Have diabetes? From depression to anxiety, the mental health issues you could face, and how to keep a lid on them
- Being diagnosed with diabetes can cause feelings of guilt and frustration, and lead to anxiety and depression
- Changing your lifestyle, and the support of friends and family, are key to feeling better about your condition
When she was 19, actress Halle Berry was diagnosed with diabetes.
At first, the news left the now-53-year-old Oscar winner petrified, according to a 2005 interview with the Daily Mail. “Diabetes caught me completely off guard … They told me I might lose my eyesight, or I could lose my legs. I was scared to death, I thought I was going to die,” she told the British tabloid newspaper.
“This is a disease I was diagnosed with when I was 13,” Jonas said at the Radio Disney Music Awards in 2017. “It was a moment in my life when I was just getting ready to start making music with my brothers, and touring, and it was something I thought would slow me down before I even got started.”
It is not uncommon to experience worry, fear, anxiety and frustration after being diagnosed with diabetes. In a Diabetes UK survey in 2017, 8,500 diabetes sufferers of different ages, ethnicities and backgrounds shared how their diagnosis affected their mental health, with three in five, or 64 per cent, saying that they often or sometimes feel down because of the disease.