Some would say that your craving for sugary drinks was in fact a symptom of impaired glucose tolerance and not a cause. A couple of years ago you probably started to suffer from Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) which means that your body could no longer turn glucose into fuel as efficiently as it used to. You would have felt fatigue and a craving to consume more sugar. Your body could not process the sugar so you will have been going to the toilet more, so that your body can expell that sugar and as a result you will have been drinking more water. All of these are actually symptoms of what is probably a genetic impairment in your body.
Its very easy to blame yourself when you are first diagnosed, I know I certainly did, but there is no benefit - society can be very judgemental so try not to judge yourself too harshly. And remember its not about how you got here, its about what you do now that counts!
(the reason there are no warnings on the fruit juices, and juice type drinks is because the companies make huge amounts of money selling them to us, and they use that money to influence government - look at the labelling scandal a few years ago, Tesco refused to put traffic light labels on their food even though the Gvt insisted - because Tesco is even more powerful than Gvt. Its scary and much worse in the US I think)