How type 1 actually works

You get told all of this at the worst possible moment. Newly diagnosed, frightened, and somehow expected to take in how insulin works while everything else changes shape. Most of us come away with the rules and not the reasons, which is why so much of it feels arbitrary later. Going back over the why, whenever you are actually ready, is when it starts to stick. There is no such thing as a question you should already know the answer to.

Build your mental model, in order

2 reads · start anywhere, but this order helps

01 What insulin actually does 6 min 02 Basal and bolus, explained properly 5 min

The rest of the fundamentals

Not part of the reading order above, but the same job: written from lived experience, based on UK guidance, and dated.

Insulin

HbA1c explained without treating it as a grade

Sourced · 2 min

Where to next

Then there is the rest of it

Knowing how type 1 works is one half of it. The other half is what happens when it meets an actual week: food that behaves strangely, lows at the worst possible moment, burnout, school, sport, travel, and the admin nobody sits you down and teaches.

Living With It →