5 ways to fix being tired with diabetes

Diabetes makes you tired for several reasons:

1)      High blood sugars create wear and tear on the body. Even slightly high blood sugars age the body faster than what it is biologically designed to do.

2)      Self care activities are work. Creating that perfect combination of blood sugars, sleep, food, stress, exercise is not just physical work, but mental and emotional as well.

3)      Life is work. “Adulting” has so many daily pressures such as paying bills, going to work, parenthood, holding a good relationship with your spouse.

Has there been a day that you wanted to give up?

What does it look like to be tired?

Being tired is also called “fatigue.” I call it “diabetes fatigue.” There are both mental and physical factors.

Mental fatigue roars it head is two different ways.

1)     You might be triggered by a small event that just tips you over the edge.

For example, maybe there are moments when you are extra mad about your kids not cleaning up their mess or when you are extra upset about a tough day at work. You might feel a burst of frustration that is out of proportion.

2)     You begin to feel very blah about all things diabetes-related over time. This is more like a slow and steady creep. For example, maybe you stop cooking healthy meals for yourself .

Physical factors pain us in different ways. Everyone’s body is different. Outwards signs of physical fatigue present generally in our life.

1)     You start doing less than what you want. This may change day to day depending on your blood sugar control. For example, maybe you cannot have that coffee in the morning before work because you feel like a truck hit you every time you wake up and you keep hitting the snooze.

2)     You do not do things that you used to like to do. This is typically a gradual change. For example, maybe you stopped going to the lake with your family because you are embarrassed from being overweight or too worried about blood sugars to swim.

Add to the mix that there are life demands. Extreme diabetes fatigue – fatigue that lasts for an extended time – can lead to diabetes burnout, which can lead to self-destructive behaviors, like not checking blood sugars or not taking medication appropriately. You can imagine the perils of that kind of behavior going on too long. Eventually you get this way of life that you do not like and you just want it to go back to the way it was before you had diabetes.

If I can learn my unique early signs of diabetes fatigue, I can make adjustments to minimize my risks for a dangerous downward spiral. For example, if there’s a lot going on at work, I need to give myself more grace with my diabetes management. If home life is especially busy, I might talk with my family about how they can help. Or maybe I need to do a quick reality check of my expectations. If I’m feeling tired and run down, I’ll try to get to bed earlier.

Ways to cope

Learning how to cope with diabetes fatigue is very personal. Try a few of these ideas and experiment to figure out what works best for you. 

Realize your focus will naturally ebb and flow. Diabetes is not the only thing in your life. It is normal for your focus to shift depending on where you are in life and what other priorities you are balancing. However, know that if you neglect or ignore diabetes, it will prioritize itself to the top of your list. Find a healthy balance between the demands of diabetes and your other priorities. This balance is a moving target that shifts all the time.

Don’t do diabetes alone. Connect with others and learn from the shared experience of many. Take comfort in knowing so many others face similar struggles. Ask how others manage their own diabetes fatigue. Celebrate wins together, both big and small. Maybe even share your perspective and experiences for others to learn from; I know this especially helped me to join a diabetes support group, so I created one as a leader of the DiabetesSisters, which is the first in Kansas. You can visit the page on the website if you are interested.

Have open and honest conversations with your care team. Has your healthcare professional ever suggested something that you knew wouldn’t fit your lifestyle, but you just nodded and smiled politely before ignoring the suggestion? Imagine if you could instead say, “I understand our goals. Here are the parts of that suggestion I can’t do. Do you have any ideas or alternatives that might help?”

Some other examples for conversations with your care team:

·         “I’m having trouble affording this medication. Are there alternatives? Or a different approach to prescribing that might help? Can we split a higher dose pill?”

·         “I’m supposed to do this (take a medicine, measure blood sugar or blood pressure) twice every day, but I’m having trouble remembering the second time. What can we do?”

·         “Here are things I worry about. Are they realistic? Are there things we can do to set my mind at ease? What would serve me better to focus on?” An example from my own experience was worry over heart health. After a discussion with my endocrinologist, we decided adding a cardiologist to my care team would help set my mind at ease.

Find a safe way to take a break. Sometimes people may really need a break! And there are ways to do it. Maybe it’s as simple as a nice, long nap. Perhaps you have a friend or partner who can “take over” your diabetes management for an afternoon or a weekend. Maybe they count all of your carbohydrates for you, or do your blood sugar checks and record keeping, or wake up at night to check your glucose levels. Whatever bits of diabetes work you feel comfortable sharing, ask your care-partner to do it for you. You can also talk openly with your care team, “I’m battling diabetes fatigue. Talk to me about smart ways I can safely lighten the load on myself without creating extra and unnecessary risk.”

Be kind and compassionate with yourself. If you are struggling with diabetes fatigue, please don’t beat yourself up. That is the last thing you need. More guilt, more shame, and more pressure will not help. Give yourself some room to feel what you need to feel. Sit with your feelings and, if you can, identify exactly what is bothering you. By getting more specific, you’ll find it may be easier to come up with some ideas that might help.

If any of this hit home for you, I encourage you to talk more about it with your loved ones, try a few of the ideas in this article, and don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment with me at Evolve Diabetes LLC.