Currently, a disease is ravaging America as it turns into an epidemic. According to the Center of Disease Control, in 2015, there were approximately twenty-three point two-five Americans that were diagnosed with diabetes. This number has been climbing steadily for over a century. An epidemic as fast growing as diabetes is studied rather closely. This disease can affect anyone at any age, though the types of diabetes varies from person to person. As a brief summary, four types of diabetes exists. Type one, type two, gestational diabetes, and prediabetes. Type one diabetes is considered to be a genetic disorder and happens at a younger age for most cases. With type one diabetes, no insulin is produced whatsoever and in order to stay alive, a type one diabetic must inject themselves with insulin when they ingest carbohydrates (CDC 2018). With type two diabetes, the body does not make and use insulin very well. A type two diabetic injects insulin to compensate for the lack of body produced insulin. Type two diabetes is not genetic. Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant woman who have never had diabetes (CDC 2018). Gestational diabetes generally goes away after the baby is born. However, babies can be born with an increased risk of health complications (CDC 2018). Lastly, prediabetes is simply when a person has higher blood sugars, but not high enough to be diagnosed with diabetes (CDC 2018). While these different types of diabetes have different circumstances, they all can affect an individual psychologically. Psychological effects occur to patients of all type of diabetes and, in the case of type one diabetes, extends to the parents of young diabetics.
Psychological development occurs most significantly during childhood and the adolescent period, especially during adolescence. Diabetes becomes a lifestyle in the way that one has to live their life with diabetes, especially type one, which requires a daily strict regimen. Without this regimen, the person would have severe health problems which could cause death. If the child is diagnosed with diabetes early on in their childhood and is incapable of injecting themselves and care for themselves, then the parents must do it. This may become a problem for some parents, as they feel they are hurting their young children and the child is most likely incapable of understanding why the parent is hurting them. According to a journal written by Whittemore, Jaser, Chao, Jang, & Grey (2012), there are four common themes that parents experience while raising their child with Type One Diabetes. Explained below is the psychological effects of parents and their experiences
Difficult diagnosis is the first barrier for parents raising a young child with diabetes. Emotional distress is the best word to describe the parents feeling, they have a mixture of guilt, stress, concern, and denial. The diagnosis comes as a shock and they are not ready for it. Many parents report that they feel guilty because they feel it is their fault that their child received diabetes from their genetics (specific to type one) (Whittemore, Jaser, Chao, Jang, & Grey, 2012).
Family Disruption is the next barrier to parents, things change on how a parent raises the child.. The child’s blood sugar must constantly be monitored, in doing so, the child will be unable to be as independent as their peers, and may possibly become socially isolated (Whittemore, Jaser, Choa, Jang, & Grey, 2012). Along with that, parents must cater to the nutritional needs of the child. For example, if a child has low blood sugar, they must eat in order to raise their sugar levels. Meals must be custom made for the child. The child may not always be able to eat high carbs. Insulin compensates, but does not completely replace the loss of insulin production.
The next barrier is adjustment. At this point, some time has passed and the parents have come to an understanding of their situation. They have realized what it is exactly that they have to deal with and at this point the shock of the diagnosis is almost gone. The parents have learned how to manage the child’s blood sugar and the care has been incorporated into the daily routine of the family. Now that the parents have gained control of the situation, they begin to try to make the situation for the child better, to make the child feel like they are “normal.” Though they are still protective of the child, the parents become more willing to let the child experience more things. As an analogy, the child had been kept on a tight leash, for the fear of high and low blood sugars. Now that they gain more control of the blood sugar levels, they are allowed a longer leash, while still weary, the parent feels more comfortable that the child can take care of themselves to an extent. These processes are slow to start but are enabled with a connection of support through health professionals and support from friends. According to the articles, parents also utilized coping strategies that include the use of humor, maintaining a positive attitude, and being hopeful. They also maintained a sense of patience and persistence to help as well. (Whittemore, Jaser, Choa, Jang, & Grey, 2012).
The final barrier, and perhaps the barrier that has the longest time line, is called ongoing stress. Maintaining metabolic control is the first experience described in the article. The largest challenge here is keeping blood sugars at safe levels and maintaining them there without constant fluctuations of high and lows. The parents constantly worry about the blood sugar level of the child, even after they become an adolescent or even an adult. Furthermore, the parents found the daily regimen to be time consuming, they have a constant worry of whether or not they completed every single task out of the many they must complete daily. This responsibility can stress them out at all points of the day, and even if the parent were to complete every part of the daily regiment, the blood sugar of the child may still have gone high or low. In this case, the parents blame themselves for it. “What did I do wrong? How could I have prevented this?” These were common thoughts from the parents, and cause yet another stress factor on the parents shoulders. Finally, the worry of the child’s life transitions were a stress factor. They worry how the child will cope in school without them and if their peers will accept them or discriminate against them for their disease (Whittemore, Jaser, Choa, Jang, & Grey, 2012). Parents have many worries about their child with diabetes, but the child has even more concerns.
Type One diabetes affects all aspects of life when the patient is diagnosed young, but it really comes to affect the patient in their transition to adulthood. This happens because this is when the patient becomes independent and must learn to manage their disease with little to no help from their parents. Development into young adulthood then consists of experiences in education, work, family, and intimate relationships with their partners (Guthrie, Bartsocas, Jarosz-Chabot, & Konstantinova, 2003). These experiences make up their existence as an adult and help to identify the patients self-identity. Naturally, a disease like diabetes that affects all aspects of your life, will affect development of self identity among other things. According to the article written by Guthrie, Bartsocas, Jarosz-Chabot, & Konstantinova (2003), a study found that type one diabetic scored lower on a resilience test, a test that examines self esteem levels and optimism levels, against a control group that did not have type one diabetes. In a different study, the same groups were tested, but instead were tested on self-worth, and again it was found that type one diabetics scored lower than the non diabetics. Yet another study from the same article tested type one diabetics and non diabetics that were aged 18-25. This time the test was taken on responsibility, independence, and social maturity, and it was found there was no difference between the diabetics and non diabetics.
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