To begin, I’m not talking about financial matters. Rather, I know from reading numerous articles that we diabetics are more likely to suffer from depression than others. Let’s explore what this means and what we can do about it.

How do we know we’re depressed? Symptoms of depression vary greatly, thus it’s challenging to generalize. My simple explanation is: I’m depressed when I remain stuck in negative feelings and it’s affecting most aspects of my life. I have had very brief episodes of depression and am thankful that I’ve never had what medical people call clinical depression.

According to information I found on the web, approximately 14 million adults are depressed. For some, they don’t get enough sleep while for others they get too much sleep and can’t get out of bed. There are many characteristics found in people with depression; however, the bottom line is depression can be very debilitating for us with diabetes.

Today’s medical literature talks about MDD (Major Depressive Disorder). I read that MDD can be diagnosed by a healthcare professional when a patient demonstrates at least 2 weeks of depressed mood or loss of interest accompanied by at least four additional symptoms of depression. This is a serious health issue, thus action needs to be taken by those who are depressed.

Since I’m not a medical person, I offer the following general suggestions based on my life experience:

  • When you think you’re depressed, take action and meet with an appropriate professional.
  • Remember to evaluate your thinking and if you find your thoughts are chronically negative, work on changing your thinking.
  • Use antidepressant medications only under a doctor’s supervision. In our society we are too reliant on drugs to “fix” our mental state and there are other therapies that should be tried before opting for drugs.
  • Just talking to someone can help to overcome the negative thinking. A trained or certified psychotherapist appointment is a good place to start.

Diabetes self-care is of course very challenging and adding depression just makes it worse. My advice is to stay connected with friends and family and stay active. Life is hardly ever as bad as negative thinking makes it seem. Depression is very serious for us diabetics and your support group can be helpful, but first you have to be honest as you share your situation. Help is available and it begins with recognition of a problem followed by action aimed at proper diagnosis and appropriate therapy.