My Story: When Type 2 Diabetes is Mentally Challenging

Having type 2 diabetes has been mentally challenging for me. I struggle with trying to understand how to feel about having type 2 diabetes, as I have seen it in a very negative and unhealthy way in my family.

Why your mental health should be a priority with T2D

It also changed the way I eat and how I feel about eating. I used to not want to eat anything because, in my mind, I thought that eating would lead to my death.

This deep diet confusion made every meal feel like a risk to my emotional well-being.

Navigating the chaos of diet confusion

I would try all these weight loss programs and new diet fads. Every week I would be doing something different or I would try whatever the new thing was to lose weight.

I would sometimes go days without eating, or eat little to no food. My mind was focused on diabetes being caused by what I was eating. It mentally drained me trying to figure out what foods were good for me and what was considered to be healthy.

The hidden trap of healthy foods

I always thought that fruits and vegetables were healthy eating, but as I did more research about type 2 diabetes, I realized that all fruits and vegetables were not good for me.

Some contained too much sugar, sodium, and fructose. That sent my blood sugar levels through the roof.

So now I was back to square one. I researched more ways to try and eat healthily.

I was starting to get overwhelmed, and I was back to not eating or not eating much again. This constant diet confusion left me feeling defeated and confused. 

How family trauma shaped my diagnosis

In the meantime, there was the death of my grandmother from diabetes. So now I was concentrating on everything she did in order for my fate not to be the same.

While I was trying to deal with her death, my father started to have complications with his diabetes. That led to him getting two of his limbs amputated.

This crushed me. It was another negative light that had been shined on me by the disease, which felt like a hereditary curse and a deadly cycle. I was so determined, at this point, to break this cycle.

The danger of overdoing it

I started to do too much in my efforts to break this curse. I was not aware that I had to pace myself because I was diabetic.

I was overdoing things, like exercise, and overeating foods that I thought were healthy. It was then that I realized that my body could not perform like it used to.

So, I had to be very careful to keep my levels in balance. The more I tried, the more complicated it seemed to manage this disease.

It was indeed starting to cause all these different emotions and worries, taking a massive toll on my emotional well-being.

Why protecting your mind is key to diabetes care

At this point, I knew my idea of a normal life was gone and that there would always be a mental fight when it comes to type 2 diabetes.

I do not think people understand how important it is to keep your mental state healthy when living with type 2 diabetes. Protecting your emotional well-being is just as vital as daily blood sugar management.

Having diabetes is a constant battle to save my life every day. It has no breaks, no days off, and is constant.