Acceptance of diabetes indicates that the denial period is over and the reality of the diagnosis has sunk in. More that that, however, it means taking up the new responsibility of living with the disease and its inconveniences and problems.

The Oxford dictionary gives several definitions of “acceptance” : to take willingly; to treat as welcome; to take as true. It is difficult to believe that anyone would receive diabetes happily or welcome it into his life.

Can you be happy about having an incurable disease that changes your whole life? Impossible, you say? Well, maybe being happy seems a bit too much to ask of a person. But at least a diabetic can learn to be content with his life. he may go on to become the best person he can be, do the greatest things he can do, and be the happiest he can be.

many diabetics find that in trying to live with their diabetes they have actually become greater, more athletic or more talented people that they ever hoped to become. What a diabetic accomplishes with his life depends on his own acceptance of his condition.

Perhaps a better word than “acceptance” might be “adaptation”, or simply ” acknowledging diabetes as a fact of life”. The diabetic needs to decide, ” This is for real, and now life must go on!” This is the time when diabetes stops becoming the biggest thought in the mind of the diabetic or his family members. This is when diabetes becomes part of the daily routine. This is the time when diabetes may give you the discipline to succeed in newer and greater endeavors.

Diabetes may become a handicap or a hurdle to jump over, a hindrance in life or a help. It may become a curse or a challenge. Attitude is what makes the difference.

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Some diabetics, after hearing the diagnosis, may begin to isolate themselves socially. Failing to really accept their diabetes, they feel that others cannot accept their diabetes, they fell that others cannot accept them with it either. So they withdraw, avoiding activities which are normal for their age group. They may stop going to parties or other activities that they once enjoyed. Young diabetics often begin going home immediately after school instead of hanging around with friends as they had before.

Loneliness is a common problem. Some diabetic avoid making close friends - or begin avoiding friends who were previously close to them - because they feel that they cannot trust anyone with the knowledge of their illness. Others have a feeling of shame, as if having diabetes were the result of some terrible sin they had commited.

Others begin to associate only with other diabetics, feeling more secure about being accepted. Although they do have much in common, there is real danger that their friendship may focus too much on their shared problem rather than on the positive aspects of life.

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When something goes wrong, most of us look for someone to blame. Sometimes we blame others; sometimes we blame ourselves. Diabetics are no different. When they hear the diagnosis of diabetes, a diabetic and his family members may immediately start looking for someone to blame.

A child may blame the doctor or the nurses or the hospital. Not understanding the causes of diabetes, the little child may feel that the doctor or the hospital gave him the disease. After all, it was only after hearing the diagnosis that he had to begin taking insulin injections. It was only after seeing the doctor that he could no longer eat some of his favorite foods.

Older children or even adults may blame parents or other family members who already have diabetes.

Some people blame themselves. Many diabetics and their family members experience feelings of guilt, even when there is often no real cause for such feelings.

Type 1 diabetes has little or nothing to do with anything that a person has done or not done in the past. Yet parents of the insulin-dependent child may blame themselves for not protecting their child from harm. They believe that they have failed as parents. Some parents feel certain that they have done something wrong - toherwise their child would surely not be sick.

In type 2 diabetes, a person’s lifestyle - overweight, improper eating habits, lack of exercise, etc. - may truly have contributed to the illness. Thus he may feel that he is being punished for his wrongdoing, and so he experience strong feelings of guilt.

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