Hey mate, 42 yo type 1 diabetic here. I was diagnosed at age 6 - control has been challenging for me at times as I have what is known as "brittle diabetes" (hilarious name) which basically means much more sensitive to insulin than T1 diabetics usually are. I also have ADHD which wasn't diagnosed until I was about 36.
I have been using meth regularly since 2001 when I was 17. Primarily IV use - and then from around 2017 - 2023 pretty much daily use, with a day off here and there. In the last few years I have moved away from IV use and more toward smoking, and for the last 18 - 24 months I have been using very infrequently (about 4 or 5 times in 2025, 2 or 3 times in 2026). The main reasons for the reduction being 1. Getting older and more aware of health consequences 2. My partner wanted to cut back her usage dramatically due to a new job in healthcare, so I did the same in support 3. Finally starting to get a handle on my ADHD meds/habits/treatment 4. A general desire to get more routine and healthy habits in my life - and it's hard for most people (including me) to be consistent with that shit if they're tweaked out all the time. Oh and 5. I live in Australia and a meth habit can get pretty pricey if you're not selling (which I'm not...anymore)
One of the effects I really noticed meth had on my diabetes was it raises your blood sugar levels like a motherfucker. I assume this is through similar mechanism to how stress raises your blood sugar levels - but yeah, they could be real difficult to keep at a reasonable level during a bender, even when consuming basically no carbs.
The other thing that was starting to worry me was that diabetes dramatically increases your risk of stroke and heart disease - as does meth. So I imagine there would be a compounding effect there.
I think one benefit of my diabetes was it forced me to be always anchored to reality to some degree - especially with Type 1 - it's just not a condition you can ignore or you'll end up in hospital/dead very quickly. So even in the middle of a savage bender, being so so very cooked, I would always still be aware of the diabetes and my physical condition and thinking about what my blood sugar level is, making sure I eat, making sure I do my insulin and any extra I needed to do on time - I honestly think this stopped me from going completely off the deep end with the drug. Then, because of this anchor to reality, food, schedule, I seemed to always find it easier to sleep than other people with the same habit/taking the same amount. My fellow cookers always used to think I was holding out on them and had a secret stash of H or benzos because I could sleep so easily.
All things considered my health is pretty good these days - I walk at least 5 kms every day, go to the gym, eat healthy, my HbA1C readings for the last 5 years have been under 6.0. My blood pressure can be slightly elevated sometimes and whilst I'm sure the meth contributed to that it also is likely affected by the ADHD meds and the diabetes. Circulation is good, no obvious IV misadventure injuries. Pretty lucky really. I have definitely done some stupid/feral junkie shit but probably less than a lot of the p was hanging around with and for most of my using career I kept my shots around 0.1 of a gram, whilst my mates were regularly doing half gram shots and completely frying themselves and destroying their veins.
So I guess the 2 can coexist to some degree but they can both cause some really serious health issues and they both exacerbate the same types of health issues as well. Also, regular/heavy meth use just doesn't seem to be something that can be sustained by most people into old age. Maybe this is a good opportunity/excuse to start dialing it back a bit and letting your body and mind recover. Doesn't mean you can't have a dabble now and again, but if you've been using 20 years then I imagine you're around the same age as me - and this is the age where all the dumb shit we have done to our bodies starts to come back and bite us in the ass.
I wish you all the best and good health man, feel free to drop any questions you might have here and I'll do my best to answer them.
