Participating in physical activities you enjoy is a healthy way to manage your weight.

Suggestions for Young Women with Type 1 Diabetes

Here are some ideas for making positive health steps for young women with type 1 diabetes:

Try to reduce your focus on how you think your body looks and build your self-esteem based on other personal qualities you have. The young woman with diabetes may question how having diabetes affects her image of herself. If you struggle with this issue, ask your health care provider for a referral to a social worker, psychologist or psychiatrist who will help you look at yourself in a different light. This could be one of the most important steps you take to stay healthy and feel good about yourself.

	Find healthy ways to manage weight, especially through enjoyable physical activities that give you pleasure and are not excessive. If you are not sure what is a healthy level of physical activity, consult with your doctor or diabetes educator for suggestions. Women with diabetes may feel pressure to control food intake and this in turn puts an unhealthy emphasis on food and weight.
	Seek family counselling. A recent study indicated that lots of conflict and little warmth in the ways families interact are much more common in the families of young women with diabetes who have eating disorders than in the families of those who don't have eating disorders.

If you are a mother reading this, the last point does not mean that you should blame yourself. Parents, with the best intentions, can find it difficult to overcome both their own past experiences and their concern over the future health of their children with diabetes. By seeking counselling to address your ways of coping, and encouraging your daughter to participate in family counselling, you may be able to support her along the pathway to overcoming an eating disorder.

If you have an eating disorder or think you might have one, please get the professional help you need to deal with the problem. Even if your eating is not a sufficiently serious problem to warrant calling it an eating disorder, some of the suggestions above could help you control your weight and blood glucose. And that could help you lead a longer, healthier life with diabetes.

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