Customer Reviews

Psyching Out Diabetes : A Positive Approach to Your Negative Emotions

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book to be helpful in addressing issues not covered in other diabetes books. Rather than give diet and exercise tips, it discusses the psychological battle that occurs when one is struggling to cope with diabetes, and it provides insight on how to deal with issues such as denial, anger, depression, grief, fear, frustration and guilt. Each chapter ends with a short section aimed at those who want to help the diabetic. The Q&A format can be annoying because the two authors (one of whom is diabetic) who ask the questions can be glib at times. But the replies by Dr. Rubin, who is a Certified Diabetes Educator and therapist at Johns Hopkins, are enormously insightful.

This book deals with emotional and feeling aspects of diabetes. Presented in an interview and response format I found the book interesting to read. The audience for this book is clearly those with diabetes or immediate family members of those with diabetes.

The authors affirm typical feelings of diabetes patients and present information to comfort those with diabetes that virtually all of their feelings are normal and shared by others with the disease. Ideas to cope with these feelings are suggested in the book which may or may not work for everyone. Therefore, this isn't necessarily a book full of solutions that will work for all with diabetes, but a book about what most people with diabetes feel and how some people cope with these feelings.

I think people with diabetes will better understand themselves and their feelings toward diabetes after reading the book. This is the best book I have read on dealing with the emotional and feelings aspects of diabetes. I recommend it.

Dr. Rubin and his co-authors write in an interactive, conversational style. I found this enjoyable and engaging. There is enough information without excessive detail. I felt as if I were having a lively conversation with good friends who all had a personal experience with my condition. I got through the whole book in an evening after the kids were in bed.

Individuals can experience a variety of negative emotions in response to the stress of living with diabetes. The same type of emotion may show up at different points in the course of the disorder. Emotions can have a huge effect on one's ability to maintain good diabetic control.

The authors give clear understandable vignettes that illustrate how an emotion such as anger can cause glucose levels to skyrocket. They also suggest ways of coping with these emotional states. At the same time, they do not malign all unpleasant emotions. Sometimes, fear, anger and denial might serve a useful purpose.

I did have a small stylistic concern. I would have preferred that the three authors either all use their first names or all use their formal titles.

I enjoyed reading this book. I think the conversational style would lend itself well to an audiocassete version.

This masterful study of the relationship of diabetes and depression, among other emotional effects of discovering one has a chronic disease, will give you hope that you CAN DEAL with your illness proactively and positively. Not the most up to date advice on this topic but one of the best.

I flipped through this book in a bookstore and considered buying it, but I was turned off by the fact that in the text the co-authors are consistently referred to as "June," "Barbara," and "Dr. Rubin." The book is in a question/answer format, so the image of two women kowtowing to a male expert is perpetuated page after page. I knew this would drive me crazy as I was reading it, so I left it on the shelf.

Unfortunately, this review form won't allow me not to give a numerical rating. Not having read the book, I can't give one that's meaningful -- so I've just given it an "average" rating.

Three hundred and twelve pages, come on, I have a life, just help me out, don't drag it out