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5/10/2020 Type 1 Diabetes and Memes: A Contemporary Coping Mechanism and Communication ToolRead Now I've mentioned on this blog multiple times that Type 1 Diabetes is not an easy disease to manage. There's checking blood sugars, dosing insulin, taking insulin, correcting for highs and lows, counting and estimating carbs, guessing the metabolic effects of exercise, testing for and treating ketones..... the list goes on. If you use a pump, you have to change sites, fill cartridges, and keep it charged. If you use a CGM, you have to change your sites for that. Most importantly though, you have to track your blood sugars and adjust your basal and bolus insulin based on trends you see. And those trends can be affected by food, daily routines, exercise, stress, hormones, the seasons, time of day, and tons of other factors. There's just so many facets of the disease that can easily make people overwhelmed and develop burnout.
It's no surprise then that people with Type 1 Diabetes need ways to cope with their disease. And people find different ways. Some people aren't super hard on themselves, some take an occasional dietary indulgence, others cope using non-diabetes related activities such as working out, playing an instrument, etc. There's a lot of ways to go about it. Another way that some people use to deal with the stress of the disease is.... memes. That's possibly a strange topic, I know. Editing various images, photos, scenes, video clips, templates and other media and mashing them up with text, music, and other images, etc, to make humorous little pieces about dealing with the disease isn't for everyone. For some people, such an activity probably seems like a total waste of time. But for others, it allows a Type 1 Diabetic to sort of laugh at themselves and the disease and, for once, take things not so seriously. Furthermore, memes and social media naturally go hand-in-hand. Memes that people make are bound to be spread and seen by others who also may find some solace in the jokes or commentary found within. When you have Type 1 Diabetes, you pretty much have to be able to laugh at the disease and find some humor in it. Taking the disease completely seriously all the time is going to contribute to frustration, if not outright burnout. Whether it's laughing at high blood sugars, or eating way too much food to treat a low, or changing lancets (the small needle using to prick one's finger to draw blood for a blood sugar check) far less frequently than recommended, a little bit of self-depreciating humor goes a long way. So, I think memes can be cathartic for a lot of people with Type 1 Diabetes. (And the same can go for many diseases, I imagine.) However, I also think that they have a bit of untapped potential in their communicative abilities. Teens are a common age group affected by Type 1. They're also a really tough bunch to work with. I was once a teen with Type 1, and I definitely did not have the best attitude, outlook, or sense of responsibility. I would let my numbers run high, lazily estimated carbohydrates, eat some foods without taking insulin, and overall did not give a very good effort to manage the disease. This goes for a lot of other teens with Type 1 Diabetes. And part of it is a product of the teenage mindset: you think you're invincible, you want to be rebellious and a little disrespectful, and you want to live life your way. But for me, and I am sure many others with the disease, barriers between healthcare providers also created this situation. When I went to my endocrinologist, I felt angry that this person didn't have to deal with all the challenges I did. I felt a little belittled how someone who never woke up in the middle of the night feeling low or accidentally took the wrong insulin or had to test for ketones was telling me what to do. For the most part, it wasn't a barrier that was their fault; it was moreso a barrier created by my attitude and mentality. However, memes are a popular format of humor with teens. And I think that, when executed properly (and by that I mean not using outdated memes) they could potentially dismantle some of these emotional barriers, let teens lower their guard a little, and be a little more open to speaking with a healthcare professional. While I may not be a teenager anymore, I still remember how it was to be one, and I feel like if I walked into a dietitian's office and found they had a stupid but funny meme pinned to a board in their office, I might laugh a little and feel a little less resistant to whatever recommendations they were going to make. Of course, a funny little picture isn't capable of completely overcoming the immense barriers and challenges of working with a teen with Type 1 Diabetes, however, even a little dent in them is something. Lately, I've been making T1D-centric memes and posting them to my Instagram. They get a decent amount of attention, a lot more than my other posts. I think other people with T1D see them and really enjoy them. And so maybe one day when I have my own office, I'll have some (newer) memes hanging from a board or taped somewhere. A pessimistic teen walks into my office, clearly not wanting to talk about his blood sugars, and sees it hanging up. He thinks its a little funny and thinks "maybe this lady isn't all that bad" and so actually listens to what I have to say a little. Down below I'm dropping all the T1D memes I've made so far. They've been fun to make and like I said before, I believe a lot of my fellow T1D's have found them relatable.
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