I still have days when having diabetes makes me angry and sad and days where I’m just enormously tired of this never ending disease. But 25 years on, I’m no longer in denial and I’ve accepted who I am. It’s even possible to move from grief to pride—those with type 1 diabetes are among the hardest working people you’ll ever meet. I’m proud of us.
This, I am afraid, is a bit of a tearjerker for the parent of a child with diabetes, particularly if you read the footnote about the author:
Rosamund Snow (b 1971; PhD, MReS), died by suicide on 2 February 2017
I fear this every day. The only thing I feel that we can do for Liam is TRY to teach him 1/2 glass FULL instead of 1/2 glass EMPTY; teach him coping methods; teach him treatment methods (including recognizing instinct and utilizing this as @Eric so eloquently wrote about); teach him to DON’T PITY HIMSELF…there is no time or room to pity ones self. We ALL have struggles and those struggles aren’t what define us; rather, how you DEAL with those struggles is what defines you.
I am sorry to hear this ladies story, but reading the article made me feel like “a Debbie Downer”…I don’t want Liam to THINK like this…although I recognize I may have no choice since I don’t know the TRUE struggles of Diabetics.
@ClaudnDaye Harold, I DO know the true struggles of diabetics, and you have captured it perfectly.
I have NEVER thought of myself as being sick because I never have been sick. I
have sympathy for people who are ill, but I absolutely want no sympathy from anyone
because I have a medical condition.
I’ve said it before that a great endocrinologist told me that “the disease is not diabetes, the disease is high blood sugar”. This is of the essence. If I maintain good control I know that I am just like anyone else. If I know how to control this beast, there is nothing I have to give up.
Most of all, I know if I feel sorry for myself it means that I have given up, and there is no way I’ll ever give up.
With reported rates of depression symptoms in T1 teenagers somewhere between 12 - 20%, it is relevant that some of our members will be dealing with this no matter how hard we work to empower them. The human mind is a wonderful thing, but can be a two edged sword in life. It can be for you, neutral, or against you. The combination of high blood sugar that needs to be treated often and depression is a rough combination. I can only hope that if my son has that combination he seeks treatment from professionals prior to getting suicidal.
@Michel Although it is very sad that someone who is diabetic committed suicide, I have the feeling that she did not commit suicide because of diabetes.
Not having diabetes does not grant immunity from depression or mental illness.
