going round in circles!

[debs]

hello,is there anybody there who can put me straight.I am totally out of my depth here.I was diagnosed type 2 8 years ago and was told to take the pills {metformin} and watch my diet and I should be fine.It was great,the weight dropped off and I felt fine.Then just over a year age it came back to bite me.My whole life has changed in the last 12 months and I dont know what to do.I have started having panic attacks if I have to go out.I can go to work no problem but on days off I dont go out of the house unless I really have to.I have lost interest in everything and its hard to explain how I feel.I'm now taking 4 metformin,4 gliclacide and 1 pioglitazone a day.I have got to start injections if this last pill he gave me doesnt work.Why do I feel like i'm hypo when my sugar is always too high.Why do I get the shakes,am I taking too many pills for the amount of food I eat? I work 12 hour shifts in a shop so its hard to have a proper food routine and at home I cant be sure what is good because it is all so confusing,What I think is good isnt and what I think is bad makes me feel better.Is this depression caused by my diabetes or just by life? How can I make this go away and get back to my old self? I also ask the question "does anyone use the chatrooms?"

 

[boris von hessen]

Hi Debs, its a really stressful and confusing situation to be in and I can relate to the panic attacks and depression. I think there is a lot of grief involved in getting diabetes sorted out, especially in times of big change in the treatment and management. At least you are a BIG step ahead of me by keeping in touch with your doctor and getting your medications altered. I didn't do that for some time and now have started on daily injections. However to put that in perspective, it was much easier than I would have thought and possibly I will end up being able to control my diabetes much better this way. For me personally, a lot of the panic and depression lifted when I had the <b>f[</b>b]act</b> of injections to deal with, rather than the<b> fear[/b] of them, which had grown out of all proportion. Probably anything anyone can say will sound a bit trite compared to what you are going through, but keep up a good relationship with your doctor, maybe try to find a counsellor that specializes in Diabetes (there seems to be a strong link between depression and diabetes, and when you think of all the changes one has to make, it seems almost a reasonable reaction to having so much to deal with and a lot of things to grieve for). Again, for me personally, I have started to challenge my wish to make it all go away and get back to my old self, by realizing that I can make the stress go away, by slowly but surely getting control of the diabetes and my health. I am spending more time planning for my new healthy calm self, who happens to have well controlled diabetes, rather than thinking on the old self who unfortunately it must be said didn't handle things to well! I hope you find your path through it too, just keep on looking for help from those who are in the know and don't follow my mistake and run away from it and make things worse.
best wishes
bruce

 

[ChocFish]

Couldnt have said it better than Bruce, Debs you have already made a good start there, learning as much as you can about this diabetes and learning how others deal with it you can then go and devise your own programme and see how things work for you, make adaptions as you go along, etc and whilst you are doing this you will become more confident andh lose the fear, stress will decrease, all good things. of course not overnight.

Read the posts from the old forum too and know that everyone in this forum cares about each other whether diabetic 1 or 2, doesnt matter we have a lovely bunch of people in here.

All the best

Karen x

Challenges can be stumbling blocks or stepping stones, it depends how you view them

 

[Dennis]

Hi Debs,

Good advice from Bruce, particularly the part about getting control of your diabetes. One way to start this is to look at what you were doing and what you were eating during those 8 "good" years, and what has since changed. Are you eating differently to what you ate then, in particular does your diet contain more sugar or carboyhdrates than it used to? Are you getting less exercise? Have you changed your job or have home circu mstances changed to create more stress in your life?

I know it is difficult to take a step back and try to look at yourself and your life as if you were an outsider looking in, but give it a try because, once you understand what could have caused the change in your diabetes, then you are more than halfway to finding the solution.

 

[Poppy]

Don't be afraid to start the injections, if this is what it takes. I was and at first I had to have my hubby do it for me, I am such a wimp, but then I managed to do it for myself and can honestly say that I don't know why I didn't do it earlier. Even though I still take some metformin I actually feel better with the Lantus than I did with gliclazide & something I can't remember

Take care, Poppy