Why Insulin Isn’t Something To Feel Bad About If You Live With Type 2 Diabetes

The most obvious benefit of using insulin is lowering your A1C and reaching your blood sugar goals, but there’s a lot more to it than that! If you live with type 2 diabetes (T2D), it’s not as simple as picking up a syringe and vial or a pen one day and dosing on a whim. Choosing the right insulin for you—and understanding its benefits and impact on your body—is a personalized process you should do with your healthcare provider.

The benefits of using insulin to manage type 2 diabetes

Insulin is a tool that can give your body the support it needs. Whether your body struggles to produce enough insulin or it struggles to use the insulin it does create, taking insulin can affect your emotional well-being and daily quality of life. There may even be some less obvious benefits of using insulin to manage T2D that you might not have considered before.

1. More flexibility and food freedom

While the typical person without diabetes may think only the sugar-laden foods raise blood sugar, people with diabetes (PWD) know it isn’t that simple. Even a bowl of homemade oatmeal, an apple or brown rice with kale can spike your blood sugar plenty if your body struggles to produce enough insulin. Taking insulin means you have the flexibility to eat a reasonable variety of food without having to endure hours of high blood sugar levels.

For many people with T2D, even the healthiest meal can seem to spike your blood sugar. On the other hand, you shouldn’t have to eat steamed chicken and broccoli all day just because you have diabetes. Life is about balance, and that includes enjoying the occasional slice of pizza, homemade cookies, birthday cake or Thanksgiving dinner! Using insulin is a pathway to food freedom, not boundary-less eating, but less stressful eating.

Insulin shouldn’t be used as an excuse to neglect your goals around a balanced diet, but a balanced diet should include yummier things, too. That balance prevents you from feeling deprived and makes it possible to sustain your nutrition goals long-term. A healthy diet should include foods that support your body and keep you feeling sane.

2. Feel less frustration in life with diabetes

Food is just one variable that affects blood sugar levels. Did you know your liver produces glucose (sugar) all day long? In various normal situations, your liver can also release a burst of glucose.

There are a couple of dozen different factors that can spike blood sugar levels, including:

• Menstruation or menopause
• Medications (steroids, hormones, vitamin B3, etc.)
• Infection or illness
• Increased stress, anxiety, etc.
• Caffeine
• Dawn phenomenon
• Allergies
• Dehydration
• High-intensity anaerobic exercise
• Lack of sleep

Your blood sugar is related to so much more than food. Using insulin means you have the tools you need to correct and manage blood sugar fluctuations for any reason.  This means less frustration and more power.

If non-insulin medications aren’t helping you reach your blood sugar goals, the frustration you’re feeling daily can be exhausting. It’s easy to give up when you feel like you’re doing everything you should be doing and it still isn’t working. Sometimes duct tape (other medications or changes to your diet and exercise routine) fixes a problem wonderfully. Other times, duct tape doesn’t cut it. Insulin gives you the tool your body truly needs when nothing else has worked well enough.

3. Improved mood and energy levels

High blood sugars are about as delightful as getting soaked by a thunderstorm halfway through your afternoon dog walk. Using insulin means you have a tool that serves you much like an umbrella in a thunderstorm—you can’t stop the rain, but you can protect yourself from it well enough to get home.

While the high number on your blood glucose meter (BGM) is an immediate downer, it also physically feels downright lousy. Sometimes the impact of high blood sugar on your mood is subtle—you’re just feeling kind of “bleh” and you don’t quite know why.

High blood sugar can fuel bursts of anger, intense frustration and an overall miserable feeling that makes you want to curl up in bed and hide. The highs can also drain you of all your energy. This makes sense scientifically, too, since glucose gets trapped in your bloodstream if you don’t have enough insulin to transport it to the cells that need it for fuel!

Trying to muster the energy for work, school, a dog walk or the gym is especially challenging when your brain feels grizzly with high blood sugars and your energy tank is at zero. Using insulin can mean fewer high blood sugars that leave you struggling mentally and physically to enjoy the day and get life done.

Insulin is a tool, not a failure

Using insulin to manage any type of diabetes certainly isn’t easy. Somewhere along your T2D journey, you may have even heard that using it to manage your diabetes counts as a failure. It doesn’t! Insulin is a tool you can use to make your life with diabetes easier to manage.

It comes with a learning curve and requires plenty of patience to fine-tune your doses. But if your body truly needs support from insulin therapy to reach your blood sugar goals, the improvements it can offer your day-to-day life make it worthwhile. And figuring out ways to support yourself better should always be celebrated!

Diabetes affects millions of people, but it doesn’t affect everyone equally—communities that already face barriers to healthcare tend to face the worst of T2D’s stigma too. Beyond Barriers works to close that gap, bringing outreach, education and real healthcare access to the people who need it most and who are often overlooked. Learn more about the work and how to get involved.