Have you gone through a particularly rough time in your diabetes management? How did you deal with it?
 
    I have diabetes.  But that is hardly the hardest thing I have overcame.  What was harder was before and after, and it is a problem that is very real in the diabetic community but is rarely talked about.

    Eating disorders.

    When I was diagnosed with type one diabetes I was 15 and weighed 80 pounds.  My doctors had never seen my level of ketones in an ordinary doctors visit.  My blood sugar was 817 with an A1C of 15.8.  They concluded that I had diabetes, and that was the cause of my weight loss of 50 pounds.  They were only partially correct.  For about 6 months I had been restricting my diet and purging most of what I ate.  I was anorexic.  My mother was so relieved when the doctor told her that I was diabetic and not suffering from anorexia which had claimed the life of my cousin, that I couldn't bring myself to speak up.

    And so my journey with this disease began.  All the stuff they told me in the hospital was told to me like I was a normal, abiet very sick child.  I never spoke up and said that I would try to eat, but I really didn't think I could ever eat 30 carbs in a meal, let alone the 45 in my meal plan.  Once I got home from the hospital, I had gained seven pounds.  I was still extremely underweight, and my mom began  making me three meals a day, measured, and having me eat snacks.  At first I did what I was supposed to, I took insulin, and forced myself to eat most of the food.  After all, I didn't want to develop the horrible complications they talked about in the hospital.  By my 16th birthday, almost eight months after my diagnosis, I was no longer underweight, and therefore, in my warped mind was worthless.  While I had started eating, none of the issues behind my ED had been addressed.  I began skipping insulin doses and not eating lunch at school.  My blood glucose was all over the place, but I was beginning to lose weight again.  I had the brilliant idea that I could trick the A1C if I just didn't eat, because my blood sugar wouldn't go up.  WRONG.  My levels landed me back in the hospital.

    Still, no one suspected that I had an eating disorder.  Only that I was having a hard time adjusting to my disease.  This continued until I started college.  I realized how sick I had become and how little energy I had.  I saw that I had to do something, and I did.  I went to the counseling center and joined an eating disorder support group.  Two years later, my blood sugars are in line, and more importantly, my life is finally on the right track.  It is estimated that 1/3 of juvenile diabetic girls have an eating disorder, but it is hard to tell because many of the physical symptoms of anorexia can also be related to diabetes.  If you are suffering, get help.  The complications of both diseases are amplified by each other, and being alive is a thousand times better then being dead.

- Anonymous, Type 1, 21 or over.