Ask HN: How do I cope with being a young diabetic?

My advice is (1) decide that your health always comes first, and (2) your glucometer is your guardian angel.

If you follow (1) by promising yourself and all relevant others that you will never let the demands of work put your health at risk and simply follow that rule all the time, that may remove much of the stress, because you have much less to fear, and because the relevant others all are on notice that whatever good you do for them is contingent on you being able to do it.

The glucometer thing is what makes the strategy reality based for all concerned. If you feel that work-related stress is messing with your glucose levels, take a test, and if you are out of the range you want to live in, take a break from work, adjust your food or meds as indicated, keep testing, and do not work until you have controlled the glucose problem.

If you use the glucometer frequently enough and react accordingly to what it tells you, you can probably have pretty decent control of your glucose levels. I remember reading somewhere that pretty decent control means about 2/3 reduction in complications from what you will get with typical control. Deaths from diabetic complications are now pretty typically delayed until the late 70's with such measures. That's not a cure, but it will give you a good chance of living until one shows up.

Caveats: (1) I'm type 1, so I don't know enough about type 2 to tell you how often you should be testing. For a type 1, I would suggest that 5 or 6 tests per day is a good idea. Maybe, if you take insulin, something around the same would work out. The rule I try to follow is that whenever I think I might need to test, I better test. (2) Diabetes can cause psychological problems. Give your MD an idea about any problems you have with stress, self-control and compliance with the prescribed regimen, and if the MD thinks you need any help with that, comply.