Living with a chronic disease

The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.

Marcus Aurelius

The start of diabetes is rough. They send you home from the hospital with insulin pens and a crash course in carb counting. Congratulations, now you can kill yourself with this very potent hormone. It’s terrifying. Consulting Dr. Google, you learn about diabetic complications. Dead in bed syndrome. The decade of extra life that just disappeared out the window. Don’t panic. Things get better.

Type 1 diabetes is not easy, but possible to manage well. Injections become second nature. You can have normal blood sugar through diet, making complications unlikely. Without complications, there’s no reason for your life to be shorter than anyone else’s. And although it happens, very few people die from hypoglycemia.

I’m reading Sapiens at the moment, and there’s a chapter in the end about human happiness. It says that while chronic illness decreases happiness short-term, it’s only a source of long-term distress if the condition is deteriorating. This also applies if you win the 20 million dollar jackpot in the lottery, but in reverse. A short burst of happiness, before returning to your old miserable self.

So although the lifestyle changes that come with type 1 diabetes are overwhelming, your new reality quickly becomes the norm. Soon you’ll be as happy as you were before you got diabetes. At least that’s what statistical data says. There are some things you can do to make this road less bumpy.

Educate yourself: If you’re like me, you have 15 minutes with an endocrinologist every three months. With the best will in the world, there’s no chance they’ll be able to teach you everything about diabetes. You’re in charge of your own treatment every day. Carb counting is about as complicated as counting calories so you don’t need a course to figure it out (although nothing wrong with taking one). Two good books to read are Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution and Think like a pancreas by Gary Scheiner.

Join an online community: It’s pretty lonely to have diabetes sometimes, and it helps to have someone to talk to who understands what it’s like. Also, questions will come up all the time in the beginning. If you’re wondering about something, chances are good that somebody else has already had that question. Sharing information is the best thing you can do – whether it’s posting on forums, writing a blog or drawing a comic strip. I like this diabetes forum, but there are several others as well.

Stay positive: As sad as it is to spend your life obsessing about the four grams of sugar in your blood, there’s a lot of comedy to it as well. Like the time when I locked myself in the bathroom after injecting insulin and fantasized about a Darwin Award. Or when I discovered low carb cauliflower crust pizza, only to realize I was allergic to it a few hours later. I looked like a smoked salami for the next three days. Try to focus on these moments, and remember to have a laugh. It will make you a happier diabetic.