I am just interested how many of us have at some point in their diabetic career, been in 'diabetes denial'. How long for? How did you come out of it? Have you had periods of denial and control?
I was diagnosed as a teenager, in the early 90s, and after a few months began to ignore my condition as I missed sweets and chocolates. I have MODY but was misdiagnosed until quite recently.
I continued to ignore my diabetes, ate what I wanted and never tested until about a couple of years ago. I actually got to the point where I wanted something to go wrong in order to have a wake up call as I just couldn't take my illness seriously. The longer I went without any complications the deeper the denial got. Eventually I got told I had retinopathy and maculopathy. The maculopathy turned out to be a false diagnosis, thankfully, but I was told if I did not sort it out I could go blind in five years. That woke me up, for a bit. Then although I modified my diet a lot, I went off the boil with testing. I went into another form of denial where so long as I was eating a low carb diet I didn't think I needed to test, and even got lazy about taking my medication.
Now i am pregnant i am being good as gold but whose to say I won't lapse again after I give birth.
It just seems very, very common - more the norm than the exception, for people to ignore diabetes as the link between your behaviour now and the possible consequences in the future is so tenuous. So psychologically it doesn't make much of an impact compared to say a consequence that will happen much sooner and more definitely. Also diabetes takes so much day to day management and decision making, and its easy for a busy life to get in the way.
I also think getting it as a teenager is the worst age - too young (for some) to take responsibility but too old to have someone else look after you or watch you every minute of the day.
Anyway just interested in other people's experiences of this
I was diagnosed as a teenager, in the early 90s, and after a few months began to ignore my condition as I missed sweets and chocolates. I have MODY but was misdiagnosed until quite recently.
I continued to ignore my diabetes, ate what I wanted and never tested until about a couple of years ago. I actually got to the point where I wanted something to go wrong in order to have a wake up call as I just couldn't take my illness seriously. The longer I went without any complications the deeper the denial got. Eventually I got told I had retinopathy and maculopathy. The maculopathy turned out to be a false diagnosis, thankfully, but I was told if I did not sort it out I could go blind in five years. That woke me up, for a bit. Then although I modified my diet a lot, I went off the boil with testing. I went into another form of denial where so long as I was eating a low carb diet I didn't think I needed to test, and even got lazy about taking my medication.
Now i am pregnant i am being good as gold but whose to say I won't lapse again after I give birth.
It just seems very, very common - more the norm than the exception, for people to ignore diabetes as the link between your behaviour now and the possible consequences in the future is so tenuous. So psychologically it doesn't make much of an impact compared to say a consequence that will happen much sooner and more definitely. Also diabetes takes so much day to day management and decision making, and its easy for a busy life to get in the way.
I also think getting it as a teenager is the worst age - too young (for some) to take responsibility but too old to have someone else look after you or watch you every minute of the day.
Anyway just interested in other people's experiences of this
