Just curious... how does everyone deal with the day to day grind emotionally?
I know I've been a bit (or okay, a lot) intense about trying to get things under control.. that seems to be how I'm handling the initial shock.. but some days are easier than others.
I know that exercising makes me feel better in general, but by the end of the work 'night' these past couple weeks, all I have desire to do is simply go to bed.
What do you do? Do you have personal favorite quotes that help keep you positive and on the up and up?
Please don't post negativity, I'm already really good at that without anyone's help. :)
I think you have to remind yourself frequently to cut yourself some slack. Especially if you're like me and have perfectionist tendencies in other areas of your life, you have to remind yourself that there is no such thing as perfection with diabetes..listen to me, I need to take my own advice sometimes. :)
But you're right, some days are better than others. At the end of those hard days, I like to try to do something relaxing for myself that I really enjoy, like take a hot bath or go for a long walk with my hubby and puppy or wrap up in a blanket and read a chapter on my nook, anything that lets you clear your head, relax and focus on other things.
I try to remind myself that diabetes care is a marathon, not a sprint. The Serenity Prayer has always helped me alot.
I also try to watch comedy or listen to upbeat music. Surround yourself with friends and family that are positive and funny. I can be super stressed over diabetes control and my husband will find a way to make me laugh at myself.
Smile is right. Don't let yourself beat you up. Remember, this is a moving target. Give yourself some space when you need to. And don't see venting (or crying for that matter) as failure. Sometimes we truly need to let it go. At the same time, the reality is it aint goin' away anytime soon, so at some point / some level we all must come to accept this fact. It is a process we all handle and resolve in our own way. You are only a couple months into that process. It will take as long as you need it to. It's yours.
For me, it is what it is and I can laugh or I can cry. Sometimes I do both, but in the long run laughing helps the most. Having severe PN and retinopathy at diagnosis is a big motivator for me. It took the learning how and doing it of D control completely out of the "things I should do" category and moved them immediately into "the things I absolutely have to do" group.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
I distract myself with hobbies. These days it's exercise and then reading in the evenings and that's about it. I get home from work, workout, feed family and/ or drive junior to dancing or piano. The third shift deal would make it really hard to manage a hobby very well, even reading, I suspect I'd be pretty out of it. I like to work out after work at 5:00 but 5:00 AM would be too wierd I think?
I make sure that this is more things and more enjoyable things in my life than just managing Diabetes! I also like (a non-religious version of) the Serenity Prayer as I spent a lot of time in my youth banging my head against brick walls (trying to change things I had no control over).
Maybe one of the most important things for me, which I learned when I got into recovery from my eating disorder, applies to diabetes as well. Whatever dietary changes you make still make sure that you find yummy things you feel good about eating. If food is all about what you can't have you will feel deprived and that won't work too well. When I contemplated whether I could remain a vegetarian with Diabetes (which I really wanted to do) I realized that I'd have to make major changes in my carb heavy diet of pasta and rice and cereal and get more creative in my cooking, which I very much enjoy.
Finally in diet, as well as everything else concerning diabetes management we all make choices; things we are willing to do and not willing to do. Kind of like in school, if you need to work twice as hard to get an A as a B, you can decide to accept the B as a good grade and spend your energy elsewhere. I read too many posts on here about "guilt" and "I shoulds" and "do you cheat?" My answer to the last one is always "on who??". My own example is remaining a vegetarian. If I gave that up I could eat Bernstein low carb and have better blood sugars. But I would be giving up something very important to me in that equation. Give yourself the permission to live the life you really want to live and see what place your D management takes alongside that. Then enjoy the hell out of that life.
Finally, find one or more "Diabetes buddy". Of course we all have 20,000 D buddies on here, but you all know the internet isn't real life! Find a group or just a friend. It's sooooo good to talk to someone else who really gets it.
I work 24hour shifts, working at night makes it VERY hard to keep up with life in general. It DOES mess you up a bit unless you have a strategy. What I have found is that I come home and have a nice wind down breakfast... then I sleep but before I sleep I come up with a "rule" of how many hours I am going to sleep. For example, I might fall asleep around 10 and sleep until 3p. When it's 3p I get up no matter how tired I am, and I try to make sure I have something to DO when I get up... even if it's just laundry or going for a run or whatever. Sometimes all I can do is get up and go outside and sit. Point here is I got up when I said I was going to and didn't sleep straight through till it was time to go to work again. Giving yourself some sort of schedule where you can still have time to get sleep but also do things you find fun or need to get done will help a lot. Also, when things are particularly awful, I tell myself, just keep going through the motions until the meaning returns. Eventually you'll feel like working out again and you don't want to be super far behind when you get that motivation!
If I have a day where I am actually feeling good I pinch myself to make sure it is real. Most of the time I am surfing to web to read about the latest greatest imaginary potential cure for diabetes to find out when and where its happening so I can get in line for it. Otherwise I am watching porn or playing my guitar.
OMG do I have some really bad days there but I always try to look at the glass as 1/2 full. On bad days??? I think well atleast I'm alive and breathing. Not taking anything away from the emotinal part of D but trying to find my way to smile and laugh.
Thank you for the reminder and the second half- I've always seen the first part but not the second. My grandfather was an alcoholic, 30+ years sober at time of death.. and he lived by this every day. I think I would do well to remember and try to follow it.
My CDE gave me the e-mail address of a med student who was diagnosed with T1 just a few weeks before me (odd coincidence..)... but I haven't e-mailed him because I have no idea what to say.
"Hi, this sucks."? Lol.
Thanks for your advice, Zoe. It's always very insightful and I appreciate it.
I think if I had to do 24 hour shifts... I would just quit, LOL. Will be glad when I have no more overnights. I like consistent schedules but this two weeks on day schedule and two weeks on overnights is murderous for me right now. Grr. BUT, almost done..
It's hard to keep the schedule on the one day we have 'off' because it's the only day I can see any friends, family, or my boyfriend!
I like to think of the song, "Accentuate the Positive" and the positive phrases in the song like:
Accentuate the Positive... Latch on to the Affirmative...
Spread Joy out to the Maximum...
Also keep in mind that you are newly diagnosed - therefore, you are a relative baby. I like to think about watching a baby learning to walk. At first, it seems like walking will never happen, but over time (and lots of spills, crashes, bumps, bruises and tears) the baby not only walks but runs.
Finally, remember the past is over, the future hasn't yet arrived, so all you have is this moment. Live it to the fullest.
