It's More than Meets the Eye

When you think about diabetes, the first things that come to mind are probably needles, blood, and shots, not anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. But just because you don't see the mental pain and exhaustion that diabetes causes does not mean it doesn't exist, because it most certainly does. Diabetes is a disease that wears you out and never goes away. You never get a break.
Today while on Facebook I saw an article posted by TypeOneNation titled When Type 1 Diabetes is Too Much for a Child to Bear: Part 2 and, intrigued, clicked on the link (http://asweetlife.org/feature/when-type-1-diabetes-is-too-much-for-a-child-to-bear-part-2/.)
The article is about a little boy, whose name was changed for privacy but in the article is called Finn. Finn had been depressed even before his diagnosis of Type One Diabetes in 2011 and later Celiac Disease, but these chronic diseases only added to the depression that he felt. He had been seeing a therapist about his depression, but one day he told his school counselor that he wanted to hurt himself and the school counselor contacted Finn's parents as well as the children's psychiatric hospital’s emergency department. After several calls, Finn was admitted and stayed for just under a week. Although Finn was not miraculously cured after this stay in the hospital, it helped him realize that he wasn't alone and there are others who are struggling worse than he is, and more importantly, it helped his parents realize how they could help Finn and that they needed to.
I told you all this story because it helps show that diabetes is definitely not just physical. It is just as mentally exhausting as it is physically. And this mental exhaustion comes in all shapes and sizes. It can come in the major extremes of depression and anxiety, or it can come in smaller forms like burnout and just not wanting to deal with diabetes. Sometimes diabetes just mentally wears you out to the point that it's hard to make yourself do things like check your blood sugar and give yourself insulin because even though you know you need to do them to stay alive and well, you just don't want to. No matter how long, or how briefly, you've lived with diabetes, you can still experience the mental effects of the disease and you probably will, unfortunately. Just as diabetes is different from person to person in the physical effects it causes, it is also different in the mental effects that it causes. One person may only deal with minor burnout and having to force themselves to do what they need to do to care for themselves not matter how much they don't want to while other people like Finn may experience the more extreme mental effects that diabetes can cause like depression and anxiety.
No matter how much alone you feel in dealing with the mental exhaustion that diabetes causes, you're not, and that's important to know. It's okay to admit that you're not okay, and it's okay to reach out for help. Find a parent, doctor, nurse or some other person you trust and let them know what you're going through. They want to help you and they don't want you to have to go through this battle alone. They may not understand what you're going through, but they can support you and encourage you to keep going when you feel like giving up. So please, if you're like Finn and are struggling with diabetes and need help, please reach out and get help. There are people who are there to, and want to, help you and all you have to do is ask.