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Positive thinking

E

emily deacon

Well-Known Member
Messages
142
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hey guy,

Does anyone have any tips on how to stay positive with diabetes. I have been type 1 for 8 years now and i struggle to be positive. I always think of diabetes as something that holds me back and i’m so negative about it. I question how long i will live, i am jealous of people who haven’t got it, i need to be more positive for my own sake. Does anyone have any ideas?
 
Hey Emily.
When you have it in check and you control it - rather than the other way around - that's when you start to be less worried - for me anyhow.
It's the getting it in control bit that is tough.
It takes a lot of hard work - fair bit of research - and lots of trial and error.
I have been on a journey with my type one for nearly 40 yrs. I am now at a point where I don't really care about being diabetic. It's me. I'm happy with me. But I also do have very good control now.
I will be writing a few bits on my journey - in the hope that it can help others - on here in the next few days. I will link you into this as it may give you some ideas, and be of help to you.
Best wishes
Ben
 
That would be great thank you! Some days my sugars are very stable and i think i have nailed it and then they will be really bad for days and i wonder why? but as you said it’s a lot of trial and error
 

Hello @emily deacon !
Been type 1 for about 53 years - I am trying hard to not mismanage (<- hope this was a well chosen translation) myself, but I don't try very hard to take VERY good care of myself.
I hope you can see the small difference here. With this attitude I have managed this far, and there are others like @Knikki , @porl69 , @Mel dCP , and @helensaramay that I would say have the right opinions about life also...
 
Thanks for the tag @mike@work

Hello @emily deacon another long term T1 here

Yep diabetes can be a total PITA and sometimes I get it wrong, like the other day forgot to inject short acting insulin ~full on school boy error ~ caused massive rise but once worked out what I had done only took a few hours to get it back to where I wanted it.

Its just way things work, if you have the wrong socks on, underwear inside out, weather, day has a T in it so many things can change the way the sugars work and all you can think is "***!?!?!?!?!?"

Yes I would love to park Diabetes even for a few hours, but I can't and life is to short and cake is to nice and also bit like @MrBen I am fairly happy with things and how it works. Yes I mange it, yes I watch it, yes it catches me out but on the whole it does not stop me from doing anything.

Come over to the "Type 1 stars R Us" thread and see how we deal with things and sometimes the thread goes way off track but can also be a really helpful place and great place to pick up hints and tips.

Take care and chin up
 
Thanks for the tag @mike@work
Diabetes is a pest - one day it does one thing and the next it does something else.
I have given up trying to be the perfect diabetic but concentrate on being the "best" person with diabetes as focusing on my Bg control only is ignoring the rest of what makes me who I am. I am the person who enjoys exercise and cake, who has an active social life, who tries hard at work, who likes to travel, who pushes boundaries.
Some of these things (exercise, cake, "socialising", travel, stress at work) adds challenges to my diabetes management but I am not going to let it stop me being who I am.
I was incredibly lucky when I was first diagnosed; one of the first things my diabetes nurse told me was "diabetes should not stop you doing what you want". Since then, I have tested that theory trekking in Nepal, climbing in the Alps, skydiving, baking (and eating) bread, sailing across the channel in a force 8 (seasickness did add a little frisson to my diabetes management which I would prefer not to repeat), late nights, ...
When I feel diabetes start to get the upper hand, I either think of something new to try (Vietnamese cookery class?) or look to people in the public eye with type 1 diabetes. If they can win an Oscar for their acting, score a try against Ireland or even run a country, why should diabetes stop me going to the gym?

I am not going to suggest it is easy but, for me, the important thing is "balance" - diabetes is a small part of me so I only need to give it a small part of control.
 
Thanks for the tag @mike@work

Only 48 years for me so compared with @mick@work and @Knikki a fairly newbie lol.
T1D is a complete and utter PITA. I didn't manage mine at all during my twenties and unfortunately am paying a bit of a price for it now. BUT there is nothing I can do to change the past, only what I can do in the here and now. I control my diabetes, it does not control me. It will never stop me doing anything, well maybe I won't become an astronaut but I eat what I want and carefully count carbs now to make sure I have the insulin to cover what I have eaten. Totally get it wrong on times and my BG's go haywire BUT I find it easier to get them to a good level now I am in control.
emily deacon said:
That would be great thank you! Some days my sugars are very stable and i think i have nailed it and then they will be really bad for days and i wonder why? but as you said it’s a lot of trial and error
Click to expand...
Yeah you can do the same thing every day for a week, eat the same food, same exercise etc and get TOTALLY different results. Thats the "joys" of type 1. The only thing thats predictable about T1d is the unpredictability of it (hope that mad sense)
 
I completely agree with @helensaramay except with maybe one detail. There are a few things that still prevent Type 1s taking part, either because of hypoglycaemic risk, or effects on visual fields, but even these are not as common as a few years ago. @emily deacon I can fully understand your point of view and hope the other posts help. I had Type 1 throughout my childhood, which caused resentment (In RE lessons the idea that God was all loving was past rational thinking for a sickly schoolboy. Worse still I tried to hide my "difference from other people" by doing all the things they did and thereby making myself more ill. All this was to change at university where my diabetes ophthalmologist read me the riot act. I certainly struggled to be positive, but woke up to the fact that if I didn't heed his (and many others') advice, I would be blind, on dialysis and in a wheelchair. @MrBen is absolutely right, and this juncture in my life was very tough. However, with wonderful support from family, friends and 2 leading diabetes centres (King's College Hospital London and Addenbrooke's Hospital Cambridge) I am still here 40 years later with my vision (only reading glasses), a transplanted kidney and pancreas, and my own propulsion! That was after 54 years of the PITA referred to by @Knikki and avoiding mismanagement ( @mike@work ). I think sharing my problem, receiving assurance and therefore noticing a huge difference in my well-being and optimism completely changed my life. I get the impression this could already have started in your life, just because you have taken the initiative to contact the Forum. Good luck in your life!
 
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Hi @emily deacon, Welcome to this zany world where life is a continual balancing act.
As another long termer I can think of diabetes as a jail sentence or as an opportunity.
But with either, it is things like humour, having interests/hobbies, accepting some limits whilst pushing other boundaries which
makes life worthwhile.
And being an Aussie already defines me as being upside down, addled by the sun and speaking a foreign language called Strine.
Before 'graduating' to an insulin pump (this one is called 'Tonto"), I was on injections, "javelin practice".
I did some crazy things like 7 day canoe trips down wilderness rivers, sailing across a river in a gale planing all the way (but completely outdone by @helensaramay's stunt)!, going hypo at the swimming baths and found trying to get into the women's change rooms using an imaginary token at the turnstile (I was hypo, honest)!!
When I go shopping (on foot for exercise with my rucksack) I carry a survivalist kit of pump spares, insulin, syringes, charging pack for pump and phone, and glucose tablets. Be Prepared is not about petrol.
Diabetes becomes integrated into one's life. You cannot put it on 'set and forget' even with a pump but I try to get the routine and work my life around it these days. I have probably made as many mistakes as anyone, more possibly but unlike @Knikki, cake is not my go-to consolation, it is the insy-winsy dash of low-carb equivalent of Nutella. (it sort of exists), and some feel-good exercise. Each to his or her own. The variety of consolation amongst people with diabetes is one of the joys. Something in life is predictable for once!!!
And as you read and contribute to this thread and others you will find that the unexplainable things that happens to one's BSLs are due to the weather, what coloured socks were worn today or yesterday, what road you decided to travel and these 'causes' are as good an explanation for our part in this Universe that one is likely to get. It is how one's reacts to the imponderables that matters.
I learnt that when stressed I hold my breath, then breath shallowly. It is as if I am holding all the angst, worry in and I am stuck, unable to think, or adapt. Breathe, in and out evenly, not too deep or shallow, not too rapidly. I am freed up, I can think I can adapt rather than react. If you think about (a rare activity of mine) !! counting to ten is about getting one's breathing back and letting brain function return (that will be the day. my wife would say)!!
Interests and hobbies allow distraction, a chance to socialise, develop one's skills, involve exercise of some sort - as long as these things do not drain one's coin, or risk one's life. (Well I did do all those dangerous things years ago, does that have to count)???
Along with humour is self-humour - being able to see the funny side of serious things - not to have to or wanting to repeat them but to overcome the embarrassment, hurt or disappointment. Being a clown at times is better than weeping in one's kombucha.
As always I forget the author of this triad, but left it with you as the essentials of life how ever they happen:
Someone to love; Something to do; Something to look forward to.
Best Wishes and enjoy the pictures and cartoons below. Keep postings, you do not need to lick the stamps !!

...Mistakes........about fingerpricks...as the caption...Sometimes we.......life can have .....above all else
..........................and injections.........says................need to accept help...its challenges........stay cool

.... ...... ... ... .....
 
kitedoc said:
Hi @emily deacon, going hypo at the swimming baths and found trying to get into the women's change rooms using an imaginary token at the turnstile (I was hypo, honest)!!
]
Click to expand...

Hmm, sorry I forgot you @kitedoc in my "tag-list"
I'll try to remember you, next time someone needs some hints about living with type 1.

And the good thing is - we can always blame the hypo, except for when the police is asking, maybe...
 
Thanks @mike@work, No worries. Yeah, there needs to be some external force that causes the hypo which removes all responsibility. A cyber-terrorist hacked my pump, the insulin was concentrated by outside forces in the universe. My injection hand was not in my control. My food was tampered with. We could have a contest on the best excuse !!
An insulin-carrying mozzie did it!!
 
Hi @emily deacon I think you'll find that any type 1 has their fair share of worries and anxieties in whatever form that may take, what makes us become more accepting is our resilience and knowing that if the carb/insulin calculation is wrong then to simply accept it and move one, don't let the blips rule your day, just acknowledge them. Sometimes life + t1 can be over whelming, there's a variety of other things to consider too, which for me as a woman is the added bonus of hormones too which impact my control, then temperature, stress, exercise etc etc.

I don't envy other people because I know everyone is different and have their own fair share of worries, I do however still have the odd pang for my former t1 life, but am 7 years down the road now and am sure there will come a day when I can't remember ever not having it. I still think I have come a long way since diagnosis however that said I still get the 'uncontrollable events' where I went high/low without any idea why, and still even with that I just accept and move on.

I agree whole heartedly with @kitedoc It helps to have a hobby or past time you feel passionate about though to take your mind off things, the respite I get from the constant vigilance of managing my t1 comes from exercise and this gives me freedom from thinking about t1, so anything that takes you away will help
 
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