Why share your diabetes journey?

I share my journey for many reasons. The initial reason was to educate my friends and family about diabetes.

While I was in college, I realized that many of my peers had no idea that I even had diabetes. That would have been a recipe for disaster if I were to ever have some sort of diabetes emergency.

When I began sharing bits and pieces of my life with diabetes on social media, not only were my friends and family learning more about diabetes, but I also began to meet and connect with other diabetics online who could relate and actually understand everything that I was going through.

From that point, I began to receive messages from people who were encouraged or inspired by me sharing the realities of my life with diabetes. THAT is what changed the game for me. I felt like I had developed some sort of responsibility within the diabetes community. ESPECIALLY because I hardly saw any T1D women of color at the time.

Sharing something so delicate and personal is definitely not for everyone. It is okay to want to keep some things to yourself. But for me, it has been so rewarding simply because I do not feel alone in my diagnosis and just knowing that my diagnosis is helping someone else, makes it a little more bearable.

Do you share your diabetes journey or do you prefer the privacy?