Take the Power From Your T1D-Related Emotions

Did you know there is a simple way to take the power away from your challenging diabetes-related emotions? You know, those feelings that make you wish diabetes would just give you a break and go away for a while.

Are you ready for the secret?

Name your diabetes emotions.

Yes, that’s it. All you have to do is label your emotions - and the more descriptive you can be, the better. I promise naming your feelings can make these challenging diabetes feelings easier to handle.

Don’t believe me? Let me explain.

I can’t tell you how many people I know who talk about how hard diabetes is in vague terms but don’t name their feelings. When I ask them to describe how diabetes makes them feel and give these feelings a name, they get uncomfortable.

What’s the big deal?

Often, people tell me they’re scared naming their emotions will make them more real. Of course, they’re ignoring the fact the emotion is already real, whether or not they name it. They also worry if they give their feelings a name, they will make diabetes more overwhelming. They fear naming the emotion will give it power.

Naming your emotions helps

I guarantee naming your challenging diabetes emotions won’t make them harder to handle and most likely will make them easier to deal with. Here are three ways naming your feelings can take away their power and make you feel more confident about your diabetes.

• Puts your emotions on the table: People have a lot of guilt and shame about having challenging feelings with diabetes. They think these emotions make them weak, so they ignore them, hoping they’ll go away. But they don’t go away, causing them to feel even worse. Naming your emotions lets you take ownership of how diabetes makes you feel and recognizing it can be challenging. It helps you see these emotions are a normal part of living with diabetes and not something to be ashamed of.
• Makes your emotions less scary: Emotions about diabetes can feel uncomfortable and even frightening. By not naming your feelings, you try to avoid this discomfort and fear, making them even scarier. Naming your emotions lets you face them head-on and see that while they may be uncomfortable, you can handle them.
• Empowers you to make a plan to cope: When something doesn’t have a name, it makes it harder to define. Naming your diabetes emotion gives them structure and definition, which helps you make a plan for how to cope with them.