I'm just curious about this. And as this is an anonymous forum I thought people would answer truthfully, whereas in person I think people at least sometimes want to be more gentle.
I have type 1 diabetes for a long time now, 28 years, since childhood. I have always been incredibly sensitive to insulin and for a long time in old fashioned terms would have been called "brittle" but doctors don't tend to use that term anymore.
I have very good diabetes management now thanks to new technology. However, plenty of damage was done early on.
There just seems to be a general sense that people think diabetes is quite simple to control, and if you are struggling it's because you aren't doing something right.
Whereas, there are so, so many factors that can cause blood sugar to rise or drop apart from food - as an example, brushing my teeth can cause me to start dropping quickly, which then needs some glucose or juice to treat and stabilise it, and try brushing teeth again later. Because of course, diabetes also can destroy oral health, so good oral hygiene is very important. This is obviously a small, mundane example.
It is relentless and there are no days off.
Do you just assume diabetics with complications are essentially irresponsible?