Tuesday, July 5, 2011

This is a Risky Combination - Diabetes and Procrastination!

Procrastination is the thief of time, since it lets time to slip away without accomplishing the task that is ought to be done. To procrastinate is to intentionally delay or postpone something. While procrastination is mostly counter-productive, it is more risky for patients with diabetes. Procrastination is a habit that diabetics cannot afford to have, and better…to break.

Most patients with diabetes know exactly what they have to do with their own body. Counting carbohydrates, maintaining healthy weight, exercising, testing blood glucoses, going to doctor appointments and so on. However, there is always a tendency for them to apply procrastination with regards to this routine.

Procrastination is not just counter-productive, it is dangerous. It may cause difficult complications and create emergency situations.

Why diabetics procrastinate

Knowing that it can result to some unfavorable cases, procrastination is still practiced by many diabetics and these are because of reasons they mostly encounter.

An article about a faith and a purpose-driven life, written by Rick Warren mentioned the 5 common reasons why people procrastinate. We can associate those 5 reasons to procrastination among patients with diabetes as well. Patients with diabetes apply procrastination because of indecision, fear, laziness, anger and perfectionism.

Indecision. Indecision when the patient is overwhelmed with “to do” list such as taking insulin, go to the doctor, attend diabetes class and a lot more. The list can be a long one that he ends up deciding on doing nothing.

Fear. Some patients with diabetes do not go to doctor for fear of seeing their A1C results because they are aware that their diabetes management is poor. Another cause of fear is when the patient detects some complications that he tries to ignore.

Laziness. Lazy to do some routines such as monitoring sugar levels and taking medication. Or probably, a diabetes patient thinks that procrastination of or even skipping a medication once or twice shall do no harm at all.

Anger. Procrastination can be caused by anger because the patient does not like what the doctor or health providers suggest. Or simply he does not want to be being told of what to do.

Perfectionism. It is the patient’s idea to go to the doctor if his diabetes is perfectly managed and that blood glucose is at a perfect level.

We all know that diabetes is a health concern. Something that can sabotage the body’s functionality. There is no room for confusion, fear, anger, indecision and laziness. Act on it now for your own health’s sake and do not wait when blood glucose is perfect.

Doctors and health providers are ideally friends of diabetes patients. They can help diabetics avoid procrastination. It is ideal that diabetics are open to them all the time as they can give more help than harm. After all, these people are part of a patient’s diabetes management.

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