Hey there! I was feeling productive and decided I wanted to write a little about what life is like behind the scenes with Type One as I am aware that a large portion of my followers don’t have diabetes, but maybe have friends or family members that do. Even though I’m sure 99% of us know this, there is always that 1% that’s going to ask “Did you eat too much sugar?” So the answer to that question is no. Type One Diabetes is not caused by sugar or rather any food at all. Type One Diabetes is developed when one’s immune system, particularly the white blood cells, attack the pancreas under a misinterpretation of the pancreas as a foreign object in the body. As a result, the pancreas loses its ability to produce insulin and break down food, essentially becoming completely useless. That is why we as type one diabetics must use some sort of insulin therapy to stay alive, whether it be injections or an insulin pump. The thing about diabetes is that the injections are actually the easy part of the disease. You just do the math or type in your carbohydrate value and give yourself an amount of insulin that will cover food or a high blood sugar. The pain and fear of needles diminishes quickly because quite frankly there isn’t an alternative option. The reality of Type One Diabetes is that the most difficult part of the disease to deal with is the load that it puts on you mentally. If you were diagnosed young, like me, I think you could probably agree that we had to grow up quicker than other kids our age. Before I got my pump in third grade I was injecting myself at least 4 times a day with syringes and then pens(when they finally came out). I did not have a continuous glucose monitor until two years ago, so for 9 years I pricked my fingers about 10 times a day to monitor my blood sugar manually. Now I only change my pump site every three days and my cgm site every two weeks so now I only prick my fingers around six times daily. As time goes on, taking care of diabetes becomes a type of second nature to you. You don’t even realize it, but you are cautious when putting clothes on and taking them off to avoid ripping your sites out of your body. You know the carbs to like, every single food on the planet (you practically have a carbohydrate library in your head). The truth is, diabetes is like a full time job that you can never quit if you want to stay alive. You are working constantly, without rest to make sure that you can lead a healthy and normal life. It is a conscious effort and sometimes it just gets really hard. There are tears, when you’ve done seemingly everything and your blood sugar WON’T. GO. DOWN. or when your number is so low that you cannot even move. It’s scary sometimes, and that’s just the truth. Aside from the mental load, there is a very strenuous emotional load that comes along with Type One Diabetes. Type One is often linked to clinical depression, especially in teens. Personally, I sometimes hide how I feel about my diabetes because I don’t want to be a burden to my friends or family members. It’s hard to talk about your feelings with people who don’t completely understand what it is really like to have your disease. You feel sick when you are high and weak when you are low, and you have mood swings as your blood sugar fluctuates. Even so, it is frustrating when people blame a bad mood on your blood sugar because you feel like they don’t understand that you can have feelings outside of diabetes. But it’s okay to break down every once in a while. You don’t have to be strong every single second of every day for everyone else because that’s hard. Diabetes is already a lot of work without pretending you’re okay even when you’re not. I just wanted to remind you all that you are loved, and don’t forget to think of the positives, because even though diabetes is what it is there is still some good. There is good in everything 🙂