It’s not easy having Type 1 Diabetes

It’s not easy having T1D.

Day after day, I sit with the most resilient people on the planet. In session after session, I hear grueling and amazing stories of people battling diabetes in their everyday lives, and somehow manage to keep their heads above water. Whether it’s managing prescriptions at the pharmacy, ordering supplies, co-pays for doctors’ appointments, deductibles for insurance, counting carbohydrates, remembering to bolus, or explaining diabetes to friends and family or coworkers, people with diabetes confront challenges every day, all day.

How a person with diabetes doesn’t give up on this disease blows my mind.

Diabetes is an unrelenting and unforgiving disease. Diabetes never takes a break and does not go into remission. But moment after moment, day after day, people with diabetes rise to the challenge and fight, yet again, for their health and their sanity. Whether it’s someone who has been recently diagnosed and is overcoming the initial shock and first wave of diabetes or for a person who has been living with diabetes for 40 or 50 years, I am in awe. Every. Single. Time.

How do we remain resilient?

It is crucial to have a robust support system of people in our lives who respect and see the invisible effort that goes unnoticed and unrecognized by most. This could be friends and family “who get it” or other friends who also live with diabetes. So for any person with type one diabetes who is still walking amongst us, it’s their tenacity and perseverance that keeps them here. They may struggle, they may have bad days, or even seasons where they lose track and drift away from taking care of diabetes, but the fact that they’re still here, means they’re doing something to manage their diabetes.

For those who manage their diabetes, this is a special kind of resilience.

It takes a special kind of resilience to manage diabetes. I know firsthand, that moment to moment, hour by hour, year by year, decade by decade, the energy it takes to forge ahead, dealing with whatever may come your way. Stress, pandemic, illness, celebrations, funerals, new jobs, loss of jobs  – the challenges of life never end. This is why working with people with diabetes is my favorite group of people to talk to. lt’s a privilege to be able to remind them of their strength, perseverance, and tenacity. So often they feel like they’re the only one having to manage diabetes and work it into their everyday life. It brings me joy to validate this in another person and witness the relief it brings them, to know they are seen. This process also helps make meaning out of my own diagnosis, which has given me some unique insights and language into understanding that it’s not easy having type one diabetes.