Mental health affects so many aspects of daily life. How you think and feel, handle stress, how you relate to others, and make choices. You can see how having a mental health problem could make it harder to check on your physical health.

Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can affect how healthy your body is. Untreated physical health issues can make your health worse, and problems with these can lead to unhealthy diagnosis. For example diabetes can make mental health worse. Some mental health medication side effects result in overeating and weight gain that can lead to diabetes.

Steve’s Story

Steve became unwell from the age of 17. He is now 33 and hardly ever checked his blood sugar. His medication opened up his appetite to crave carbohydrates such as: sweets, chips, cakes and fizzy drinks.

This led to Steve collapsing at home and being taken to the intensive care unit for two weeks. Steve was in a state of shock, and realised that due to his unhealthy diet, he had developed type 2 diabetes. At present Steve has to inject himself, check his blood sugar, as well as making sure to take his medication. This is having an impact on his daily life.

Diabetes distress sometimes leaves him feeling discouraged, worried, frustrated, or tired of dealing with daily diabetes care, like diabetes is controlling him instead of the other way around.

Those overwhelming feelings, known as diabetes distress, cause him to slip into unhealthy habits, stop checking his blood sugar, even skip his doctor’s appointments, or skip his medication.

But if he keeps up with his healthy regime, if one gets better, the other tends to get better, too.

HEALTHY DIET PLAN:

Fill half of your plate with non starchy vegetables, such as spinach, carrots and tomatoes.
Fill a quarter of your plate with a protein, such as tuna, lean pork or chicken.
Fill the last quarter with a whole-grain item, such as brown rice, or a starchy vegetable, such as green peas.
Include “good” fats such as nuts or avocados in small amounts.
Add a serving of fruit or dairy and a drink of water or unsweetened tea or coffee.

Symptoms of depression can be mild to severe, and include:

Feeling sad or empty
Losing interest in favorite activities
Overeating or not wanting to eat at all
Not being able to sleep or sleeping too much
Having trouble concentrating or making decisions
Feeling very tired
Feeling hopeless, irritable, anxious, or guilty
Having aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems

Tips for mental health and wellbeing

Get enough sleep and rest
Take time out for things you enjoy
Be active and eat well
Nurture relationships and connect with others
Learn to manage stress

For your If you have diabetes, make sure you’re seeing a specialist nurse for your diabetes care. These professionals are He or she is likely to have a deeper understanding of diabetes challenges than your GPregular doctor.For your mental health, ask your doctor to refer you to a mental health consultant who specialises in mental health chronic health conditions mental health professional specialised in patients with physical chronic health conditions.

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