My Diabetes - How I Became Interested in the Psychology And Physiology of My Hypos part 2

Long before Diabetic Dogs became available, I had a discussion with one of my specialist doctors and nurses about smelling the hypo before it happened and therefore being an early warning system. They look sympathetically at me with that 'well if you think thats true thats fine'.
I was still a student and we were studying the so called 'mystic' branch of psychology called Phenomenological Psychology.  It was joked about being 'mystic' because is a branch of psychology not based on external experiments (how I remember it) but on monitoring internal processes. i.e. how do I feel about this.

My Diabetes - How I Became Interested in the Psychology And Physiology of My Hypos part 1

As a 12 year old, we had an interesting Religious Instruction teacher, who covered not only the biblical teachings, but if we were all attentive and behaved he'd spend some at the end of lessons on what we referred to as weird stuff.  Some Old Testament stories of Ezekiel and his description of the 4 propeller 'Lancaster Bomber' and other weird stories from the popular Astronauts from space guru Enrich Von Daniken. He also told us about dowsing and other old mystic type stuff and we'd bring and bend metal coat hangers and search for hidden copper coins in one of the 32 desks to learn how to dowse.  


He also told us about prophets and indian fakirs and ancient and modern mystics and yogi's. He also had a great old book on meditation and showed us pictures of a yogic masters sitting with his legs crossed balancing on their hands, controlling pain and various bodily functions and explain he warned that these took years to perfect, so don't try them at home.

After I discovered I was very good at finding copper coins in desks, a friend and I went to the library for books on yoga.  After some practise I learned to be able to slow my breathing and heart rate and being a thin child I could easily do the half and full lotus.  I discussed with friends how great it would be if you could learn to control things our bodies body and set about doing it, then some years later I discovered it was a new pseudo science called Bio Feedback.

Years on from this, I found a number of  articles in a number of hobby electronics magazines for Bio-Feedback machines and Galvanic Skin Response meters, so I built a couple.  Using the machine I quickly discovered that I actually could do what I thought I had done as a child, slow my heart and respiration, relax very quickly and deeply and the electronic gismos confirmed I was indeed popping in and out of relaxation at the drop of a hat.

So when I became diabetic whilst studying Behavioural Sciences degree, I knew physiological things were indeed happening to me and the effects on my body and from the psychological perspective also my mind. So I decided to become my very own lab rat. I also discovered there was a branch of Psychology that attempted to gain great insights not by doing experiments but by internal personal observation.  It had fallen into disrepute by being a sort of  'mystic' branch of psychology called Phenomenological Psychology.  

It was shunned about being 'mystic' because is a branch of psychology not based on external experiments (how I remember it) but on monitoring internal processes. i.e. how do I feel about this.  Now I had machine that could review my physiology and feelings, tastes, smells and behaviours I could comment on, so I set about using what tools and observations I could make to understand how my hypos affected me and how to prevent them from overwhelming me and rendering me unconscious.

And what an interesting journey it has been.

TBC

My Diabetes - Coincidence or What? UK Newspaper Article - Why sex is good for you

I was just looking for the statistic that sex is equivalent to athletic exercise when I stumbled across this article in todays UK 'Daily Mail Online'.

The article gives ten reasons why sex is good for normal healthy people.

daily mail newspaper article Why sex good you 28th November 2013


What they didn't realise when researching this is that given a large percentage of the complications caused by or associated with diabetes are circulation related, then sex for diabetics must be even more health giving.  Lets face it, anything which increases your exercise, heart rate, carbohydrate metabolism is in my own personal experience extremely useful especially when a lot of exercise is mind numbing.

Also, depression and loneliness are frequent issues for long term diabetics, so anything which causes the release of the positive hormones and makes you feel good must help and bind you to your loved ones.

I'm not surprised that sex is good, but alas not available on Dr's prescription.

I hope you enjoy the article.

Below are Amazon UK links to one of the 1999 published book mentioned at the end of the article, and to a more recent thesis for those who like to research their topics.

                

And for USA readers, here are the Amazon links

               

I hope this does not offend peoples sensibilities no smut is intended.

TBC

My Diabetes - How often do you as a diabetic or the diabetic your with look at their watch?

I have found over the years that it's really important when meeting new people I will be interacting with to let them know I'm diabetic.  It really helps them understand the little 'weird?' behaviours I've developed over the years as just plain common sense.  Question? How often do you as a diabetic or the diabetic your with look at their watch?

For me its very often almost whenever I mention time. So what did I think that those who didn't know I was a diabetic thought I was doing?  I didn't know so  I asked them after telling them I was diabetic, and they said things like, I thought:

• you were a very nervous person
• you were impatient with me or others
• you looked like a junkie waiting for your next fix
• you weren't interested in what I had to say
• it was an ignorant thing to keep doing in public
• if he keeps doing that, I'll ask him if there's somewhere he'd rather be
• you were disrespectful to others, looking at your watch and not listening

It became apparent that without the appropriate background information they were rightly making some serious value judgements based on what they saw, which could have relationship or career limiting consequences.

Having been told this I decided that I would use my watch checking 'tick ;-)' to introduce others to my diabetes without appearing attention seeking or narcissistic.  I generally say something like:

"Sorry before we start can I just say that if you see me keep looking at my watch or the clock on the wall, it isn't because I'm bored, or I want you to shut up, end the meeting and go, its just that I am an insulin dependent diabetic and I need to eat at regular set times".  Interestingly, I find I even look at my watch when telling them or if I mention time in any way past, present or future during any conversation.

Of all of the thousands of people I've told throughout the years most have said "oh thats no problem and thanks for telling us".

I've always felt that trying to hide my diabetes is totally counter-productive if people aren't happy about it, then its their problem, but if they are unhelpful when I told them, they would certainly be no use for me in an emergency.

Learning Points:

• I tell people I am diabetic so they understand that I am different
• I find people are generally nosey and show interest
• I find most people say they know somebody with diabetes, but sadly they say they don't tell people and keep falling over
• I find they appreciate the confidence
• I find that in a business situation it humanises me and the meeting
• I find that people will then disclose issues of their own

TBC