How will Lincolnshire Talking Therapies help me with diabetes?
Our team of experienced and qualified professionals will work with you to help you understand your mood problems and show you a new way of coping. Our therapists have had specialist training to work with people with long term health conditions. This means they are able to help you with a range of problems that are common. These include low mood, worries, stress, and difficulty coping. Working on these problems can help you improve your wellbeing and quality of life.
Diabetes and depression
Depression is the most commonly experienced mood problem in people diagnosed with diabetes. It is characterised by low mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration.
Depression can have a serious impact on your overall wellbeing and your ability to self-manage your diabetes.
Diabetes and anxiety
Learning to successfully manage your diabetes requires a number of changes to your lifestyle and investment in self-care activities. This can lead to an increase in uncertainty in your day which can result in you feeling overwhelmed and anxious.
People with diabetes commonly express concern about the effects of having diabetes and the fear of experiencing long term complications. For some people this leads to excessive anxiety that might interfere with how you look after yourself.
Diabetes and stress
Learning to manage stress is really important if you have diabetes. Stress has been linked to an increased likelihood of developing diabetes and changes in blood sugar levels. This can be really problematic for people with diabetes. Being diagnosed with diabetes and adjusting to a treatment regime can be stressful.
Diabetes and needle phobia
Many people experience a fear of needles or seeing blood. For some people, it is linked to fainting or feeling faint. For others, they experience panic when the phobia is triggered. If you are diagnosed with diabetes it is likely that you will come into contact with needles as part of your treatment.
Having a needle phobia can make accessing the right treatment difficult. The good news is that it can be overcome with simple exercises and practice.
How to get help
If you would like to see us, discuss our service with your diabetes specialist who will arrange an assessment appointment for you.
What happens next
You will be offered an initial assessment which will be carried out where you receive your diabetes care or over the phone by a trained clinician. You will be asked questions about how you are feeling, behaving and thinking. This is to help us to find the best way to help you. Everyone is different so we will work together to decide the most appropriate treatment.
What help do we offer?
We will work closely with your specialist physical healthcare clinicians to make sure what we do complements your diabetes treatment. Following assessment, most people will initially be offered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based guided self-help. This can be in the form of courses, computerised CBT (cCBT), telephone sessions or face-to-face.
If following this course of therapy, further treatment is needed, we can offer you more intensive treatment options. For example, CBT, counselling or interpersonal therapy.
We can also offer support via our Employment Advisor Service if you are having difficulties at work due to common mental health conditions.
