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- Type of diabetes
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I spent the evening at a session looking at how the DAFNE course can encourage wider participation. Amongst those present were a significant number of people who were diagnosed as kids or in other countries (Africa) and were going through the phase of "I know how my diabetes works so I don't need to test".
It was very interesting talking to all in the room because none of them engaged with the online community and many didn't really want to engage with their diabetes. A 21 year old freely admitted he'd been DKAd many times, hadn't blood tested for 5 years and took insulin when he felt he needed it. But he always took it.
Many tested maybe twice a day and a couple admitted never testing.
Now I recall going through a similar period where I'd carb count stuff and rely on how I felt to decide whether I needed more or less insulin. I didn't really care about it. I always took my insulin and would test once a day, maybe twice or maybe none. As long as my Hba1c was okay if be happy, so when they continued to come back in the low 7s, well, that was okay.
What it rammed home to me is just how much of a psychological condition living with diabetes is. It's not just about testing, counting and injecting. It's so much more. The older you become, the more it is a grieving process. You remember what "normal" was and you fight it. Some of us never experienced adult life as normal. We probably don't understand what you are feeling. If we were diagnosed very young we probably rebelled, as all teenagers do.
But to hear that they are starting to understand that 40 years after diagnosis, PTSD can still be occurring and that 20 years after diagnosis, many people still haven't moved beyond the denial or depression phases of the grief cycle shows how little understood the psychological aspects of the condition are.
When you consider the impact of being told "Your life is quite literally in your own hands, every minute of every day" it's no wonder either.
It's something each and every one of us trying to provide help on here should bear in mind with those who are looking for help when they come to us.
We should all remember our hard times too.
It was very interesting talking to all in the room because none of them engaged with the online community and many didn't really want to engage with their diabetes. A 21 year old freely admitted he'd been DKAd many times, hadn't blood tested for 5 years and took insulin when he felt he needed it. But he always took it.
Many tested maybe twice a day and a couple admitted never testing.
Now I recall going through a similar period where I'd carb count stuff and rely on how I felt to decide whether I needed more or less insulin. I didn't really care about it. I always took my insulin and would test once a day, maybe twice or maybe none. As long as my Hba1c was okay if be happy, so when they continued to come back in the low 7s, well, that was okay.
What it rammed home to me is just how much of a psychological condition living with diabetes is. It's not just about testing, counting and injecting. It's so much more. The older you become, the more it is a grieving process. You remember what "normal" was and you fight it. Some of us never experienced adult life as normal. We probably don't understand what you are feeling. If we were diagnosed very young we probably rebelled, as all teenagers do.
But to hear that they are starting to understand that 40 years after diagnosis, PTSD can still be occurring and that 20 years after diagnosis, many people still haven't moved beyond the denial or depression phases of the grief cycle shows how little understood the psychological aspects of the condition are.
When you consider the impact of being told "Your life is quite literally in your own hands, every minute of every day" it's no wonder either.
It's something each and every one of us trying to provide help on here should bear in mind with those who are looking for help when they come to us.
We should all remember our hard times too.
