Diabetes can be very emotional. Frustration, fear, sadness, despair, overwhelm, depression and fatigue are all very common. As scary as it may be, one of the most healing things you can do is express yourself. It may be a conversation, a blog, a tweet, a story, a journal, a song, a chat, a good cry, an email to no one, a meme, a Facebook post or any number of things. But don’t hold it in.

When you suppress your emotions, they grow louder and larger. If you deny them they are like small children, who will repeat, cry, demand, and scream to get your attention.  Over time they can become very heavy burdens, magnified in your mind and crowding out any possibility of joy.

If you are like I was, I didn’t want to be a bother to anyone, to complain about my plight, or make anyone else suffer because I had to deal with diabetes.  So I learned the hard way how big and pervasive your emotions can become.  At some point, they will break you and you will be forced to deal with them.

The question is how to deal with them.  What does “dealing” look like?  How does one learn to do it? First you have to take a good look in the mirror and admit to yourself that you feel this way, especially if you are trying to put on a smile and power through it.  You must tell the truth.  First to yourself, then to others.

This Second step is the hardest: mustering the courage to share your broken and afraid self with a world that can be very critical and judgmental.  Choose wisely and if you don’t have someone who will simply listen, and try not to fix you, correct you, or cheer you up, consider a therapist or clergy.  If that is even too much, start with a journal and write down what you are not ready to say yet.   Just this simple step will easy some of the hardship.  You will feel a bit better by letting out what it is you have been hiding.

Just to get it out of your head is how you start “dealing” with it.  You just created some distance between you and your emotions.  Take a step back, reread it and let it start to sink in that it is a FEELING, it is not who you are.  You are not your disease. You are not your emotions. It is just a feeling and feelings are temporary.  They pass.  Know this.

Continue to express what you can, when you can and you will see your story unfold.  You get to write your story.  You can change your story.  Your story will teach you lessons. Just muster up that courage and start in someway to share your inner world with the rest of the world.   Perhaps your story might start something like: “I got diabetes.  I was mad and scared and afraid.  But then I wrote about.  Then I shared it with someone.  Then I realized it felt good to get it off my chest.  Then I felt a little better and my path veered a bit more toward happy.”