Recently, my wife shared a conversation she had where she admitted that for a brief moment, she was worried that my diabetes diagnosis would overwhelm me, causing me to spiral into a lack of self-care.
That, thankfully, didn’t happen. I don’t blame her for being worried; we’ve watched too many people around us spiral after being diagnosed with health conditions, become unemployed, or have a relationship end to believe that it couldn’t happen to us. The experience taught me that two things helped me not spiral, even as I was recognizing that my life was about to look very different.
- I had access to experts immediately. The amount of time that passed between “you have type 2 diabetes” and “here are the things you’re going to do to treat this” was almost non-existent. The medication plan was in place that day. Regular meetings with a nutritionist were scheduled for the next week. She came with her own set of “this is what you’re going to do” instructions. There was never a doubt in my mind about there being a plan and how I could follow it. Things are much less overwhelming when there’s a plan that can be followed so that you don’t have to wonder what comes next.
- My wife was entirely on board with me. She wanted recordings of my meetings so that she knew how to alter our shopping and cooking plans. She was helping
Having both of those things is not a guarantee, of course. On the other hand, they. It can make all the difference in the world to someone struggling to overcome life’s difficulties, including mental health and trauma healing.
The challenge is to create a society where more people have access to experts and are not left to fend for themselves.