How to cope with living with Type 2 diabetes, I miss my old life.

I’m type 1, but I find that sharing with others who also have diabetes helps a lot. I’m active in the online diabetes community and it’s invaluable, imo. I have had type 1 for many years, but I do recall that my diet is much better now. I appreciate life much more and am very grateful to be healthy.

TCOYD is a great group who help bring support, information and entertainment to types 1 and 2. They have a website. Their conferences are awesome!

How long ago were you diagnosed? It can be hard to adjust to this kind of large change. I become a Type 2 diabetic about 20 years ago, after some years of being borderline. With a mom, grandma, and sister all Type 2 I pretty much knew it was coning. I started exercising more, taking oral meds, and counting my carbs. I think it took about a year to adjust. But now the regime is second nature, and frankly 20 years of exercising and eating moderately has really paid off!I feel good, am at an ok weight, and am active. Allow yourself some ups and downs emotionally--it isn't easy. But I hope you'll find it worthwhile. I went several tines to a diabetes educator, and that worked. I started off testing my blood sugar daily, but after a few years my doctor didn't mind that I stopped, as my eating was so stable.
I'm going to look on Connect for a Diabetes forum and get back to you.

It’s not just the diabetes, my mom died also, and a few other deaths in the family one was a suicide on my husbands side and we live close to where it happened, it causes me stress.

I’m sorry for your loss. It’s understandable you are stressed. Talk therapy has helped me a lot.

Stress can really affect your blood sugar - like, a lot. I've been diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes for years. I also knew it was coming as it runs on both sides of my family. I really didn't find it to be a huge change for me though. I don't count carbs. My blood sugar goes up and down on, seemingly, a whim. I get up in the morning - and it heads straight up before I put anything in my mouth. I go to bed at night with a mid 100's blood glucose and by 1 a.m. my low glucose alarm is going off. I exercise regularly and it never makes a difference with my blood glucose. When it was on the higher side, I did do cinnamon at night and that helped with the morning spike. Now with the middle of the night plunges, I don't dare do that - but it can help some people. Pretty much I let the meds (metformin, glipizide and long-lasting insulin) do their job; and I try to keep a handle on when and what I eat. I think it's a disease that widely varies between individuals and you just need to figure out what does and doesn't work for you. I have been on Mounjaro and it has brought my insulin needs down from 84 units a day to 20. So if the meds aren't helping you, you might want to look into a GLP-1 type treatment. I hope things start to settle down for you.

My number are pretty good, it’s just all the things you have to do to get good numbers, And I do mine by diet and excercise, I don’t take medication, I lost about 30 lbs when first diagnosed 12 years ago going on 13 years, I just get fed up with it. It scared the heck out of me when first diagnosed so I got it under control right away.
I miss my mom a lot she was my rock when I got diagnosed. It’s been a few years since she passed I have my moments which is normal. I truely know for me anyway, that losing a mom is very hard, she was my only parent. And we were very close. It just gets lonely without her I could talk to her about everything with out judgment.

I know stress can effect blood sugars, sure did for me after my mom died and other deaths, it effected my sleep to. And if you don’t sleep your blood sugars go wacky to. It was a terrible time after mom passed, it’s been a long time since she passed doesn’t mean I don’t miss her, there so many times I wish I could talk to her in the physical. Like pick up the phone if you know what I mean.

Grief doesn’t just go away, there’s so many things that remind me of my mom, and it makes me miss her all the more.

Grief is so difficult and so different for each person.

Over the past 5 years, I have lost 100 pounds and it never made any difference in my glucose numbers. I was not scared by the diagnosis because, as a fat person, I was always being threatened with it and I know it's totally treatable nowadays. Also, they kept lowering the numbers for diabetes - so while my numbers weren't going up, I was considered closer and closer to being diabetic. Now I'm on meds and everything, and my numbers are all over the place most of the time. I'm just glad I finally got a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) because I can get alarms when my blood glucose drops dangerously low or heads way up.