Only now starting to accept my diabetes

Diapanda said:

Hello everyone... Has anyone had similar experiences to me? I was diagnosed when I was only ten and didn't understand what that really meant I guess. I have been in denial I guess the whole time and only this year I have realized that I have a very serious condition that is not to be taken lightly.

I have always thought that taking my blood sugar and taking insulin are things that I just need to do and thought it was very annoying to have to monitor all the time! I think I also felt like everyone around me left it up to me too much and it just felt like everyone was just criticizing me for being bad at taking care of myself. Has anyone else been in denial about their diabetes?

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Diagnosed 1975, grew up thinking it was a punishment for something. Urine testing back then rather than blood so it was messy. Once blood testing became a ‘thing’ hat was even more of a punishment. DSN was a harridan-so more pain (I was 8 so you can imagine the turmoil) My condition was spiralling massive highs and lows, to the extent I wanted to sleep and never wake up.
Fast forward 30 years of this and I finally got a grip and little by little got my act together, now I use a Freestyle Libre scanner (so very,very few blood tests) I know what makes me peak and why I feel out of sorts with some food types. It’s been a godsend. I use that and the MySugr app which helps immensely with the pain of constantly working out the carb/insulin ratios as it does all that for me.

I now do all the things I was told back then I could never do because of being a T1D.

I drive, I ride a motorbike, I’m a licensed gun owner and shoot regularly. I scuba dive (I have all the qualifications)
I eat whatever I like but medicate accordingly.

I did all this within the last 6 years. Don’t leave it as late as I did, it’s not a big deal having diabetes, you just need to find what works best for YOU.

Everything is possible regardless of what others say. You just have to want it enough. It took me 40 odd years to find that out.

You’ll get there.

Ive had it since i was six years old and im now turning 18. I feel the exact same way as you. Over 11 years and its only becoming apparent to me that ive been in denial so long. I've never once wanted to associate myself with my diabetes. I dreaded the appointments and the idea of having to go to group sessions and bonding activities with other diabetic kids. I guess i just thought that it was a minor part of my life that i could quickly sort out in private before joing the others in the real-world. This is the first time im joining in with the conversations, i literally just made this account. Anyway, i feel like its slowly taking over my life, my mood swings are crazy and i dont feel like myself anymore. Its becoming apparant to me that i need to face it head first, i cant keep living in this state of denial.
I think theres guilt with not being the perfect diabetic so i pretend not to try at all. I dont like comparing myself to other diabetics, they all seem so much more organised and happy than me. If anyone has any advice let me know please

I got diabetes at the super mature age of 17 ! I rebelled it wasn’t going to change my life at all , saying that it was 41 years ago and treatment was a hell of a lot different back then , but being young and “ invincible “ I carried on , but you can’t live like that without some consequences, and I had a few , but now I’m older and hopefully a bit wiser I have eventually “ screwed the nut “ and to be honest diabetes isn’t that bad , it needs to be respected , but it shouldn’t put you in a cage , life is about living and living is about life ,

This is so precious that now you understand that you have disease, and it is even better that you do not let it to limit you! Stay strong!

I was diagnosed with T1 at the age of 8. My parents took it very hard. All my childhood I was angry at the disease, because no one shared sweets with me. In adolescence, when I had enough money, I had something like a breakdown, I probably bought myself sweets every day and ate them in huge quantities (it's good that I had the sense to inject insulin for this), and also refused to go to the doctor. It seemed to me that diabetes was bothering me. It was only by the age of 20 that I began to treat it as something ordinary and accepted the fact that I had to take care of my health. One day we were sitting in a bar and I gave an injection of insulin without getting up from the table, and when I joked about my diabetes a few hours later, the guy sitting next to me was very surprised that I was diabetic, he didn't notice at all how I was giving an injection sitting next to him. Probably at that moment I realized that others don't care about your diabetes, and that's fine.