Type 1 is definitely a hard thing to deal with. I totally understand where you are coming from. I am pretty much a baby as far as experience with D goes (diagnosed type 1 at age 57. I turn 60 next month) Some days are just bad. But everyday you wake up still breathing is a gift. You still have a purpose or you wouldn’t be around. Maybe you are still around to help us babies deal with D. You have a wealth of experience and knowledge. You have a sparkle in your eyes (picture) so enjoy today, D junk or not.
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“have you considered asking for an Rx for a mood elevator? I know I don’t do well on drugs that work on the brain (I went nutso when my worst endo ever, put me on Prozac, which I stopped within one week due to the effects) but others get symptomatic relief for what’s ailing them. Depression is a common occurrence with us diabetics, that’s for sure.”
Is L tryptophan considered to be a mood elevator? 5 HTP too?
I don’t do herbal supplements, so I can’t help you with that.
I call it being overwhelmed and I get it every so often, calling it a battle, would be like telling me that I am fighting a battle with diabetes and I’m not. Although I do get overwhelmed with it and it gets in the way of me doing the tasks that needs to be done to stay on track. I think that if I do battle I may end up losing the war. Yeah, I know it’s just mindset. I try to be happy that I am able to the things that I need to do. I used to fight it and nothing ever seemed to go right, well that is still sometimes the case, but I know that the best that I will ever do will to my perfectionist mind will never be good enought, so I just try to do the next step in the process of staying ahead of it. I’ve just made it a part of my life, so whatever is, is. Years ago I used to try and figure out how it worked and what I did find out is that diabetes has a mind of its own and it is insane, so I stopped trying to second guess it. Now if it works fine and if not then well it’s diabetes and I no longer expect perfection, so even that’s expected, it’s just the way it is. The mental part of dealing with this is, I think, the hardest part, that and it never lets up, so that means that we get no rest from dealing with it. And, I am way past the point of letting anybody else deal with it for me even in a hospital setting. After a couple of real scary lows I took back the responsibly of it from all hospitals. I won’t even let them fill the needles for me. One time a nurse asked me a question about carbs and I told her 47 carbs a few minutes later she gave me a shot of 47 units Humolog instead of the 4.5 that was in my carb to insulin chart. I’d love to have a CGM, I hate testing 6 to 10 times a day, I’d love to get an alarm that tells me I need to do something real time, by the time I find out it’s already happening and so I’m always chasing BG’s. If I had a CGM and the alarms were bothering me I’d change the setting for a short time
Been T1 nearly fifty years, soon anyway. Never, ever been a friend of my diabetes. Respect it, fear it, weary from it…
Not gonna be friends with this sleepy Dragon.
Control is the dead wrong idea brother. You don’t.have.to control squat. You just want to nudge it in a friendlier direction. Nudging is easy… whoever gave up with this control business should be dragged out back and spanked.
You are not ignoring anything. You just want some results that stop kicking you in the groin repeatedly. A couple friendly.readings.equal to your need, your effort, your experience getting this far.
Talk to us, we are here, and are your peers. Decades and.decades we.share your scars. Share with us some more… we.will answer as we can offer help.
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we here talk to us. hope things are better.
“Beauty in the Mundane”----that’s the key, my friend. Well said…
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I read this sentence and it really hit home. We try and try and try some more and it never seems to get us very far. and it never, never ends. Diabetes is like living with a spouse that you can never divorce or separate from. You have to either learn to tolerate his ■■■■■■■■, or you live in misery.
I spend many a day plopping down and crying, thinking I’ll never figure it out and “feel good”. But then I remember it’s not about reaching an end, there is no end, it’s all about the try, it’s all about doing the best you can and never giving up.
It’s exhausting, it’s very frustrating, we never asked for this extra struggle in our life, but it’s here and all we can do is try.
Good luck to you and I hope you feel better (in all ways) soon.
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So surprised to see my topic pop back up again. But I guess it is a huge problem for many of us.
Just to let you know, I am ok. Still doing everything I’ve been doing all along. No big changes in what is done every day. The joys of CGM’s, I’m not testing 12 times a day but around 6 or 7, so that makes it a little easier. But with each new piece of equipment comes new challenges. Just another part of the diabetes puzzle to work through.
I still feel like I have no “choice” in what I do to maintain my diabetes. Because the other choice is do nothing & have complications. Of course as we all know I can continue with my program and still have complications. How unfair this disease can be. Still don’t think of it as a friend or companion and I still feel like I battle with it. But I guess it is my battle and yes I will win. Actually when I was first diagnosed I was told I’d never make it to 30 (well passed), I’d be blind in 5 years (eyes are a ok), I’d never have children ( have 2 beautiful children), and my kidneys would fail( still working fine). So I am winning the war but everyday is another battle. But as I said before I want to see my kids marry and I want to be a grandmother and I want to get to my retirement and. Be able to enjoy it. So I guess I will have to check in when I finally get to retirement age ( probably 70 the way things are going) and let you all know how things have gone!
Thanks again for you all being here for all of us. Best community out there our big diabetes universe.
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Your post spoke to me because even though studies show how diabetic distress affects our mental health, I’ve never felt comfortable accepting that. It has always felt like a crutch to me or perhaps just information that serves no purpose; that being said, it does seem like a cruel twist of fate that we feel bad about ourselves for not performing up to our standards and then because we aren’t doing better our endocrine system literally makes us feel worse.
The other day after struggling with constant high BG for 2 straight days with no basal or bolus adjustments seeming to help, I found myself closing my eyes and praying my monitor wouldn’t give me the triple beep signifying another excessively high BG. Even though I knew I was going to be high, I still held out hope that this time would be different and when it wasn’t, I just felt utterly defeated on so many different levels. It was one of those times where it seemed like it was just too much but while I was “swimming in those deep waters,” I continued to do what we all do and I kept moving forward. That night my insulin adjustments took hold and everything fell back into place and I started feeling better about myself but as many times as I’ve been through this I can never figure out how to avoid the next Diabetic Depression; however, if it helps any I think the majority of us share this struggle, perhaps more than we would like to admit.
I think what’s nice about this website is that when I see posts like yours that I completely relate to, it reminds me that I’m not the only one having these struggles and what we’re doing isn’t easy and because of that we should all set aside some time to congratulate ourselves for doing a fantastic job, even when we’re struggling. We might not always feel like we’re winning but that shouldn’t diminish the fact that we are fighting the good fight.
My wife once told me not to let perfect be the enemy of good. It might be classified as a pithy saying but some but I’ve found it helps me when I’m struggling to keep my diabetic spirit in a good place.
Thanks for posting and keep up the good work!
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Dead but not intimidated…seems similar perhaps?
We do not have to WIN, merely not losing is sufficient.
An author (Robert Jordan) wrote a particularly good hand to hand combat scene between two experts, one young and one elder. The end of the fight, a witness to it approached the lone survivor, the elder and asked how he had survived it, and his younger (better) opponent did not…?
The character answered “… he forgot (nodding int the direction of the body), once you are dead THEN you surrender…”
Always liked that sentiment.
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Hello Tamra11
<Diabetes is like living with a spouse that you can never…
One ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them …
(a silly Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien Reference) 
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<<Why am I and many of us diabetics so hard on ourselves?
Know any other disease which the patient makes choices and decisions a dozen plus times per day which could prove lethal, on a “good” day even?
First couple episodes do leave a bad impression, I think.
Love if the new standard of care taught techniques to crush such harsh thinking. Would be nice to dismiss the fire and smoke for a while… just saying ; )