This is why I like this forum. Although I rarely post, I find it very reassuring to be able to read and hear posts - like the OP's and other writers, who kindly offer their own insight into having type 1 - which tell me 'I'm not alone'. I'm 32 (chronologically at least, but maybe not mentally) and was diagnosed at the age of 12, on xmas eve (which wasn't all bad as the hospital I was in provided presents to child patients). However, after two decades, I am absolutely exhausted by the daily demands that living with diabetes entails. The unpredictability of how your body will react to a given situation - despite all your best efforts to calculate with algorithms that a supercomputer would be proud of - makes regulating blood sugar within tight parameters, all the time, impossible. Yet, there seems to be a myth in the community at large, and perhaps even within this forum, that controlling blood sugar is a simple equation, which involves only balancing insulin and food. We all know it's more complicated than that. Life gets in the way. And life is complicated.
24 hours 7 days a week. That's what this condition takes from me mentally. I'm lucky, I have good support networks, without which I would be lost. But please, please, please, some time off to live life without thinking through the **** consequences of how my actions will affect my bloody blood sugar would be an absolute godsend. I do not have an 'average' blood sugar as my GP occasionally asks me whenever I, rarely, attend his office for a non-diabetes related issue. I work as a social worker, and as much as I dislike myself for having to admit this, diabetes interferes with my ability to function and concentrate on my job 100%. For instance, if I am faced with a highly volatile situation, which is unpleasant (much of social work is sadly), and I'm encountered with a hostile family (a frequent event), this will often create an adrenaline response in my body, which, as you know causes a resistance to insulin. As a consequence, my blood sugar rises. As my blood sugar rises, my ability to cognitively function and be 'at my best' is reduced. This is hugely frustrating. I then have to spend several hours waiting for a correction bolus to take effect before I can operate at an optimum level again. But life continues to go on. Meetings, reports, and angry families will not wait until my blood sugar is back to 'normal'. Aarrrrrgghhhh! And we all know how devastating low blood sugars can be, and the impact that has on our cognitive ability.
People underestimate the impact that an autoimmune diabetes condition can have on a person's mental health. We are more than an HBA1C number, which seems to be the overriding result that everybody is interested in. I have to confess that I've always been lucky and received great care from my diabetes team; although I only see them once a year. However the reality is that my consultant, or my DSN, NEVER ask me anything about my home environment, what I do for a living, and whether I have any stresses in my life, which are impacting on my management of my blood sugar. And if the professionals can't make the connection, it is entirely unrealistic to expect the lay public to have any understanding of how difficult day-to-day living can be. A bad blood sugar result early in the morning - whether caused by DP, stress, or a rebound from a low during the middle of the night - can put me on a downer before I've even considered my options for breakfast and will set my mood for the rest of the morning. Sigh, I better stop ranting there. I do feel better after a good rant though. Hopefully, I'll get the opportunity to say what I've learned from diabetes, and how I feel I've grown into a more compassionate and learned individual than I otherwise would have been without my diagnosis at some point in the future. I have empathy for you all. Please, keep telling your stories. I may not contribute often, but just hearing your insights on diabetes helps me immensely. Thank you.