Handling Diabetes Gracefully

Originally published September 2010.

I find that most of us diabetics are pretty emotional people.  It’s hard not to be.  Sometimes this leads us to voice our frustrations in a passionate light.  Sometimes we aren’t so much passionate as we are offensive, however.   I have recently been thinking about children with diabetes (I used to be one) and have noticed that the kids with diabetes seem to have more grace than many of the adults living with diabetes.

This is due to the nature of children.  They are whimsical, forgiving, hopeful, optimistic, and they live in the moment.  We adults are famous for losing many of those traits as we leave childhood.  You’d think life would get easier with more practice but instead it gets harder and we diabetics quickly get worn out.

I remember feeling depressed as a child and still getting up in the morning, making good grades, having fun with friends, and playing a good game of soccer.

Now if I feel depressed, even brushing my teeth is a tall order.

I strive to publicly handle diabetes with grace.  I try not to whine and be overly negative and I try not to shoot out generalized statements about diabetes, knowing it may hurt another diabetic’s feelings.  If I break down I do it in private or in front of my husband or family.  Yet, I long to be that little kid whose eyes always sparkled when someone asked me about diabetes.  I’d answer eloquently and try to be descriptive and positive, yet realistic.  Now I have to be very careful not to depress the person I’m talking to about diabetes.  I mean the subject, overall, is depressing.  But, I’ve found that people don’t want to help the depressed person as much as they want to find out more about the one whose eyes sparkle.  Anything positive and hopeful is simply more attractive than something sad and gloomy.

As we fight to bring about massive diabetes awareness I propose a challenge:  That we all attempt to let the joyful life inside of us win over the destructive cloud that is diabetes.  That we try to write about diabetes in a more elegant way.  That we perhaps leave out phrases like “people who don’t understand diabetes disgust me” and any general pancreas bashing (your pancreas is not to blame).  When we say these things, people who don’t know about our diabetes are not attracted to us and therefore do not learn much about diabetes from us.  When we are honest yet, pleasant and positive, people are attracted to us and are much more willing to hear what we have to say.  Thus, our attempt at spreading diabetes awareness is more successful.  It’s a difficult balance, to be honest.  How do we get the message out there about the harsh realities of this disease and keep people’s attention?  It’s not easy.

My tendency is to say that we want others to notice that we are not full of bitterness, but instead hope, that we are not hateful, but instead forgiving, that we love life despite diabetes instead of walk around with doom written on our foreheads.  Then they will be inspired, enamored of our cause, and motivated to fight with us and for us.

We need their help, I don’t think we’ll make it alone.  Insurance costs are only getting more difficult to manage, healthy food is not the easy choice to make, and so many diabetics are lacking primary resources.

If we show others how special we are instead of what a burden we are, they will be on our side.  Again, children do this naturally.  My two kids cost me an arm and a leg (financially and emotionally speaking).  But, I would give my life for their sparkling eyes and bright smiles alone.  Maybe we should take a hint from them.