The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes

If you live with any form of diabetes, you’re far more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. An estimated 40% of individuals with type 1 diabetes and 35% of people with type 2 diabetes experience significant levels of “diabetes distress,” which can result in negative mental health repercussions, including diabetes burnout.

A mental health provider can be a vital part of your medical team. Dr. Mark Heyman, the Founder and Director of the Center for Diabetes and Mental Health (CDMH), explains why:

Diabetes is a self-managed condition. This means that it is the person with diabetes, not their doctor, who is responsible for taking care of him or herself on a daily basis. Diabetes involves making frequent, sometimes life or death decisions below sometimes stressful and physically uncomfortable circumstances.

In addition, diabetes management is constant and can feel overwhelming. If you or someone close to you has diabetes, take a minute and think about all of the steps you take in your diabetes management each day. What to eat, how much insulin to take, when (or whether) to exercise, how to interpret a glucose reading, how many carbs to take to alleviate a low, the list goes on. Decisions, and resulting behaviors (and their consequences) are critical aspects of diabetes management. However, doing everything necessary to manage diabetes can become overwhelming – and feeling overwhelmed is usually no fun.

There are things you can do to aid manage the mental distress of diabetes, including finding a good mental health provider that is especially positioned to help people with diabetes. This article will outline how to find the perfect fit!

Consider What You want in a Mental Health Provider

Think of your mental health provider (or therapist) as someone you’re trying to develop a long-term relationship with. You want to be comfortable sharing all of your thoughts and feelings with this person, and be vulnerable with them as well.

Mental health providers become extremely close with their clients, so knowing what will make you uncomfortable is extremely important and crucial to knowing who you want to look for when searching for a provider. Some things you may want to keep in mind:

• Gender (do you have a preference to work with only men or only women?)
• Age (you may feel more comfortable working with someone much older or younger than you, or maybe you’d prefer someone closer to your age)
• Religion (are you looking to connect spiritually with someone? Perhaps your religion is very important to you, or perhaps you’re looking to keep the interactions completely secular)

When you contact a provider’s office or finish an initial questionnaire for therapy, you’ll usually be asked some questions about basic preferences, such as those described above, to help match you with the best therapist.

You may also be capable to research a mental health provider’s bio online to become aware of more about their areas of expertise before scheduling a visit.

Consider the issues You Want to Address

There are many diverse forms of mental health providers out there, and knowing that specific issues you want to address can help steer you in the right direction. Perhaps you’re suffering from substance abuse, or maybe you have developed anxiety around food. Maybe you and your spouse are struggling with your child’s new diabetes diagnosis, or you’ve noticed depressive symptoms that you want to tackle early. Different providers can help you manage different issues, so be cognizant of that. Some of the different types of specialists include:

• LCSW – Licensed Clinical Social Worker
• LMFT – Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
• NCC – National Certified Counselor
• LCDC – Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor
• LPC – Licensed Professional Counselor
• LMHC – Licensed Mental Health Counselor
• PsyD – doctor of Psychology
• Ph.D. – Doctor of Philosophy
• MD – Doctor of Medicine

But no matter what a provider’s background credentials entail, what matters most is their area of expertise. Reading up on a provider’s background information and bio can help you familiarize yourself with the areas of mental health they deal with, and can help you decide if they would ultimately make the best fit for you and your needs.

Consider Asking for a Consultation

Consider this an interview for the mental health provider you’re considering “hiring.” Some practices will offer a free, 30-minute consultation, so that you can get to realize the provider before deciding to come on as a client. Some important questions to ask if you’re capable to, are:

• Are you a licensed provider? (while every state varies, a licensed provider has passed the minimum competency standards for training within your state)
• What’s your educational background?
• What is your treatment orientation? (this refers to the school of thought that the therapist draws from in understanding and treating mental health issues)
• What is your area of expertise? (and if they say “chronic disease” or “diabetes,” that would be excellent!)
• Do you accept my insurance?
• What is the cost per session?
• Are you a prescribing physician? (some providers may be able to prescribe medication for things like obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and depression)
• What is your communication style?
• Do you prefer short or longer-term therapy? (some providers are very short-term goal-oriented, at the same time as others prefer developing a relationship over a long period of time)

These questions are not a complete list, but it’s a good start to finding the perfect fit for you and your care.

Seek out Diabetes Experts

It can be very difficult to find the right mental health provider for you and your needs, and that’s especially true when living with a chronic ailment like diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recently teamed up with the American Psychological Association (APA) and created a directory of mental health providers specifically equipped to meet the needs of people with diabetes. All providers in this directory are:

• Currently licensed as a mental health provider
• A professional member of the ADA (Associate, Medicine & Science, Health Care & Education)
• Have demonstrated competence in treating the mental health needs of people with diabetes

Currently, the directory has about 60 providers, 40 of which grant pediatric services, and the list is rapidly growing. The tool is simple to use: enter your zip code and whether you’re looking for adult or pediatric services. The directory will then pull up diabetes-trained mental health providers near you. The directory also lets you access what types of insurance a chosen provider accepts, their office location, phone number, and more.

Finding an appropriate mental health provider can be a difficult but worthwhile challenge. Investing your time, money, and energy to improving your mental health as someone living with diabetes is absolutely worth it, and it is crucial that you find a mental health provider that is going to work best for you in getting your needs and goals met. Hopefully these tools will make it a little easier to get there!

Diabetes Daily

The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes