- Messages
- 12
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Hi all. This is my first post / thread on a diabetes forum, so please forgive me if I tread on toes / break rules / inadvertently do something wrong.
Bit of background: I'm 43 and I've had T1 diabetes since I was 5. No major complications yet, although I have recently had (succesful) laser treatment for retinopathy.
I've tried using a diabetes forum before (online ones and once, a 'real life' group), but (and I'm sure this will p1ss some of you off, for which I apologise) I've always ended up avoiding them because I just find them to be depressing. Many / most threads and posts seemed to be about horrible complications, so every time I visited a forum or read a post it just reminded me of how awful things can get. And I don't want to be reminded of that. The group i joined that met up in person just ended up being a morbid discussion about how awful it is to have diabetes. I didn't stay for long.
So why have I joined this forum? Well, today I found out about something called diabetes burnout. I was searching online for terms like 'diabetes + depression', 'diabetes + stress' etc because, for some reason, I feel pretty close to cracking today. I like to kid myself that i cope really well with being diabetic, and in some ways that's true... but having read about 'diabetes burnout', I now realise that it describes how I feel and think about my condition perfectly. I'm sitting at my desk at work and I'm fighting back some tears because the descriptions of diabetes burnout so accurately reflect how I'm feeling.
My friends, bless them, are all really amazing when it comes to being supportive and stuff. The problem is, i don't want to turn to them for support. I don't want to keep marking myself out as someone who is different, who is 'less able', who needs help, and who can't cope.
And so I'm turning to you folk for two reasons - firstly, I'm relatively anonymous and so I don't feel quite so wretched having to admit that i can't cope. And secondly, well - if anyone's going to understand me, it's probably you lot.
Sorry, i don't have a specific question or anything, and this post is probably a bit rambling, unstructured and random, but that's pretty close to how i feel today.
Bit of background: I'm 43 and I've had T1 diabetes since I was 5. No major complications yet, although I have recently had (succesful) laser treatment for retinopathy.
I've tried using a diabetes forum before (online ones and once, a 'real life' group), but (and I'm sure this will p1ss some of you off, for which I apologise) I've always ended up avoiding them because I just find them to be depressing. Many / most threads and posts seemed to be about horrible complications, so every time I visited a forum or read a post it just reminded me of how awful things can get. And I don't want to be reminded of that. The group i joined that met up in person just ended up being a morbid discussion about how awful it is to have diabetes. I didn't stay for long.
So why have I joined this forum? Well, today I found out about something called diabetes burnout. I was searching online for terms like 'diabetes + depression', 'diabetes + stress' etc because, for some reason, I feel pretty close to cracking today. I like to kid myself that i cope really well with being diabetic, and in some ways that's true... but having read about 'diabetes burnout', I now realise that it describes how I feel and think about my condition perfectly. I'm sitting at my desk at work and I'm fighting back some tears because the descriptions of diabetes burnout so accurately reflect how I'm feeling.
My friends, bless them, are all really amazing when it comes to being supportive and stuff. The problem is, i don't want to turn to them for support. I don't want to keep marking myself out as someone who is different, who is 'less able', who needs help, and who can't cope.
And so I'm turning to you folk for two reasons - firstly, I'm relatively anonymous and so I don't feel quite so wretched having to admit that i can't cope. And secondly, well - if anyone's going to understand me, it's probably you lot.
Sorry, i don't have a specific question or anything, and this post is probably a bit rambling, unstructured and random, but that's pretty close to how i feel today.