This week’s question: With new friends or a new partner when do you decide to bring up diabetes?
(Last week we asked people to tell us what ‘good support’ looks like with diabetes. You can read that recap here.)
Responses: For the people that responded this week, the fact that they have diabetes seems to come up pretty early in relationships… though the reasons for talking about it early on seemed to vary.
Brianna said it is something she addresses right away, in case something goes wrong. Joel also said that having diabetes is usually talked about right off the bat. While, Jamie-Lee echoed Brianna’s sentiments, noting “When something I’m doing effects the people around me or when people are talking about diabetes and I need to step in to correct what they are saying!”
Alternative, Andy pointed out that disclosing he has diabetes is not usually so much of a conscious choice, as he says, “At some point my phones.” Somewhat similarly, Luke said, “First I ask if they can stand the sight of blood. Gets great reactions, from my point of view anyway. Then I tell them that I am diabetic.”
Finally, Jen noted that, “I have never really thought about it – it usually comes up pretty quickly, just because of how immersed in the diabetes world I am.”
Virtue’s Take: Often the moment of disclosing diabetes depends on context. With some people you might feel comfortable from the get go, and tell them right away; with others it might happen because of needing to test blood glucose or because they want to know why your mp3 player is plugged into your stomach (or why you have three, like Andy); while, with others it might never feel like a safe space to let people know. I think it depends a lot on your personality, comfort level with diabetes, and how open the people you are with are about discovering and dealing with new things about you.
What do you think? When do you usually tell people about having diabetes? Let us know in the comments…
