Diabetes Psychology

Living with a physical health problem such as diabetes can not only impact on general wellbeing, but can also commonly affect how people feel and cope with many aspects of life (for example, how they feel about themselves; about work, relationships etc).

We aim to help people to deal with the emotional stresses and strains that can accompany diabetes.

You can talk to a clinical psychologist, in a confidential setting, about your health problems and their impact, your worries and concerns, your feelings, how you try to manage in your everyday life or about how treatment affects you.

Working with a clinical psychologist may help you with:

• Difficulty adjusting to a diagnosis of diabetes
• Diabetes-distress or ‘burnout’
• Psychological distress affecting treatment or recovery, such as depression
• Anxiety or phobias that interfere with treatment (e.g. fear of hypoglycaemia or needle phobia)
• Difficulty managing treatment or making lifestyle changes
• Difficulty coping with complications of diabetes
• Issues with eating and insulin omission due to weight concerns
• Post-traumatic stress symptoms connected with diabetes or its treatment, including trauma after admission to hospital
• Psychological distress after treatment, for example, changes to appearance
• Psychological distress linked to disability or loss of bodily function.

Clinical psychologists can be useful in helping you develop strategies to manage these problems, as well as  generally providing a safe space to talk about the emotional impact that can commonly be experienced and help you to focus on “living well” despite your physical problems.

We provide some specific psychological support to people with diabetes-related foot problems who are under the care of the Podiatry service at Aintree University Hospital.