Sorry Bec. Not what I meant. Just that D itself, the disease, is not a thing most people would be thankful for. And, most definately, I am not saying you are warped. Although it is something I have been called many times.
Touched is what I normally get ;)
Didn't mean to be "titchy" - just got bummed out by the sudden influx of negativity in my posivite space...LOL
Please (before you post) think about what you are going to put - some of us are using this thread to share our positive/optimistic outlook or to say something not-so-negative about D.
Positive thinking leads to positive actions which can in turn lead to positive habits, that can all lead to positive results.
http://forecast.diabetes.org/magazine/research-shorts/real-power-po...
No problem, comes with the territory. We all cope differently. I hate this disease and how I have to plan everything I do around how it will affect my BG. I am saddened by the complications and how they restrict my activities. But, dwelling on these will only make me bitter and contribute NOTHING to the betterment of my life. I do not see a positive outlook as Pollyanna, but as pragmatic.
Sociologists say that no one is happier than working after a disaster helping others. Knowing what needs to be done and you are critical in making it happen brings satisfaction that routine tasks do not.
The same diet that makes a diabetic healthy is a healthy diet for everyone else. My diabetes has resulted in my family eating a much better diet by stepping up to encourage me. My mother-in-law is moving in with us this weekend. She is 78 with high blood pressure, t2d, and currently neglects her health. She excited about starting to exercise, and eat right and we can give her extra incentive by telling her it is important for me. What is not positive here? Besides, my mother-in-law moving in.
Sure, but diabetes didn't teach me how to do that. If anything, I had to learn how to do that despite having diabetes.
Like I said, I accomodate it because there is no other choice if I want to lead a semi-normal life. If there is anything I am able to do that characterizes "normality", I do despite my diabetes. There is something to be said for turning lemons into lemonade but, when it comes to something like diabetes, I never wanted to be a lemonade maker in the first place.
Diabetes is more than just a bump in the road. For me, diabetes put me on a whole different road than the road that I wanted to be on.
I guess the difference in perspectives is that some people look at everything they have to do, or everything they had to learn how to do, on a daily basis to turn lemons into lemonade as making them a better person, or enriching their lives in some way. In fairness, some people can even envision how their lives might have been if they had never gotten diabetes and see something that would have been genuinely worse.
I just don't see it that way.
To be fair Bec, your post may be positive and upbeat and many others have followed suit, but your title is a question, not a statement.
For some of us, that answer to that question is no.
Nothing wrong w/being pragmatic - and it totally sucks sometimes...like this morning, every Friday my lil' guy and I venture to the pool, but not today bc I couldn't keep my BGs above 4. Anyways, we stayed home and built a fort instead!
Wonderful post, Michael - thank you.
My mother-in-law lives w/us and she is truly a blessing - I have no family of my own (they all beetled off) and her knowledge of D (my hubby's step-father passed due to complications in the 90s) is a comfort to me.
In no way am I trying to make myself out a martyr - I simply do not have energy to waste and feel better when I channel it into something a bit more positive than dwelling on D.
I agree that giving up and giving in is something we can't do. Whatever keeps us going is what keeps us going though.
I don't think holding on to negative feelings is a poison more deadly than my diabetes. My diabetes will kill me if I don't accomodate it, period. I therefore hate my diabetes, period.
My hatred for my diabetes will kill me only if I allow that hatred to interfere with the things I have to do on a daily basis to accomodate it. I survive diabetes by not putting any more thoght into the things I have to do on a daily basis to accomdate diabetes than necessary. There is no possible way for my hatred to somehow transform into thankfulness.
On occasion, I still feel sorry for myself. I still feel like a victim. I have to be honest with myself and accept that. All I can do is put on my big boy pants and get over it so that I can do what has to be done. Those days are few and far between, thankfully.
By way of analogy, it is like losing someone to cancer. I will never see the positive in that experience either. Never. I still feel the pain and it will never go away entirely.
Thank you for the grammar lesson - a simple no would suffice then would it not? I figured it was obvious enough that the goal of the post was to be positive in the response - I'll be thinking long and hard before the next one goes up...
I feel like I'm answering for everybody here and I don't mean to put words into people's mouths.
I don't think that statements like these are an attack on your point of view, just like your statement that having negative feelings about diabetes is a waste of time is not a personal attack on my point of view. It's how we feel and the feelings are honest.
They are just different points of views. I generally don't post to these types of threads because I really don't have much good to say about diabetes.
Diabetes is a terrible thing though and, in this case, I think it's important to state that feeling hatred towards something so terrible is okay. Whether that hatred lasts a minute or the rest of your life is irrelevent.
Regardless, like Randy says, you have to do what you have to do. That's the important thing that we all have in common.
I am not looking at them like an attack nor am I trying to launch an attack; I have shared many of the feelings all of those who do not have a positive view point of D (my comment about negative feelings was in response to being told that my positivity was a waste of time and strictly personal - I do not think everyone has to look at it like me, I only wanted to offer another perspective) - in my statements I have been (or at least tried to be) very clear that they are my personal feelings, and I apologize if my reactions are in any way off-putting bc I certainly do not mean them to be.
I have been very respectful to all the posts - but cannot help but be disappointed that so much negativity came in to something that was meant to be positive.
You are right FHS. Terrible life altering, painful things happen to people every day. D is just one of many. In most cases "get over it" and "forget about it" are just not going to happen, ever. The pain and hate can never be completely removed. But some people dwell in those things. When that happens they do become poison and can do great harm to entire families. Choosing not to live that negative life does not eliminate the pain and hate, but it Allows the wounds to heal. I still hate D, but if that were my focus it would have won.
Bec, some of my best childhood memories are of the forts that we used to build! Love building memories with little ones. :)
Agreed Randy, well said.
I was not trying to be a grammer Nazi in my previous post, just like I'm not trying to be flippant when I say that a simple "no" does not suffice to express intense hatred for this disease, the same way that a simple "yes" does not suffice to express positivity.
I do understand how dissappointing it must be to hear negativity expressed in your thread but if I have any feelings for my diabetes, they can only be expressed as hatred so maybe it is better to express nothing at all.
Still, I think that if I had posted a thread saying "I Hate my Diabetes", the ensuing posts would have followed a similar trend. We are all diabetics but we will disagree.
Whatever helps us successfully fight this thing is good, even disagreement.
I'm not trying to be glib or flip - if someone had posted a thread saying "I Hate My Diabetes" I would read it and comment appropriately or do as you suggest, say nothing.
Nonetheless, if we did not all have this outlet I am sure we would be a lot worse for it...or at least a lot more full of "it" - so, yes, even disagreement can bring about something positive! :P
I am thankful that I have it because these regular check ups keep me on track. Having diabetes keeps me paying attention to my body. I literally don't remember life before diabetes (I was diagnosed at age 5 and i'm 34 now). So I am also thankful that I've had it my whole life, I don't know anything different. I am also very thankful for the recent changes the advancements in glucose monitors and the bigger selection of sugar free stuff in the stores. In the 80s there was not a lot of choice for sugarfree treats. Things are WAY better now.