And the wonderful news is that it is very responsive to support and to treatment and to getting the help that the person needs to get on the other side of it and preventing it from going to burnout.”
Xania: “And it just reinforces having your village and having your team. I think it's really important to call out that we've got the medical team, we've got the mental health team... Because they're all connected, and what tends to be missing is that one piece when it comes to the financial professional. You've got your village, but there's this one piece that might be missing that can help because your personal finances and your physical health and your mental health and your healthy eating, they're all interconnected. What do you say to someone who may not be seeing that in their vision, because there's so much that they're taking in?”
Joy: “And you're absolutely right. There's so much that they're taking in. And what they lose sight of is that this is about taking care of the whole person. I will gently point out to them that, you know, when we are in a situation where we have concerns about our physical health, what do we do? We connect with a medical professional. And when we have concerns about our mental or emotional health, we connect with a mental health professional. And so what I'm hearing is there's some stress and anxiety and some concerns about your financial health. And so would it make sense to be connecting with a financial professional."
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