When you’re newly diagnosed with diabetes, it can be difficult telling other people about it. You may feel embarrassed or uncertain about how they will react. But diabetes is nothing to be ashamed of or to hide, and you may be grateful of your friends help and support while you adjust to having diabetes.
Dispelling myths
Your friends might know nothing about diabetes, or they may have some ideas about it that are completely inaccurate. Showing them this website will help to dispel the common myths about diabetes. Once you’ve started to tell them about your diabetes, they might well be keen to learn more. After all, they are your friends, and they’ll be keen to know how best they can support you.
On a more practical level, if you tell them about what a hypo is and how it affects you, they’ll be able to help you out if you have one.
Socialising
One topic that will almost certainly come up is whether you can still go out to eat, drink or go clubbing. You will be able to reassure your friends that nothing needs to change, but you might be need to plan ahead a little more, like making sure you have something to eat when you’re drinking/clubbing, sticking to the recommended limits for alcohol (as everyone should), planning when and where you’re going to have your injection and so on.