Diabetes fatigue or burnout is identifiable from the mental and physical exhaustion exhibited by the person with diabetes. They may feel detached from their condition and apathetic to the need for self-care. This burnout can be as brief as hours and as long as years. Sometimes this person may be mislabeled by caregivers as non-compliant.

Sometimes this person may be wrongly labeled by caregivers as non-compliant.

As health care professionals, we know that living with diabetes is no simple task: checking blood sugar, taking medication, choosing the right foods and/or dosing based on food choice, increasing physical activity, all the while balancing life and relationships. Identifying signs of burnout and helping people with diabetes to avoid or cope with the burnout is essential to caring for them. HealthDay News has given great examples and tips on how to do this:

Taking the Diabetes Distress Scale can help people evaluate their struggle areas

Identifying the Signs

• Detachment: people with diabetes described feeling detached from their identity as a person with diabetes.
• Contributing factors: people with diabetes reporting that the constant burden of self-care becomes tedious – checking blood sugars multiple times a day, waking up in the middle of the night, low blood sugars at inconvenient times, etc.

Preventing Burnout or Helping with Recovery

• Help them identify or build their support network: asking for help from friends, family, apps (see our helpful app page), or providers.
• Discuss burnout ahead of time and strategies to prevent it: switching from insulin shots to pumps, allowing a few days vacation from managing blood sugar as rigorously, decrease feelings of guilt which may be there, etc.

Read more at HealthDay News.

See our Psychosocial Care and Assessment Resource Page

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