Diabetes Week - Keep it to Yourself (Day 2)

Many of us share lots of aspects of our diabetes lives online for the world to see.  What are some of the aspects of diabetes that you choose to keep private from the internet?  Or from your family and friends?  Why is it important to keep it to yourself?  (This is not an attempt to get you out of your comfort zone.  There is no need to elaborate or tell personal stories related to these aspects.  Simply let us know what kinds of stories we will never hear you tell, and why you won't tell them.) (Thank you Scott E of Rolling in the D for this topic.)

Today's topic honestly scared me a little bit. At first I was thinking it was asking me to share private things with you all that I don't ever share, but thankfully after rereading the prompt I realized that wasn't what it was asking for, thank God. Not that I don't want to be an open book with the world or my family, but there are things that I would rather keep to myself. 

Over the years if living with diabetes, I've started to categorize the people I can't share everything with into three distinct groups. The first group are the people who just don't understand the disease and who you'd rather not have to take the time to explain it. The second group are the people who think they know more than you do about the disease you live with and they don't. And then there is the last group, the people who scare me the most. The people who you don't know you are going to set off because of something you said with no ill intentions on your blog. These groups are why I choose not to share everything with the people in my life or online. 

With the first group, I've learned that no matter how hard you try to explain Type 1 diabetes issues to them,  they just won't get it. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that, I've had Type 1 for nearly 10 years and there are still things that I don't understand. It's not so much that I don't want to share things with you, but that I would rather have a normal conversation with you that doesn't take me hours to try and help you understand. That sentence came off extremely harsh and I just want you to know it wasn't meant to come off that way. It's just that I would rather have a real conversation with them not one that will eventually end with their eyes glazing over. 

With the second group, I become so agitated with them that I will want to go punch a baby. and that is never a good idea or reason. I love having diabetes, I have come to terms that I will live with this for the rest of my life, so I really don't need someone who doesn't have the disease telling me that if I just did this thing they read about in the paper I will be cured. I could share every detail of my disease with these people and live a life of frustration or I could limit what I share or avoid the topic altogether. There is nothing personal, I just think that at the end of the day they would still hope that we could have a nice relationship rather than have me harbor a new found hate for them. 

Then there is the last group, the people who scare me the most, the internet people. I cannot tell you how often I have written a post, reread it, and deleted it because I was worried I would set someone off by sharing something. I love the internet and having the freedom to share, but that freedom comes at a price and that price is that others have the right to attack you with their belief's, ideologies, and more. I would never in a million years mean to offend anyone and unfortunately, it's easier to do than you would think. So, I choose not to share everything because you never know who you may offend. And if I have offended you I really do apologize, because that is never my intention. 

So there you have it. The reason I choose not to share certain diabetes things with people. It all just comes down to at the end of the day I would hope to still have a good relationship with them and sometimes diabetes topics aren't the right way to do it.