What’s it like living with diabetes? It will probably be tough to clarify to another person. Most individuals know someone that’s been touched by diabetes — possibly an older relative with type 2, a classmate with type 1 who had to examine her blood sugar at her desk. But until you’ve lived the condition, you’ve no idea what it’s really like.

On the Diabetes Every day Facebook page, we asked our community members an easy query:

We were overwhelmed by the response: about 1,000 comments!

To be frank, the answers were overwhelmingly negative. There’s no getting around it: Diabetes can create an immense mental health burden.

Studies show that depression, for instance, is “greater than thrice higher in individuals with type 1 diabetes … and nearly twice as high in individuals with type 2 diabetes.” Diabetes is further related to anxiety, stress, and even the prevalence of eating disorders. Diabetes “distress” is a regular a part of life for thousands and thousands of adults.

Many of the comments focused on the interminable, nonstop nature of diabetes. You don’t get days off, it’s all the time there, a voice in your head nagging you each moment of day-after-day. Blood sugar woes can hit on the worst of times, whether it’s in the midst of the night or in the midst of a vital moment in your life. Is it any surprise that diabetes burnout is such an issue in our community?

Here’s a word cloud of among the top responses:

freewordcloudgenerator.com

It wasn’t all complaints, though. We were pleased to see that some members of our community tried to take things in a more positive direction. Diabetes demands control and self-discipline, an effort that may feel very empowering when done right.

Here were among the hottest answers:

“A relentless struggle.”

 

“All the time meal planning.”

 

“My constant companion.”

 

“Full time job.”

 

“Every little thing sparsely”

 

“Expensive! Expensive! Expensive!”

 

“Frustrating, time consuming.”

 

“Where’s the cure?”

 

“Pancakes = coma”

 

“A learning experience”

 

“It f*cking sucks”

 

“Painfully time consuming”

 

“An on a regular basis experiment”

 

“A number of math”

 

“Constant every day struggles”

 

“It never ends”

 

“Exhausting exhausting exhausting”

 

“Just over it”

 

“Affects every decision”

 

“Highs and lows”

 

“With none carbs”

 

“Roller coaster ride”

 

“Warriors in disguise”

 

“Living science experiment”

 

“Controlled by food”

 

“No vacation ever”

 

“Everlasting lifestyle changes”

 

“Continuous emotional rollercoaster”

 

“Life long battle”

 

“My constant companion”

 

“May very well be worse”

 

“I got this!!!!”