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Diabetes burnout
Diabetes burnout is a common patient reaction to the overwhelming, demanding, and frustrating burden of self-care: You know that reasonable care is important for your health, but you just don't have the motivation to continue to be vigilant when it seems that blood glucose fluctuations are inevitable anyway.
How to get back on track?
- Remember that success depends upon having realistic, practical, and achievable goals. Define one action you could take to start to improve your situation--preferably a fairly easy action that makes success likely.
- If a specific obstacle keeps getting in your way, try to concretely define it. When, where, and why does the problem occur? Consider changing your behavior or your environment, either to make handling the issue easier or to avoid it.
- Consider: Are there other people who could help you? Moral support at home, at work, and in social situations can make a big difference. Decide what kind of support you need and then ask.
- Understand that strong negative feelings about diabetes are normal. Talking with family, friends, health professionals, and other people with diabetes about your feelings can help you to better tolerate them and react in constructive, rather than self-destructive, ways.
- Keep your eye on the rewards of good care, not the consequences of failure. Fears about complications may motivate you for a short time, but in the long run most people either dismiss their fears or become paralyzed by them. Rather, focus on how great you've felt when you've managed the disease well.
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