I went to seey GP this morning. Broke down into an emotional mess. She says that my low mood is because of my high blood sugars and that the only way to sort this out is to take medication.... I fear I've got no choice but to take tablets.. Is it really possible to do it without?
Some of us, perhaps most of us, have been there. When I first got the diagnosis it felt almost as if my life had ended. I consulted the available descriptions of diabetes on the Internet, including the global figure that it shortens average life expectancy by 10 years, that you can go blind, lose limbs, etc. For my first doctor's consultation post-diagnosis I brought my wife along because I wasn't sure I would be able to "keep it together" otherwise. Your feelings are normal, they make sense, and (with all due respect) I don't think it necessarily has anything to do with high blood sugars as your GP is saying.
I was fortunate that I (so far) never needed medication. But from my research, and from numerous posts on this forum, it is clear that if you do start on medication, you can combine that with a low-carb diet and possibly reduce or eliminate the medication later. Your doctor's advice is fairly different from mine, but they are the professionals and we are all individuals with our own needs.
But, with the caveat that I have no medical training, I would still encourage you to consider having one last try at the diet/exercise route with no meds. Here's how I did it. It differs a little bit from the usual LCHF (and is rather more extreme):
For the first two months:
--Extremely low carb (less than 20g/day). So far, so standard.
--Low fat.
--Low calorie (less than 1500/day) achieved through strict portion control.
--Copious hydration (2 liters of water a day in addition to the usual drinks with meals).
--No booze.
--Vigorous walking, about 6 miles per day at about 12 or 13 minutes per mile. (Not everyone will be able to manage this, it depends on your initial state of health and whether you have enough "free time" obviously.)
I did not do any self-testing, so I have no idea what was happening to my numbers on a daily basis during those two months. It is quite possible that I was in ketosis, considering the results. I lost 10 kilos (I was quite thin already) and brought the HbA1c fully under control (see signature at bottom of this post).
The downsides: For the first few weeks I was ravenously hungry. I coped with this, in part, by snacking on low-carb nuts (pecans, macadamias, small quantites of Brazil nuts). For a while, I was also fairly muddle-headed, but after about a month this went away. Another downside: because I was not self-testing, I was under extreme stress for those two months because I frankly did not expect my blood glucose levels to improve, having been brainwashed into thinking that the low-carb route only works for a very small number of people.
After the first two months:
--Relaxed the carbs a little bit (it is now 30g to 50g per day).
--Abandoned the portion control.
--Added some fats, for instance by snacking on olives and adding an avocado to my lunch (which usually consists of a salad, occasionally supplemented by an omelette). Increased consumption of yummy cheeses, eaten on home-made low-carb crackers.
--Abandoned the tee-total regime; I now average one to two glasses of dry red wine per day.
--Reduced the walking to 3 miles per day, at a moderate pace.
As they say here in America, "your mileage may vary" -- as is abundantly clear from this forum!
I now think it is likely that as a result of my diagnosis, my life expectancy (and general level of health) have *improved* because I really had not been looking after myself. I'm a lazy kind of person and, frankly, it took the shock of being diagnosed with a nasty, incurable, chronic disease to boot me into doing what I should have been doing anyway.
I know that it does not feel that way to you right now. It took me many months to get into a "better place" mentally. It's complicated, but I hope that with a combination of lifestyle changes, possibly medications as advised by your doctor, exercise, and the passage of time, you could get to that place too. Remember that it is largely in your hands, albeit with the expert support of your doctor.
Sorry this is so long but diabetes is not simple.