Beat the Diabetes Blues
By Catherine O’Neill Grace and photos by BananaStock/Superstock,
portrait by Chris Stickney
A combination of treatment, exercise and support will start you singing a different tune
EVERY EVENING, MAUREEN MURRAY JUMPS ON HER treadmill and logs three miles. Mornings, the dynamic 65-year-old grandmother of two spends some quiet time with coffee and meditation. Then she heads out to her job at Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Center.
"I have the gift of enthusiasm," Murray says. "I do get low, but I don’t stay there."
It wasn’t always that way. When Murray was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 12, the news brought "dark days," she says.
"It was difficult," Murray recalls. "There were no tools, no good equipment. I come from an alcoholic family, and the support was never there for how to live a good life. I had no coping skills."
In spite of dire warnings that she would not be able to bear children, Murray married young and soon gave birth to a healthy son, Patrick. Daughter Colleen followed. But life with diabetes was "a roller coaster of emotion," Murray says.
In 1985, the family left New Jersey when Bill Murray, a bond trader, took a job in Boca Raton, Fl. "The first three years in Florida were the depression years," Maureen Murray says. "I missed New Jersey, and I was very isolated."
Then, in 1987, Murray found the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, "and I told the doctor I would be a good candidate for an insulin pump," she says. "He said, ‘Before we put you on the pump, we need you to meet with a psychologist and go to a support group. I said, ‘Thank you very much, I don’t need one.’"
But her new health care team insisted, and Murray started attending group counseling meetings led by Dr. Wendy Satin Rapaport, a psychologist affiliated with the Diabetes Research Institute.
Using a pump leveled off Murray’s blood sugar numbers, but it was the meetings that changed her life. Through the group she gained confidence. "I started working part time and my life got better, better, better," she says.
Murray offers her personal list of four things that help her maintain an upbeat attitude to life with diabetes:
1. Exercise: "I own a treadmill and a workout station, so I have no excuses."
2. Music: "Rolling Stones to mellow jazz. Listening helps me stay calm."
Regular exercise and a positive attitude help keep Murray in good spirits.
3. Inspirational books: "I need stories of people who have gone through something more challenging than I have."
4. Eastern religious practices: "Deep breathing and repeating mantras help."
Two decades after her sessions with Rapaport, Murray deals with her occasional down days through exercise and a positive attitude — and that works for her. "She has never given up," says Rapaport, who remains friends with Murray.
Rapaport says that for some depressed patients, antidepressant medication works well. For others, talk therapy or group support can be "remarkably comforting and powerful," she adds. The main thing, experts agree, is to seek treatment when negative feelings begin to interfere with daily life.
According to the Joslin Diabetes Center, people with diabetes may be four times as likely to become depressed as people without diabetes. At Joslin, Dr. Alan M. Jacobson and his colleagues are studying the impact of diabetes on the development of depression and related disorders. They also are examining whether depressive disorders previously thought to be caused by social or emotional factors may have biological causes related to diabetes. They hope to discover how fluctuations in blood glucose levels affect the areas of the brain that control emotion.
Given the elevated risk, it makes sense to monitor emotional as well as physical symptoms, says Dr. Lara Stepleman, a psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia who works with people with chronic illness. Watch for the following symptoms and seek help if they persist for longer than two weeks:
- Depressed mood. This can look like sadness, numbness, emptiness or even irritability.
- Decreased interest and pleasure in doing things that used to be important and fun.
- Weight changes of 5 percent or more in a month.
- Sleep changes, including sleeping all the time or difficulty sleeping.
- Feelings of agitation or restlessness, or of being slowed down.
- Fatigue or loss of energy.
- Feelings of worthlessness and guilt. Patients with chronic illness often blame themselves for what they did or didn’t do to cause their illness. They may feel guilty for not being able to do activities like playing with children.
- Cognitive changes, such as difficulty making decisions or remembering things.
- Thoughts of death or suicide.
"Depression is under treated in people with diabetes," says Stepleman. "If you suspect you’re having some symptoms, ask your regular doctor to do a depression screening. Don’t suffer in silence."
Living with diabetes is a daily challenge. But having diabetes does not have to condemn you to a life of sadness, isolation and despair. Just ask Maureen Murray — you’ll find her on her treadmill.