{"id":36778,"date":"2014-10-01T11:43:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T15:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:47:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:47:19","slug":"being-uptight-is-a-diabetic-complication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778","title":{"rendered":"Being Uptight is a Diabetic Complication"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I don\u2019t have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I am merely a diabetic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">After much soul searching, and even after consulting with a professional, I have arrived at the conclusion that my diabetes only makes me appear to have OCD. And given this revelation, I can say that it\u2019s possible OCD-like behavior should be considered a new complication of diabetes. At least, that\u2019s what I\u2019m telling myself as I come to terms with certain habits I display.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/OCD.jpeg\" rel=\"mfp\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36787 lazyload\" title=\"Obsessive compulsive disorder\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/OCD.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"463\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/OCD.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/OCD-259x300.jpeg 259w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I recently moved in with someone after having lived alone for many years. This new, happy event has revealed that, unbeknownst to me, I am \u201cparticular\u201d about some things. Or, you know, a lot of things.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I can\u2019t go to sleep without having the dishes done. I have to make the bed shortly after I get up.\u00a0 And, yes, I\u2019m a bit of neat freak. By neat I mean that things in the house have to be in order. I don\u2019t like clutter. I despise knickknacks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I\u2019d been previously made aware of my neatness thing. Friends would frequently comment on how straight and tidy my house was. I would deflect such arch-browed \u201ccriticisms\u201d by explaining that as a professional writer, I spend a good deal of my time avoiding writing while still wanting to feel like I am accomplishing <em>something<\/em>. So, I clean a lot. It was a clever and cute way to put people at ease\u2014\u201cHey, man, I am a professional!\u201d\u2014and it rarely failed to relieve people of the misapprehension that I was some sort of uptight freak.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But, my new living situation is causing me to more honestly examine my tendencies and their roots. I know that I don\u2019t behave this way because of my family. They\u2019re slobs. And I don\u2019t behave this way because I am simply predisposed to be tense and anxious. I can say with pride that I am one of the most relaxed, uptight people you\u2019ll ever meet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">No, the reason for my high-strung, hypertensive ways when it comes to not folding the towels correctly, or leaving shoes in the living room, or failing to sweep the floor in the bathroom when clearly it needs \u2026 where was I? Oh, yes. All this is because of my diabetes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 11 years old. So, for almost 40 years I have been shackled to detail. I record numbers religiously. Blood sugars, dosages, and carbs are as familiar to me as yardage and penalty stats are to a fantasy football fanatic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I am also very time-focused. My insulin, my food, and my exercise have to be at, or close to, the same time everyday. If not, I have to calculate how a change in times affects dosages, and carbs, and exercise. And, here\u2019s the killer part, I have to do this everyday. Every. Single. Day.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not satisfied that I was qualified to make such a groundbreaking diagnosis of this potential new complication on my own, I talked to a professional.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I asked <a href=\"mailto:http:\/\/www.winthrop.org\/research\/faculty-investigators\/profile.cfm%3Falan-jacobson\">Dr. Alan M. Jacobson<\/a>, a psychiatrist who is one of the world\u2019s foremost experts on the relationship between diabetes and cognitive function, whether or not diabetes influenced such behaviors. (I didn\u2019t actually call him to talk about my peccadillos. It came up in conversation when I was interviewing him for an article for <a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\">asweetlife.org<\/a> because, lest us not forget, I am a professional.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He basically said that it was possible that diabetes caused OCD-like behavior, but there was no way to really tell. But, he said, for a diabetic, being particular about niggling details was probably a positive attribute, given all the self-monitoring involved. Then he added that he, himself, was not a detail-oriented person. He\u2019s more of a big picture guy. \u201cSo,\u201d he added, \u201cI would probably make a lousy diabetic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And there you have it! Hey, I just said it was a complication. I never said it was a bad complication. Jeez, try to not be so uptight about splitting hairs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":36787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Being Uptight is a Diabetic Complication | ASweetLife<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alex O\u2019Meara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778\",\"name\":\"Being Uptight is a Diabetic Complication | ASweetLife\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/OCD.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-01T15:43:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-27T20:47:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/39a63c7215ee072a94bbc4a681de116d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/OCD.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/OCD.jpeg\",\"width\":400,\"height\":463,\"caption\":\"Obsessive compulsive disorder\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36778#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Being Uptight is a Diabetic Complication\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\",\"name\":\"ASweetLife\",\"description\":\"The Diabetes Magazine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/39a63c7215ee072a94bbc4a681de116d\",\"name\":\"Alex O\u2019Meara\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d46cda412d65fd79447ff39275a4856e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d46cda412d65fd79447ff39275a4856e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alex O\u2019Meara\"},\"description\":\"Alex was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 36 years ago. 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