Occasionally, Animas Corporation puts on free seminars about the insulin pump or about diabetes in general. Today I attended one of those seminars. In attendance was an older man who liked to talk about his experiences, One lady who has had diabetes for about 12 years, two moms and an eight year old boy newly diagnosed (last 6 months). The seminar was to be on advanced pump training. We covered a little bit on that but, as usual, my attention was directed to the person who needed the most acute assistance. And that was the boy. I felt so much empathy for his mother and the other mom who was there to get as much information as they could. There is so much to know. The context that is given people is more useful to the medical profession than it is to the people who need to deal with diabetes every day. I have been searching for a way to develop this context. I got a flash of insight as I was driving home from the class. All of my yoga, meditation and “spiritual” study and work have revealed to me that diabetes is a disease that mirrors disharmony. The disharmony in ourselves, our family and our society. The whole object of the game we must play as diabetics is to manually create harmony. Yoga, meditation and spiritual endeavor lights the path for this game and may be the ingredients needed to create a more useful context for all the knowledge and skill that must be acquired to become a master of the game. As with life so with diabetes. I gave the two moms my blog site and hope they get to read some of the posts on diabetes.

I have sometimes used the concept of addiction as a metaphor for Type 1 diabetes. Think about it for a minute. We, as type 1 diabetics, must inject insulin daily. If you are still taking shots then you might have to partake in a “fix” up to 8 or more times a day. If on the pump we are constantly “hooked” up to our drug of choice. But, Michael, we don’t crave insulin?? Try not taking it for a day or two and see if you begin to crave it. But, Michael, it is good for us unlike being addicted something like drugs or alcohol?? Yes, it may be good for us but we are addicted to it. We need it. And without it we will have symptoms of withdrawal. What I am asking you to do by contemplating being a an addict by being a type 1 diabetic is to hold a mental perspective that you perhaps may not have thought about. When thinking of our disease as an addiction there are a few pathways that may open up. Explore these. Think about the people around you. Are they acting like co-dependents or enablers? Are you treating them like co-dependents or enablers?  Do you hide your disease? What is it that caused the addiction in the first place? Do I own any responsibility for the onset of my situation? Is the goal to overcome my addiction? Check out the 12 steps of AA. The first step says…..”We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.” Does having diabetes imply we are powerless over something and that our lives have become unmanageable? What is the something that we are powerless over? For sure the goal is manage our disease. If we don’t our lives do become unmanageable. I don’t bring this thought exercise out to be provocative. No, my intention is to offer a momentary shift in the way in which you see your disease so you may obtain additional tools to combat it. I have had type 1 diabetes for 35 years now. I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you are able to increase your level of acceptance you will increase your ability to respond to your disease on a moment to moment basis. Denial is one of the hurdles in the recovery of an addict. The opposite of denial is acceptance. Work on acceptance and the quality of your disease control will increase.

I believe that we are here, on this planet, as human beings, to transform ourselves.  Transform means to change in form, appearance, structure, character.  I think this thing called life is set up like a game.  I don’t mean to trivialize it by comparing it to a a game but, nevertheless, I see it as a game.  Every game has an objective.  Every game has rules.  There are strategies involved.  Having continual increasing knowledge about the game helps.  There are skills involved and many who participate in games practice to hone their skills.  There is a way to measure outcomes; to keep score.  I think that the objective in the game of life is to transform.  To change.  Specifically, I believe that, in all areas of life, it is a transformation from a desire to receive for the self alone to the the desire to receive for the sake of sharing with others.  This is a Kabbalistic (From Kabbalah) concept.  But there is a problem.  In order to be here, to experience and engage in life we must have certain needs fulfilled in certain time periods.  A lot of these needs are, most of the time, fulfilled automatically without us even being conscious of it.  When one of these needs fails to be fulfilled then we become conscious of it and it becomes a desire, often times a burning desire.  Most of these needs are physical in nature.  There are a lot that are not depending on the awareness level of the individual.  A few examples perhaps:  We need to breathe, often.  Our bodies are set up in a way that allows oxygen in either through the nose or the mouth.  We have a throat that acts as a tunnel for oxygen to travel to the lungs.  The lungs do their thing and oxygen is transferred into the blood cells and is carried through the veins and vessels to each individual cell and they stay alive and carry on with what they do.  In the absence of oxygen, a blockage in the nose, mouth, throat, a problem with the lungs or a disruption or block in the veins and vessels then this system that fulfills a critical need ceases to work and we quickly become conscious of it, if in fact we are able to stay conscious. Suddenly, this unconscious fulfilled need becomes a burning desire and we will not be very interested in transforming ourselves into a sharing being.  No, we will be pretty focused on getting air and will probably kill another if that would help at all to provide us with even a slight chance of fulfilling our desire to breathe.

Well, this whole Type 1 Diabetes thing can been seen in the same way.  Allow me to elaborate.  If you are a Type 1 Diabetic then one day in the past you learned that you “got” it.  Not a good day.  Not a day easily forgotten and not one that most of us like to revisit.  It was the day that you became conscious that a very critical need stopped being fulfilled; a need that parallels the importance of breathing, albeit with a 3 to 4 month time period prior to fatal malfunction as opposed to a 3 to perhaps, 10 minute time period to solve the breathing thing.  The process involved in Type 1 diabetes is very similar to the process of breathing.  Instead of oxygen being sent to the cells it is glucose. And instead of the lungs being the organ involved it is the pancreas.  Both glucose and oxygen are sent via the blood cells to all of the other cells.  Instead of breathing it involves eating.  And just like if you could not get oxygen to the cells the body will die so it is with not getting nourishment ( in the form of glucose ) to the cells.   An analysis of the situation yields four things to contemplate, in my opinion as someone who was diagnosed 31 years ago.  First, an understanding in the breakdown of the process that resulted in having to address this need.  Second, what is it that needs to get done in order to get the glucose to the cells in the most effective way.  Third, what is the desire that is associated with this situation.  And finally, for extra credit, how do I transform this desire from a desire to receive for the self alone to a desire to receive for the sake sharing with others? Continue reading A Transformational Approach to Type 1 Diabetes →