• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 1 Urge to skip routine and live normal

K

kumar.neeraj

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi,
I have type 1 diabetes since 2 and a half years now. I stick to diet, exercise, medications and routine very strictly. But, sometimes it just feels like skipping all this just for a while and live like a normal person. I guess, many people may also have felt likewise sometimes. Just wanted to know what did you do when such thoughts crossed your mind.
Thanks,
Neeraj
 
Hi there
I have to admit I do sometimes feel as you do. I have been type 1 for 5 years now. This is how I personally deal with it. I think of a close friend of mine who died from motor neuron disease quite the worse disease I have witnessed anyone go through. That gives me a big wake up call just by itself. Then I write to anyone on high to make sure all type 1 have access to all the latest technologies not just relentless jabbing. I wrote at length to ccgs and mps to help make the libre available to us all.
To stop the rambling basically try to turn those negative feelings into positive proactive ones.
Good luck and I am sure most of us have felt as you do more often than maybe we are prepared to admit.
 
The only routine I stick to is injection of insulin, going without is...........well just not feasible.

Other than that I live life as normal as anyone else because at the end of the day we are no different to anyone else, it's just our pancreas need a bit of help.
 
Speaking through the lense of a type 2, I’m still in that phase where I’m actually enjoying it. Firstly I think because I’m elated that I’m continuing to get better. Loving the feeling of my body and mind improving. Having suffered from complications that are now on the mend, I feel fantastic. As an engineering type person I find the biology of it all fascinating and captivating. It’s a personal challenge to learn more, and extremely gratifying to see my understanding of my body improve every day. I’m also a bit of a hippy and I’m developing a spiritual relationship with nature. I’m consciously nurturing this mindset because it makes me feel improved...the best version of me. Not a version of me that wants to be “normal”. A version of me that is better than the old “normal” version.

This is my way of teaching myself that my new world is happier and more fulfilling than the old one. The hope is that this outlook will prevent burnout long term. How could I get burnout from what I’m doing, when what I’m doing is making me “live long and prosper”? Hope I’m making sense without coming across as pretentious. I’m setting myself up to think like this so I can put normal behind me. Normal nearly made me go blind and lose my feet. In your face, normal!

Coincidentally I had a chat with a good friend last night on this very subject. He seemed almost in pity that I couldn’t do things like eat fish & chips. I explained that it doesn’t enter my head anymore. I don’t feel deprived of the things I used to think I enjoyed. I feel emboldened by the new things that I enjoy.
 
When my husband goes to the fish and chip shop, I get a large cod, and peel off the batter. That is my normal.
Each day I take the tablets I need to supplement my thyroid function, which shut down years ago - that is as normal as brushing my hair or cleaning my teeth.
I don't know if it is simply the type of mentality I have, but accommodating what I need to do for myself is always normal - I used to read a lot of science fiction and remember 'I am always I' in one of the stories, used after an encounter with an alien who swapped half their memories.
 
Eva Saxl's story always picks me up.

Being Jewish, she and her husband fled Germany to Shanghai during WWII, only to find insulin supplies were cut off when the Japanese invaded.

Racing against time till her supply ran out, they found a paper on how to make insulin, set up a makeshift lab, got a friendly butcher to supply them with water buffalo pancreata, and, believe it or not, after lots of experiments with rabbits, ended up making viable insulin, which saved Eva from a horrible dka death, and they produced enough to save about another 400 T1s.

After the war, they then went on to become ambassadors for encouraging acceptance of T1 at a time when there was a lot of bigotry and prejudice against it, and promoted availability of insulin in third world countries.

I know that T1 is tough at times, but when I think about Eva, she really had it tough, whereas I've got it easy.

 
Skipping what we have to do is a bad idea, and will have consequences. Maybe it’s from burnout. Or maybe you’re heading into a stage of denial. We all go through dark times with ourselves, but keep in mind it will have an effect.
 

Hi Kumar, but how does a 'normal person' live then? Most people tend to stick to the same type of diet (whether it's good for them or not), most people eat at a set time, usually the same foodstuffs, go out to work, come home, maybe do some exercise or not, etc. I think the main difference is the actual having to think before you eat and not being able to be quite so flexible on deciding to do something last minute, such as go for a run. I personal see this as normal for me now, ok maybe I am forced to not miss a run or think twice about what I eat but this is a good thing. The only strict thing I stick to is the use of insulin, I work shifts, I have never followed a strict diet and eat at times all over the place. I think you can be as flexible as the next person but there is no getting away from the fact that it would be unwise to chuck whatever you want in your mouth if it's detrimental to you, I'm guessing you mean strict as in never grabbing a takeaway on the way home or eating an impromptu ice cream? A lot of my friends are 'healthy lifestyle' types and their normal is just cutting out the rubbish and sticking with an exercise regime, that IS normal and very similar to my normal. x
 
I take a plethora of tablets every day some I have to take 4 times a day I have been doing this approximately 17 years and I must admit I do at times feel like just saying no more just stop but then I take time to consider just what my life would have been without them and the mental picture I get of myself sans meds is not a pleasant one and then I choose the option that affords me the nearest to a normal life I can have and I take my meds and follow the routine I have been following all these years.
 
I get it in that type 1 is a very demanding condition, much more so than type 2. That is not to be unsympatheic to type 2s before anyone takes offence!
I think I took most of my 20's off by which I mean my routine was random, I did not count carbs and did not test enough. I did not want and still don't to be a 'full time/professional diabetic' but this attitude did have consequences in that I have had eye damage and now I am partially sighted (can't drive so it has been great for fitness at least!). Now I am much more aware of the risks but my philosophy is there is nothing I won't do or eat just because I have type 1
I suppose for you it depends on how good a 'normal life' would feel versus the cost of ignoring your routine. Surely there is a middle ground?
 
helensaramay said:
Changing routine is not the same as skipping what we have to do.
Sticking to testing BG and taking insulin can be done whilst changing one’s routine.
Click to expand...

This person talked about skipping his routine, and acting like diabetes wasn’t a concern. As a t1, this isn’t a good idea.
 

Maybe you didn’t see the statement that went like this:

I stick to diet, exercise, medications and routine very strictly. But, sometimes it just feels like skipping all this just for a while and live like a normal person.
Click to expand...

I didn’t miss it. I took it seriously because I tried to do it in the mid 80’s. It wasn’t one of my better ideas to ignore something that we have to manage.

I did not say let it limit what a person does with their life- I don’t live that way. I will not say take a week off of diabetes control, because that isn’t wise.

I’m not sure why we are having this discussion in this person’s thread.
 

I have those thoughts too and I had them last night, I didn't want to cook, so I had crackers and cheese, meat etc and I thought, all I want to do is just go to the fridge or cupboard and eat something , not faff about with finger pricks and Insulin all the time. But the day was an emotional one for me, also this is my 30th year with type 1 and I am finding it hard.
Take care
 
Hello
If it's of any help I have to take approximately 26 pills a day and inject twice. Yes I loathe the whole process and regularly think about but not bothering, but the overriding thought is that I would die if I missed my medication for a week so I just take the medication and try to get on with life.
The other thing that helps is I try, failing sometimes to look for humourous aspect.
 

I wouldn't call type 1 easy, tough going at times, but, it is easier and more manageable with the constant technology, research etc ( even though I am still on MDI and still finger pricking) Eva Saxl was an amazing woman
 

I see the OP's post as, they are fed up with the constant routine of diabetes and would just like some time out like normal people, thus, people who don't have type 1 , especially from such a young age too. probably burn out and feeling fed up with it all.
 

How are you feeling today ?
 

It could be the OP is talking about ' a normal person' as someone who doesn't have type 1. A high % of type 1's feel frustrated, fed up and would like to 'not have it', we know that isn't going to happen, but people can't help how they feel, I know i find is very difficult at times.
 
I hope you can find your balance. I would just say that "normal" is something I would suggest you write down and constructively look at.

Normal in 2019 modern and emerging societies tends to mean only 30 % of persons being able to cope with "normal" eating patterns, and by the age of 55 taking up to 5 pills a day. My choice is not to be in that normal camp; you will have your choice and view perhaps to be formulated. I know a variable is your I insulin injection which I get in terms of continual routine.
 

Love this! Read this a couple of years ago and saved it on my I pad. Amazing determination.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…