Hiya Jo,
well I don't know how useful my reply will be as I see your main fear is diabetes and I know nothing of, well, diabetes. All I know about it is that it has to do with sugar and that my grandma had it... Anyway, but I wanted to let you know I know how it feels to have many weird symptoms you don't know what to make of. I sometimes get very dizzy out of nowhere, or suddenly feel like I will fall over for no reason. (I keep thinking it is because when I am stressed I breathe all wrong). First, I would tell you, if any symptom is persistent and scaring you there is no shame in having it checked out. Actually checking out persistent scary symptoms seems logical to me. As for not doing stuff or going out, well I wish I had great advice to get rid of your symptoms so that you can but I don't. I will tell you this though; you can learn to do the stuff even with the symptoms. I now work very hard on that. For example, I feel dizzy and short of breath and my heart is beating way to fast, I have a twitch in my leg, I need to have bowel movements every 15 minutes and my mouth is dry. Well I still go to school. I do what I can to make myself comfortable like deep breathing and drinking water for the dry mouth etc...) But what helps me most is just accepting it, not resisting what it happening to me. If I resist this I create tension in my body and it makes things worse! I figure oh well I accept the lack of comfort of my present moment and I keep going. Also, most important of all, am I accept myself as I am in that present moment. If I am there telling myself that my present moment is horrible and that I suck for feeling that way, I am sure to make myself feel worse. When I tell myself the truth which is yes this is no fun and it is scary and uncomfortable but I accept it nonetheless and then accept myself totally as I am at that moment, somehow even if I feel bad, it makes things better. It helps me relax faster and the more relaxed I am the lesser the symptoms are. They don't necessarily all disappear (although sometimes they do after a while lol) but it just helps me a lot. So be kind to yourself. And don't call yourself a freak. You are not a freak for any of this. Heck I learned in school that almost 50% of all North Americans will suffer from mental illn