how do you accept it?

Hi All some tie ago i studied an Open university course on Diabetes care and read a really interesting anonymous article written by a person with diabetes. in the article she described her initial diagnosis as being given a parcel to carry, and went on to describe the problem they had while carrying this parcel, sometimes it was small and easy to manage on other occasions the parcel got so heavy they had to drag it round and on some occasions she had to carry numerous smaller parcels. life with diabetes is sometimes easy and sometimes hard, and sadly if we don't control our BGL's we will suffer with complications. how do we deal with it ? there is no straight answer but the way I cope is I accept I have got diabetes and try to control it rather than it controlling me. please remember we have the right to agree a structured treatment and medication plan, and there are many types of treatment. try and understand what's happening it will help and remember you control it not it controlling you. good Luck

Diagnosed 21 years ago type 2 (treated with metformin and gliclazide). 4 years ago went onto levemir (22units per day) and novarapid as determined by guesstimate of carb content. Wouldn't say I've ever accepted but do have to learn to live and cope with it. After 4 years I am insisting that I attend the DAFNE course as my levels are still not acceptable under 8 but not the 6.5 supposed to be. Not much advice given if you have been diagnosed a long time but I suppose they assume you should know, hey I don't. Use the carbs and cal book OK but I need more help than that. Remember that this is your illness, if you are not happy make sure you get all the help you can. CBT etc for depression, and find out as much as you can to help yourself. Keep well and look on these forums and also those in the US and Australia they have good stuff too.

I don't think I've accepted the fact I'm diabetic. I know I am, but I still do all the things a regular person would, I rarely take my insulin with food, I eat and drink what I want when I want. I really do not care for my diabetes because I hate having it so much, I know I've got to change but at this precise moment in time nothing can be worse.
I just hope that in years to come I'll realise what I'm doing with my body, because I really want to settle down and have a family.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes nearly 3 years ago now, i am on medication tablet and alo inject insulin 3 times a day, i had bad depression at times when i thought about things but my life changed after watching tv i was living in Canada at the time and there was an advert on (can't even remember what it was for lol) but at the end the man aid in a loud clear voice I HAVE DIABETES --DIABETES DOES NOT HAVE ME !!!!!!!!!!!
Silly how something so mall can change a person but it i now my favourite quote, i use it all the time it work for me !!!!!!
oh and one other thing if i wasn't a diabetic then the option is death -- not just yet thanks xx

I am a horse rider and enjoy life, i havent let Diabetes get a grip on me, everything i do now i did before, i always carry a can of coke and a couple of digestives wherever i go, its no big deal and i can carry these items even when on horseback, i can even test on horseback if i have to, this has the benefit of improving my balance as i prick my finger and get the reading, with a stroppy Mare under me.

The point i'm making is that, if you accept the fact that you have this disease, learn to control it, learn about it, learn to carb count and work out the maths in your head, ask questions, then theres no reason you cant live a full and active life. This disease is not life changing, that is my mentality, i took 3 days off work when i was diagnosed and they (The NHS bless em!) got me stable, i havent taken a day off sick since. If you let it beat you, it will beat you. Good luck.....

I have been a diabetic for 29 years and was only 16 when diagnosed, accepting being a diabetic, i suppose i was young and didn't really understand what the whole diabetic thing was. I can only tell you that at first it was slightly annoying doing water tests (all those years ago this is what we did before blood test was available)before eating. When i was 18/19 i did rebel i suppose, not for long because i came to realize the only person i was hurting was me. Im not perfect and my sugars can be slightly higher than they should be at different times of the year, but on the whole i keep my sugars at a level which im happy with and i have had no complaints from my diabetic doctors over the years, and i have never let it stop me doing anything i wanted to do. In my early 20s i travelled around Europe twice, i have had 2 children without any problems, they are now 12 and 9, i keep fit with walking and cycling.

its a part of you, so rather than let it dictate what you can or cant do, live with it, you can do whatever you wanted to do before you were diagnosed, you just have to be more careful and let your friends know what to look for if your sugars are low and what to do.

Hello ....

I don't think you ever accept it but as someone said, you can make peace with it. Fin
d out as much as you can about it, please don't be frightened of it and learn how you need to deal with it on a personal level. No, it's not nice but if your're committed to understanding it, you'll get there. Good luck

I was diagnosed as type 2 diabetic as I was over 60 and advised to change my diet and exercise and come back in a few months. I stopped eating sweets, chocolate, biscuits and cakes and had no alcohol. I only read up information on type 2 diabetes and did not realise I was making myself ill. I ended up in hospital with Ketoacidosis and was nearly in a coma. I think because I was so ill I was relieved it was ONLY type 1 diabetes. Although I accept I am diabetic I get fed up and frustated at times when my BS is not what I expect it to be but I try to treat it as a challenge that I will be able to control eventually.

I was only diagnosed as T2 in January of this year. To be honest I have not even begun to accept it. I still act as though I am not diabetic, I do not test my blood sugars and have only changed my diet a little. Any great motivation to change my diet and lose weight lasted for only a few days. It is almost as though if I don't think about it, it may simply go away.

I know soon I must begin the process of acceptance, begin to change my diet etc., but at the moment it seems to much of a struggle.

I feel useless and weak at the present time...the usual pitying why me?

However, not too far into the future I am going to have to take responsibility for my health and get on with it.....whatever 'it' is?

Not even a week diagnosed yet, but as with everything in life, I go above and beyond to find out what is what. The day I was diagnosed I had one of the biggest pity parties ever, then the next day, kicked my own ass, and here we are. I am determined to learn as much about diabetes as possible. I am not a typical read head in any way except in being absolutely tenacious in getting 'to the bottom of things'. I ask questions here, I watch my carbs like a hawk, I bought my own meter and I test, test test. I know complications can kill, and with peripheral neuropathy already (I think I was diabetic a long time before diagnosis) I am not prepared to become another statistic in the 'died of diabetes complications' list.

My Godsend has been this forum - I am not saying it because I'm posting this, I am saying it because it is true. I have spent many hours here, just reading. Reading links, saving links and asking questions. I have learned in less than a week, if I ask a question that has been asked here a hundred times before, someone will still take time from their day to answer. I feel 'safe' here, safe from the stereotypical judgements that speaking about this **** awful disease would attract in the out side world. People here 'get me'. Understand my worries and concerns, and just dive in and help. It is this and my own sheer bloody mindedness, that will get me through. I have accepted I have diabetes, but I will not accept that it is going to do me harm. Only I can allow it to do me harm by not keeping it under control. I see it that should I die from diabetes I die from self neglect. That is just not going to happen.

I can only say 'I agree with Defren'

You lot are bloody great!!!!

(ps, is saying bloody ok?)

lucylocket61 said:

(ps, is saying bloody ok?)

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Dunno, but I said it too :mrgreen:

Oh No! Not two new posters using DREADFUL language! :lol:

What a great post Defren. A big difference from last week.

I agree with everything you said. The people on this forum are great.

I am addicted to it.

I put up with it but I try not think about having this for the rest of my life as it is too depressing. Within my family I feel a freak, the person who can't join in normal family life because of the dietary restrictions, I also feel like the skeleton at the feast putting a damper on everything, no I can't eat that, no I can't drink that. I grieve for my former life and as I have not been able to control my diet for the last 8 months after 3 years of very tight control, I worry terribly about the damage I am doing. I am due my yearly Hb1Ac but I haven't been, I am also due to go to the Opticians for an eye check but as there is glaucoma, macular degeneration in my family this together with diabetic neuropathy makes me afraid to go. Basically I find being diabetic enormously stressful as I have to cook for my family and don't want to impose my dietary misery on them but I sometimes think it is not much of a life and only another diabetic can understand what that means. I guess this means I have not accepted it and to be honest I live my life feeling one day I will be cured. I also find it frustrating, since I am the only one in all of my family with diabetes, not even knowing WHY I am diabetic. Sorry for such a negative post but I am in a bit of a black hole with diabetes at the moment.

Took me 6 months to come to terms. During that time I cried, was depressed and very frightened. The main reason was that I did not know about it. Once I had read and learned about diabetes and taken all possible steps with diet and exercise, I felt a sense of confidence and control return. You really do have to firmly change your food until your meter is showing you are in the normal ranges at all times. Everything becomes routine and habit if you do it long enough - good or bad. We can overcome this. It is perfectly possible to do it without medication if you truly use discipline and application in conjunction with educating yourself.

Remember - you need to know far more than your doctor about diabetes. Only then can you truly take control of your own well being and health.

So glad this was posted, couldn't stop reading it as I recognised myself more at each stage. How amazing, to see in print, all the feelings and frustrations, so difficult to explain to anyone without this affliction, why it's not so easy to just 'get on with it, or snap out of it' on down days when in spite of all your efforts your meter still says 'shocking...19.6' or even worse, and yes ... mine has even hit the maximum, over 30. :shock: :***: . terrifying but true; and how do I react.. I feel like dashing out to the shop, in spite of state of dress, makeup etc, to buy the biggest b*****y chocolate bar in exhistence. It's the frustration that in spite of all the denial of the food you want etc , you still don't make the grade.. according to your meter, mine is so often at the top of my hate list it should have a season ticket!! :evil: Well this week have been low carbing, weighing, counting every little fraction, and my result is ..16.5, 19.6, I feel like giving in, but, after 5 years of I think, denial and a couple of the other stages, I know I have to sort this, 2 beautiful daughters, six absolutely gorgeous grandchildren and a boyfriend I don't always appreciate as much as I should are not things I want to bid farewell to yet, in fact not for a long time, I already inherited high bp and high chol and have already suffered dyplopia (double vision, so that you have 2 images of everything and even walking around the house causes nausea) so I think I have enough to spur me on. I'm just so pleased I saw this post. To properly understand that there are people out there, more than lots after reading it, that are also experiencing the less than perfect result for total effort and ensuing depression has made me feel less alone with this, I'm the first in my family so unfortunately I think sometimes they think I place too much importance on it, so... thanks, from the bottom of my heart x sorry for the long post, lots on my chest and a teary day x

Unbeliever said:

Oh No! Not two new posters using DREADFUL language! :lol:

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:mrgreen: :angel:

Forbidden fruit , you kow Claymic- or in our case forbidden lots of things, Before diagnosis I rarely craved anything sweet

In fact i think now that I must have been Hypoing when I did. Now , just occasionally I find myself wanting to eat things I know I wouldn't enjoy just because I know I shouldn't ! Especially when someone says "Oh you can't have this can You ?"

I think it is because I never really thought about food too much before. I was on a GI diet for years but that was more easily adapted to most situations than is my moderate low carbing. I have no problem at home but I am forced to plan when I go out and thus think about food more han I did before.