Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

It’s normal to be annoyed by constant blood sugar control. Here’s how you can take care of yourself and get back on track.

“I felt like I couldn’t do it any longer.” So I didn’t,” explains Sarah Kaye, a 35-year-old South Carolina mother of two who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a preschooler.

Sarah is discussing burnout. Diabetes fatigue. To someone living with diabetes, the word can imply a variety of things, and it can be sparked by any number of events or by nothing more than the daily physical and mental load of living with this disease.

What Exactly Is Diabetes Burnout?

“In my own practise,” says Dr. Soumya Hullannavar, Lead Ayurveda Endocrine Specialist at Diabetes Reversal Clinics & EliteAyurveda Clinics, “I’ve met far too many people who have chosen to ignore their diabetes for years or, in some cases, decades.”

“They are young and old, male and female, new to diabetes and veterans.” They are not evil, ignorant, or weak. They are ordinary people who are dealing with diabetes for understandable reasons. And their fights take various forms.”

According to Dr. Soumya, while some people feel helpless and defeated by the condition, others’ burnout may be the consequence of denial and “never truly accepting the reality of diabetes in their lives.”

However, burnout can take any form, regardless of intensity or duration.

Sarah has experienced burnout at least five or six times in the past 32 years of pricking her fingers, counting carbs, taking insulin, and hoping it’s close to the amount her pancreas would’ve given her in order to avoid frustrating high blood sugars and exhausting low blood sugars.

“I think of burnout as the inability to take care of myself due to mental and physical exhaustion,” Sarah adds. “It’s as if a door in my brain has closed, preventing me from accessing the location where everything I know about diabetes care and diabetes management is stored.”

“I can’t enter because my body can’t take the toll of swinging back and forth in a never-ending cycle from happiness and elation to sadness, anger, guilt, and frustration.” “Like a clothes dryer, but slower.”

Burnout is an individual experience, but it is frequently accompanied by feelings of shame and guilt. Others with diabetes may become judgmental, viewing burnout as a sign of weakness or failure, but it’s not that easy.

Burnout can be exhausting for some people. You manage to keep your blood sugars within normal ranges, but you aren’t as diligent about checking them as you should be.

Others experience burnout as an unpleasant and overpowering sense of defeat, believing they can’t possible keep up with the demands of life with diabetes, whether type 1 or type 2.

Others experience burnout as a result of the difficult combination of managing a very demanding disease with other real-life demands. You, like every other human being, survive by dealing. Coping for some means taking a break from diabetes control to focus on another aspect of your life.

Diabetes Burnout Factors

“Diabetes burnout means I’ve grown tired of everything I have to do and think about in order to try to control my diabetes,” says Kate Cornell, 65, who has had type 2 diabetes since 2005. “It means I’m sick and tired of talking about it, thinking about it, and making the necessary sacrifices.”

Sarah and Kate would both tell you that they know exactly what caused their burnout. Kate’s burnout is the result of caring for her 97-year-old mother while also dealing with her own recently diagnosed fibromyalgia.

“I admit I haven’t given my diabetes much thought in nearly a year. “I made the decision to eat whatever I wanted and deal with the blood sugars later,” she adds. “I still check them at least once a day and try to eat a lower carb diet, but I haven’t been thinking about anything long-term.” That is not good for someone who has diabetes.”

Burnout struck Sarah after a lengthy period of trying her absolute best and attaining her objectives.

“By far my worst burnout period was after my first pregnancy,” she explains. “I knew I had to be on my game while trying to get pregnant.” I held myself under control for a few of years before discovering we had conceived.”

Burnout began to set in about the time she found out she was pregnant—certainly not the time to take a break and replenish her diabetes management energy reserves.

“And thus began the most nerve-racking diabetes management period of my life,” Sarah explains. “I was concerned about more than simply my health. I was constantly concerned about hurting my child. Unfortunately, I never experienced the joy of pregnancy or the sense of awe that many women do.”

Sarah gave birth to a healthy baby boy, but she was fatigued, and the roller-coaster blood sugar levels that come with diabetes control while breastfeeding and adjusting to life with a newborn took their toll.

For the next nine months, Sarah tested her blood sugar once or twice a day, constantly finding a high figure that she’d only treat with insulin if it was above 300 mg/dL to prevent diabetic ketoacidosis. DKA is a serious condition in which poisonous levels of ketones are created as a result of a severe insulin deficiency.

Managing Diabetes Burnout

While it is critical to recognise and overcome your own burnout, it is also critical to take the appropriate precautions to keep yourself safe and out of the hospital. Long-term burnout that leads to long-term high blood sugar levels increases your chance for all of the various diabetes issues you’ve been warned about: neuropathy, retinopathy, and nephropathy, in addition to the emerging concerns of DKA and dangerously high blood sugar levels.

Rather than inspiring change, this list of cautions may, sadly, exacerbate the burnout load. Dr. Soumya suggests “diabetes vacations” to assist alleviate or prevent burnout, but emphasises the distinction between a healthy diabetes vacation and an unsafe respite.

“A safe vacation is brief and involves planning ahead of time so that your diabetes control is not jeopardized,” explains Dr. Soumya. “This does not imply that you should discontinue all diabetes care.” You could, for example, opt to take a night off from your diabetes-friendly food plan once a week. A pleasant vacation can replenish your energy for diabetes management.”

Dr. Soumya defines a dangerous diabetic vacation as one that lasts a long period and may endanger your health: “Perhaps you have been ignoring your diabetes for years, or you take your medications faithfully but decide you don’t ever want to check your blood sugars again.”

Seeking aid and support is critical for those who are caught in a burnout phase that may easily be classed as harmful. If you are unable to acknowledge to your care team that you are significantly struggling, inform a trusted friend or family member. Asking for help does not require you to snap out of your burnout. It simply means that you will acknowledge and work through it in a secure environment with the necessary support.

It is critical to include your care team in a plan for returning to competent diabetes control after burnout. For example, if you’re tired of attempting to keep your A1c near 7.0, talk to your team about aiming for blood sugars that will result in an 8.0 A1c instead.

The point is that involving your team may be a convenient approach to alleviate the load and duties of diabetes care while also keeping you safe. The more severe your burnout, the more important it may be to get professional therapy from a therapist who can assist you.

Sarah achieved a happy medium by keeping her blood sugar below 300 mg/dL and focusing on the fundamentals of diabetes management: taking her insulin, avoiding excessive highs and lows, and checking her blood sugar on a regular basis.

“I didn’t care about correcting mild highs because I had a baby to take care of, and the last thing I wanted to do was go low and not be able to take care of him,” she explains. “I’d let my sugars cruise in the 200s without blinking.” I used to blind-bolus for carbs, rarely even taking the time to guess at the carb-count when I took my insulin.

“Diabetes was the furthest thing from my mind, and I didn’t want it to be.” I despised diabetes and everything that came with it.”

Sarah’s postpartum burnout lasted nine months before she felt ready to return to the everyday rigors of diabetes.

“I truly believe that diabetic burnout is similar to the proverb, ‘Depression is not a sign of weakness; it’s a symptom of being strong for too long.’ Diabetes burnout is very similar—trying to be perfect for too long can lead to a fast fall into diabetes burnout.”

Kate, whose burnout cloud is just now beginning to lift after several months, believes she is exiting the phase as gradually as she entered it.

“Be kind to yourself,” Kate advises. “It was always in the back of my mind that this trend couldn’t go on forever, but I needed time to let other things in my life settle down first.”

Our Outlook –

How are we able to Treat Diabetes Completely?

“Madhumeha” is the term for Diabetes in Ayurveda, which means ‘Sweet urine’. The manifestation of diabetes is through thirst or urination. According to Ayurveda, due to accumulation of Vata Dosha. Vata dosha accumulates in the large intestine and travels to the pancreas, which hampers its functioning.

Sometimes, Pitta Dosha also leads to diabetes. This is when Pitta gets accumulated in the small intestine before moving to the liver and may cause damage to pancreas. As the main constituent of Pitta is Agni, it burns out pancreas leading to Diabetes.

If the above things are taken into consideration, the treatment of Diabetes in Ayurveda starts with proper cleansing of the body and balancing of doshas. The treatment includes herbal combinations that are prepared based on individual Prakruti and Vikruti analysis. Ie. The treatment is based on a person’s body composition & which dosha is dominant. The treatments like Dhara, Udwarthanam, Thalam, etc are followed to reverse diabetes. The treatment also includes Panchakarma & Yoga procedures to address the root cause of disease. We have seen many patients successfully reversing Diabetes and now living a healthy life.

Unlike other treatment procedures that jump straight to symptom management, we address the root-cause of the disease. Our treatment for Diabetes has proved to achieve a near cure and symptom-free state. We focus on diet, use of potent herbs, meditation, massage with herbal oils and yoga. These classical ayurveda practices have proven & shown sustained results in our Diabetes Treatment.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Soumya Hullannavar, Lead Ayurveda Endocrine Specialist at Diabetes Reversal Clinics & EliteAyurveda Clinics. With over 15 years of experience in treating endocrine & diabetes cases

Visit  diabetesreversal.clinic for additional details.

Know more about Ayurveda Diabetes Reversal.