Life with diabetes can be very very tough and it never goes away which is why it's so important to make friends with it as quickly as you can to make the most, and get the most out of the rest of your life. Include you partner in what you are doing and what diabetes is doing to you as support is vital at any stage of life. I was diagnosed at 16 and having just left school, then my parents moved to Oxfordshire and I was left in the North West alone, afraid and with no interaction with medical support. What followed wasn't pretty and I'm telling others about it for the first time right now in the hope that this tale will reach people who are struggling but have time on their side. By the time I was 22 I had drifted out of the education system, although in all honesty I was never really in it to begin with, and was a drug addicted alcoholic that was living a very dangerous lifestyle, this remained my way of life until my big moment of clarity. (Which will for now remain my only secret). I checked into a in-patient rehab programme and for the next three or four years yo-yo'd between being clean and being away with the fairies!
My 35th year was my break-through one and the detox finally sank in and on Christmas day just gone I celebrated my 8th anniversary drug free which is a great present I get to give myself every year. During that time I have gained a degree in Counselling and in Substance Abuse & Drug Misuse and until last year worked for a charity giving something back and helping others. Sadly, although entirely my own fault, I now have too many diabetic complications to work full-time and every day is a struggle to get through with retinopathy, neuropathy, fibromyalgia, depression and one or two other issues but I keep going to celebrate the fact that I'm still here and because I can offer my story as a warning to others that find themselves a little lost right now.
The most wonderful thing you have is time, you can surround yourself with knowledge and lead an amazing, normal life.
Try to remember some of these things when the fog of doubt, worry or fear surrounds you;
- You have support in many places. USE IT!!
- Talk. About how you feel and how to tackle your concerns.
- Don't bottle things up. You are never alone.
- Involve your partner, family and friends in however much you're comfortable with..
- Normalise you diabetes. We're still humans!!
- Follow the rules that keep you safe but learn to bend them to suit you.
- Control your diabetes. We own IT and not the other way round.
- Look for patterns in your testing, hypo's etc. Keep a neat diary!!
- Diabetes is tricky, try not to let a hypo or hyper knock your confidence. Sometimes they happen just because!
Feel free to ask anything you like if you think it might help you, good luck and whenever you can enjoy the ride because believe it or not we're no different than everyone else, we share most of the same worries as well as hopes and dreams. I hope you find all of yours.
Chrs.
