Type 1 diabetic

[Jrsmith]

I’ve been struggling with mental health for a long time. I’ve been all over the place. I can’t control my diabetes. The diabetic team don’t help me as much as I’d like. I just need people too talk too who actually understand, people who are also diabetic and can help me maybe? I just need some support both physically and mentally

 

[EllieM]

Hi @Jrsmith and welcome to the forums from a T1 in New Zealand.

Hopefully we'll be able to give you some moral support if nothing else.

Unfortunately poor metal health tends to lead to harder to control diabetes and that feeds into worse metal health, so you are definitely not alone in your situation.

What is your diabetic team doing for you diabetic wise? Pump and/or glucose sensors?

(And it's any consolation, my sugar levels were sky high at your age. It was before glucometers and basal/bolus regimes were available and I spent my teens remembering to inject but ignoring the sugar in my urine and eating some very inappropriate meals.)

 

[Jrsmith]

I’m on MDI. Tresiba and Fiasp. And I’m on the libre 2 sensors. I’m constantly dealing with ups and downs, due to things I did in the past they minimised the amount of insulin they give me so instead of 4 pens they only give me two. I’m under a CMHT(community mental health team) and usually they order my prescriptions for me but recently I’ve changed cpn and I’ve had too do it myself, so I keep forgetting too order my scripts and I end up running out of short acting, and it’s happening frequently. This year alone I’ve probably gone over 3-4 weeks without my short acting(all at different times) and it’s awful it’s wearing my body away.

 

[EllieM]

Do your diabetic team and mental health team talk to each other? This would seem fairly essentail to me. An obvious thing to do would be to order a new pen as soon as you start your last one. Are you allowed to do that?

I guess ordering your own prescriptions again is long term progress though? (My apologies if I'm misunderstanding your situation.)

 

[iwilltouchyourcat]

I am so sorry you’re not getting the support you deserve. I’m under a Cmht too and struggle to ask for or get help (despite working in mental health myself, ironically) and my gp has been nothing but disinterested and judgmental. Recently got a referral to diabetes specialist team and they seem nice so far. But it’s made me very mistrustful of services. And it’s SO hard to advocate for yourself and ask for more support when your mental health is dipping! Anyway nothing helpful to add other than i have found this forum really supportive and it’s nice to be able to post to a bunch of strangers who ‘get it’. Also a lot of long term psych meds have detrimental effects on your metabolism, particularly antipsychotics which most come with a list of side effects that include increase in blood sugar/appetite/weight gain, which can exacerbate the diabetes so it’s like what do I treat- physical or mental health? It’s so frustrating and I hope things improve for you

 

[Zhnyaka]

I'm hugging you (if it helps). I think sometimes we all can't control our diabetes. It's really scary and very hard emotionally. But this is temporary. I just want to say that everything will get better. Do not allow negative emotions to rise up. Talk about it and check your blood glucose regularly. Remember that everything will definitely be fine.