I'm still in that 'Oh, bloody hell!' stage.

Sunny_ Sniper

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I don't know if there are emotional stages experienced when diagnosed with diabetes (denial, anger, etc), but having been diagnosed very recently I feel like I've experienced all of them.

Initially I was told I had type 2, put on Metformin, given a glucose monitor and told to watch my diet and exercise regularly. Then I had an anti body test and was told that I have LADA, which started me off on this roller coaster of emotions again, but this time adding dread to the mix, because I will eventually be insulin dependent.

What makes this all worse is that i thought i was doing everything I could to reduce my risk of getting diabetes. I'm not over weight, I wasn't drinking too much alcohol and exercised regularly. So instead of responding to that, my body decided to attack itself and kill off the cells which make insulin, rendering me diabetic in the process.

I manage to keep a positive exterior when I'm around my family and friends, but inside I'm bottling up quite a lot of anger and frustration. I don't understand how someone who's over weight, drinks too much and generally lives an unhealthy life style can get away with it and yet I do my best to live well and end up with this.

I'm lucky that i have a great support network and a good team of medical professionals to guild and advise me through this, but the bottom line is that this sucks and there is nothing I can do about it.

I don't know if diabetes is something that I will ever 'get used to', but I'm sure it won't sting as much at some point in the future. Right now I'm still in that 'Oh, bloody hell!' stage; a bit angry and a bit frightened and not looking forward to the future.

So that's my soap box...
 

Daibell

Master
Messages
12,642
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi. Life's a ***** isn't it! What you will eventually find is that being on insulin is in many ways preferable to being a T2 struggling with tablets and these not controlling BS. Insulin enables you to have good control of your diabetes assuming you have the right discipline. I much prefer my current state using Basal/Bolus 4 times a day than having all the tablets yet having to starve myself to control blood sugar.
 
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Seeker2016

Well-Known Member
Messages
54
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Know exactly how you feel. Went to insulin immediately on diagnosis, don't drink, don't smoke, ate well, exercised, underweight. It's a feeling that life is so unjust, diabetes is unjust. I hope you come to.so
 

chalup

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,745
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Your feelings are totally normal and understandable. Please remember that Lada or type 1 is not a lifestyle disease and there is no way you could have predicted or prevented it. It sucks, it really does, but it is in no way your fault.
 

Mbaker

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,339
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Available fast foods in Supermarkets
No one can tell you how to feel, and the emotional side of diabetes is not well dealt with formally. Even once you get good control, it is hard to accept this condition....but good control is better than death, way better. What you are in control of is trying to be the best "you" possible.
 
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Hotpepper20000

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,065
I completely understand!! Even almost a year after being diagnosed I still feel like that some days.
For me now it ticks me off when the morning BS number has been low and the one morning its higher. GEEZ drives me crazy.
I'm in it for the long haul. I still have a life beside this disease and need to enjoy that too.
This forum has helped me a lot. I realize I'm not the only one on this journey.
 

seadragon

Well-Known Member
Messages
316
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
I think we all go through it - it's like a bereavement in that we have to grieve for the life we thought we had and eventually learn to accept the life we have now. In any case it's better to be alive! Doesn't mean we don't occasionally (or often) feel life is unfair and mourn for our past lives - it's only natural we should.
I am now at the stage where it's annoying to be insulin resistant but I am now probably fitter and healthier than ever and I would not have known how to do that without having been diagnosed pre-diabetic. and found this forum and low carb.
Can we try to learn though that type 2 is a genetic disease too and most type 2's gain weight because of their predisposition to diabetes. If it was purely lifestyle then every fat person would have diabetes. As they are rarely diagnosed til they are overweight, suddenly it's blamed on their lifestyles because they are fat.

My only risk factors were being over 50 (can't do much about that!) and having a mother with type 2. My mother is stick thin and always ate what would have been perceived as a healthy diet by NHS (largely vegetarian, plenty of starchy carbs with every meal as per NHS eat well plate, very little saturated fats) and always did a lot of walking. Without changing my diet I had started to put on weight slowly and steadily but was still well within the NHS BMI and waist size 'risk' factors. If my mother had not been diagnosed I would never have thought to test myself and no doubt would have ended up a fat diabetic.
If I had then followed NHS advice i would definitely have ended up a fat diabetic, so in a way it is lifestyle but due to the diet the NHS deem to be suitable for everyone including diabetics when it's really not suitable for anyone especially diabetics.

This forum is an invaluable support and with their help and dietdoctor.com and support for low carb high fat way of eating it is 'liveable with'. Even for type 1's on insulin low carb seems to be a good idea as one of the big problems is the insulin hormone itself (which encourages fat storage) and the less of that you need to add to your system the better.

Like you I do look at healthy fat people and feel life is very unfair though (but that's because they evidently don't have the diabetic genes) so I should really just look at all healthy people and think life is very unfair. It's the same with alcoholics though - you can get those who drink to wild excess and still live to a ripe old age (what was the name of that aging rock star?) while taking drugs and smoking to boot; others can get liver disease really quick or lung cancer from smoking and die young because their genetic makeup is different not their lifestyles.

I try to remind myself when I start to feel sorry for myself that there are many people worse off than me with more life threatening genetic illness than mine and while I know I have to be careful about what I eat for the rest of my life I can still have a life.

In the meantime this is a great place to vent those bottled up feelings to people who understand and writing them down and expressing them can be really helpful.
 
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Sunny_ Sniper

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Thanks everyone.

I've been on insulin for just over a week now and I'm generally feeling much better and more positive about my diabetes. Maybe this is because my blood sugar is generally lower and I'm not in such a bad mood.

Exercise had been an interesting learning experience, mostly because different intensities do different things to my glucose levels. My life is one massive learning curve at the moment.
 

Diakat

Expert
Retired Moderator
Messages
5,591
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
The smell of cigars
I don't think the learning ever stops. great to hear you are feeling more positive now. Life is more than diabetes.
 

leslie10152

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,110
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Ignorance
No one takes this news easily. You can't simply adapt to a totally new lifestyle in an instant. I went on insulin the same day I was diagnosed. I am now on two kinds of insulin, which is a royal pain in the butt! Yet I carry on regardless. Remember, don't try to do this on your own or you will get discouraged.