3 minute read
Your Life with Diabetes and the Process of
YO U R L I F E W I T H D I A B E T ES A N D T H E P RO C ESS O F C H A N G E
By Jean C. Baltz BC-ADM, RD, CDE, MMSc, MSW Director Chronic Disease Management Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services
Your life with diabetes can be whatever you determine it to be. You can think of it as an adventure of learning about your body’s processes, food and nutrition and how so much in your life impacts your glucose (blood sugar), enjoying the good times and rolling with and learning from the more difficult times.
It is an opportunity to build a trusting relationship with your provider. And learn of the many tools available to help you achieve the best possible health and wellness!
Or not; you may choose to ignore the symptoms, accommodate to the lesser energy level, vision changes, pain and tingling in your limbs and choose to not seek the most innovative care management.
Accepting the need to change is very difficult and little is understood about the process of change. In fact, not much is known about why people change and even less about why changes last. There is little consensus on the definition of relapse or failure which is almost always a part of the change process. Change is not necessarily progressive or incremental and therefore not easily recognized or measured. It would not be inaccurate to state that every change process takes on characteristics of the person attempting change. Change is generally the result of a complex series of events and circumstances that are only partially related to a person’s choices and decisions.
Change almost always requires some sort of constructive plan of action, as well as structured opportunities to attain desired objectives; commitment alone leads to frustration.
With a new diagnosis of diabetes, there are many intrusions in your usual way of doing things; monitoring glucose, eating a healthy diet, reading labels, changing your usual diet content, amount and timing, taking prescribed medications at designated times, exercising, managing stress and anxiety, following complicated instructions when ill, scheduling and keeping appointments with your provider several times a year. It can all seem very exhausting.
Knowing yourself is a key component to successful diabetes management. Working with a diabetes manager or educator can assist you in this process. This is termed the biopsychosocial assessment. It is an assessment to best determine how you learn, what your challenges may be and also your strengths. The biopsychosocial model is a way of looking at the mind and body as two important systems that are interlinked.
Behavior and behavior change takes on a mind-body conflict. When you tackle “change”, knowing what personal obstacles may be encountered and what assets are available can better predict success.
Consider the following as potential barriers to successfully implementing change (Bunker & DeLisle, 1991);
• Lack of awareness that change is needed. • Inability to decide what needs to be done. • Lack of understanding about what is
expected.
• Inability to do what is expected. • Lack of willingness to give up what is
perceived as valuable.
• Reinforcement for remaining the same. • Lack of belief that what is offered is better
than the status quo.
• Feeling threatened by the anticipated
outcome.
• A low personal tolerance for change. • Tendency to cooperate in a way that is
different from what others prefer or expect.
Lasting change is internalized; it becomes a part of the person; it is significant and transformative and results in altered thinking, feeling, and behavior, and remains stable until such a point it is no longer adaptive.
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