“Coming out of the closet” with Your Diabetes

In this article from Diabetes Mine’s writer and video-blogger, Mike Lawson, a young woman shares her story about finally telling the people in her life that she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Having worked very hard to keep her diagnosis a secret out of fear of being judged and the overall shame that comes along with type 2 diabetes in today’s society, Kellie was surprised to find compassion and support from her peers. She compares her experience within diabetes to a different time in her life when she told people she was a lesbian.

In your own life, is diabetes a secret?

For me, sharing my life with type 1 diabetes has been empowering. Yes, I’ve had strangers say rather lame things that are purely the result of ignorance and lack of education, but for the most part, I present my diabetes as something I proud of myself for managing every day. And the people around me see it not as a reason to pity me, but to say, “Hey, that’s pretty cool you do that every day. It clearly hasn’t stopped you from anything in your life.”

Of course, there are certain times or places when I try to be very discreet about my diabetes, largely because I know I might be surrounded by people who don’t know me well, who may try to micromanage or tell me what to do and how to eat.?(I have, indeed, had complete strangers catch me giving myself an injection or checking my blood sugar, and they began to tell me how I ought to be living my life…but this is rare.)

But for the most part, my diabetes is a very public thing that I do very little to ever hide.

If you are hiding your diabetes from the people in your life, consider these questions:

Is there at least one person you might feel comfortable sharing your diagnosis with?What are you most afraid will happen if you reveal you have diabetes?What are the positives to sharing your diabetes diagnosis with the people around you?

Living with diabetes, type 1 or type 2, can feel like a very large burden for some people. Being able to talk about that burden, and most importantly, being able to ask for help in an emergency (like a low blood sugar), is important. You are not alone in your life with diabetes.

View the original article here