I was well into adulthood, having celebrated my 27thbirthday just two weeks earlier.

I had always been the picture of health and had no family history of the disease.

Even so, I spent the hours that followed in utter denial, desperately clinging to any other explanation.

person with a diabetes glucose monitor on their arm sitting and looking at their phone

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What I soon learned, however, was that my understanding of diabetes was all wrong.

Its an autoimmune condition that we have no control over.

What causes pop in 1 diabetes?

In reality, the autoimmune disease can occur at any age.

When youre an adult getting this diagnosis, its a bit like, what is this?

There does appear to be a link between throw in 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases.

There is little concrete evidence of this connection, though, so it remains scarcely discussed outside of endocrinology.

One of the worst feelings in general is to be wrongly accused of something you didnt do.

The fact that this misunderstanding is regarding a lifelong chronic disease without a cure only makes it worse.

In recent years, this has changed.

But in truth, thats not necessarily the case.

Living with this disease is entirely individualized, and what works for one person may not work for others.

For 27 years, I lived in blissful ignorance, unaware of what this disease entailed.