Remember: You Are in Control

In many diseases, the doctor is in charge of your treatment. Diabetes is different. In diabetes, you and your doctor should work together, but you are in charge of your day-to-day care. How you live your life is the treatment. What you eat. How you take your medicine. How you handle stress. Your doctor and other healthcare professionals can help. They make up your team, but you are in charge.

The more you know about diabetes and act upon that knowledge, the healthier you can be. We hope that you'll make good use of the important tools we've discussed in this website. These tools will help you to accomplish your key goals for living successfully with diabetes.

Strategies for dealing with diabetes

Learning to deal with diabetes can be difficult. At first, you may feel angry, afraid, frustrated, guilty, or depressed. These feelings are quite normal. Expressing how you feel may help you to work through these emotions. Some people feel most comfortable talking with family and friends about their feelings. Others find comfort in talking with their healthcare team or a diabetes support group. The important thing is to talk about how you are feeling.

Here are some other things to keep in mind:

• The love and support of your family and friends is an endless source of strength. Take advantage of it.
• Fear, anger, and confusion can stop you from taking care of yourself. If you feel them gaining control — get help!
• Learn to take an active role in your care.
• Continue to do the things you love. Diabetes does not have to stop you from getting satisfaction and pleasure out of life.

Remember that you're not alone. You're part of a team committed to managing your diabetes. Never forget that diabetes is challenging. Celebrate your successes instead of striving for perfection. Keep track of your successes, and work to repeat them. When things don't turn out the way you planned, ask yourself, "What can I learn from this?"

By learning and using your knowledge to meet each new challenge, you'll gain confidence in your ability to take care of yourself. One day, instead of simply coping with your diabetes, you'll find that you truly are managing your diabetes.