Friday, November 14, 2008
Poll: Young people and coping with diabetes
Today I saw this article in the top headlines on Google:
Poll finds that yng diabetes patients have trouble coping
The article is about children and teens with type 1 diabetes, and how well they cope with their condition. Essentially, the poll found that half of young diabetics have "difficulty coping with diabetes," and many suffer from depression as a result.
Interestingly, a common complaint was that teachers and school faculty are not well educated on diabetes, let alone prepared for dealing with diabetic students. Since I have postulated before society's lack of education on diabetes has lead to many misunderstandings about diabetes, I am pretty sure I would agree if I had a diabetic child in school (or if I had become diabetic while I was still in school).
The article also advocates websites, blogs, and discussion boards as support for diabetic children and their parents — as long as they are legitimate resources, which the article defines as those being "monitored by health care professionals." However, I would also go a step further, to say that blogs and websites written by type 1 diabetics who are fairly positive about their diabetes should also be considered legitimate resources. Obviously someone like myself can't give professional medical advice, but I do think that our experiences with diabetes can be helpful to others and should be shared.
The biggest and most important thing that I think I could say to help other young type 1 diabetics cope is: Be proud of who you are. Having type 1 diabetes sets you apart from others, but it's not a difference to be ashamed of. In my opinion, it's a difference that will always encourage you to lead healthier, happier lives than your non-diabetic peers. And when you look at it that way, there's not really that much to be depressed about!
Poll finds that yng diabetes patients have trouble coping
The article is about children and teens with type 1 diabetes, and how well they cope with their condition. Essentially, the poll found that half of young diabetics have "difficulty coping with diabetes," and many suffer from depression as a result.
Interestingly, a common complaint was that teachers and school faculty are not well educated on diabetes, let alone prepared for dealing with diabetic students. Since I have postulated before society's lack of education on diabetes has lead to many misunderstandings about diabetes, I am pretty sure I would agree if I had a diabetic child in school (or if I had become diabetic while I was still in school).
The article also advocates websites, blogs, and discussion boards as support for diabetic children and their parents — as long as they are legitimate resources, which the article defines as those being "monitored by health care professionals." However, I would also go a step further, to say that blogs and websites written by type 1 diabetics who are fairly positive about their diabetes should also be considered legitimate resources. Obviously someone like myself can't give professional medical advice, but I do think that our experiences with diabetes can be helpful to others and should be shared.
The biggest and most important thing that I think I could say to help other young type 1 diabetics cope is: Be proud of who you are. Having type 1 diabetes sets you apart from others, but it's not a difference to be ashamed of. In my opinion, it's a difference that will always encourage you to lead healthier, happier lives than your non-diabetic peers. And when you look at it that way, there's not really that much to be depressed about!
Labels: diabetes in the news
# posted by Katharine Swan : 2:39 PM
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