Many people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) can clearly explain their struggles. We can name the burnout, fear, frustration, and mental math that come with an unrelenting chronic illness that offers no breaks. Talking about it matters. It gives voice to the chaos and raises public awareness.

But when you’re living with it privately, talking about it isn’t the same as feeling through it. That distinction matters. Insight doesn’t automatically bring relief or the ability to work through day-to-day grief.

You can be self-aware and articulate yet still feel emotionally stuck. Intellectualizing your feelings about T1D isn’t the same as working through them. Closing the gap can help you live less in the extreme emotions of diabetes and find a more manageable middle ground.

When Talking About T1D Is Helpful

Talking helps externalize the burden. 

Publicly, it can help us build connections with folks who are going through the same things. It helps reduce feelings of isolation in managing T1D. It can also help us feel productive about our feelings.

But it can also put added pressure on us to constantly educate others. And while there’s value in providing tidbits of information here and there, it’s simply not our job to be educating all the time. We begin to become praised for being strong, aware, or resilient simply for living with T1D, but not all those living with it are created equal.

Living with T1D isn’t enough to make someone a hero. You’d manage it too if you had to. And don’t get me wrong, we appreciate the affirmations, but they’re not always earned. That’s something the T1D community is afraid to discuss, but I think we need to bring it to light.

The Problem With Becoming Inspiration Propaganda

Living with a chronic illness doesn’t make someone inspiration propaganda. It’s how they manage it that matters. It’s how they show up with it that can earn that status. And they don’t have to share with you if it doesn’t serve their well-being.

Meaningful healing is different for everyone. If you live with T1D, know that it’s not your job to be a hero, either. It’s your job to take care of yourself. Period.

People with T1D quietly become the calm narrators of their own internal chaos. But the subtle truth is that this can become a containment strategy rather than a processing one. It keeps us in our heads because our bodies feel unsafe or overwhelmed. We try to make sense of the day-to-day chaos, but here’s another thing no one says: it’s not normal to be dealing with this.

Talking is a starting point, not the end of the 24/7, 365-day race.

What Feeling Through T1D Actually Means

To feel through T1D, we must allow our emotions to exist without righting them right away or fixing them. This can be difficult to stomach, given a disease that is constantly in demand and pressuring for a response. Yet it’s required of us as humans. We deserve that compassion from ourselves. That pause.

We must move forward through the discomfort rather than narrate over it. We have to notice how diabetes distress is showing up in our bodies rather than dissociate from it. Noticing isn’t the same as becoming the distress that burdens you.

Acknowledging it is more powerful. It gives us insight into how to take care of ourselves, understand our needs, and lighten future mental loads. We learn when we acknowledge the chaos. We grow when we live through it, not when we opt out.

As painful as that can be, it’s important for life. Feeling through doesn’t have to mean you’re:

• Crying all the time
• Rehashing the same story
• Forcing acceptance or positivity
• Being dramatic or having a victim mindset
  

What feeling through actually means is:

• Noticing how distress shows up
• Letting discomfort exist
• Resisting the immediate righting reflex
  

You’re allowed to:

• Have fear after lows
• Get angry after stubborn highs
• Have grief because of unpredictability
• Feel exhausted from everything feeling “off”
  

Allowing yourself to feel and living in those feelings are very different. It doesn’t mean you’re not optimistic or living your best life. It doesn’t mean you’re not worthy of being a role model. It means that, with all of the other titles you hold, you’re human first. And you don’t have to prioritize any title above that.

You don’t have to explain it to anyone else. It only has to make sense to you.

Signs You’re Talking and Not Feeling

If you’re wondering what bucket you fall into these days, here are some signs you might be over-intellectualizing your T1D experience instead of allowing yourself to feel through it:

• You treat others (loved ones with or without diabetes) better than you treat yourself.
• You can explain your diabetes distress clearly, but it keeps showing up relentlessly.
• You repeat the same insights and takeaways without an emotional shift.
• You feel relief while talking, but the tension returns almost immediately after.
• You intellectualize your feelings: you say “I know why this bothers me” instead of letting yourself feel bothered in the moment.
• You feel uncomfortable moving slowly or not responding to a T1D need right away.
  

Awareness without movement can quietly turn into avoidance, resulting in a lack of emotional shift along your diabetes journey. You’re not a bad person or wrong for doing this. In fact, you’re probably in the same boat as many others managing the same condition right now. 

It’s not a personal failure, but you also deserve better.

Moving Past the Shame of T1D Feelings

Here are some effective ways to reduce the shame you might have internalized around feeling through T1D and to broaden your perspective on how to approach it.

Avoidance is normal. But that doesn’t justify accepting it as your day-to-day flow. Type 1 diabetes trains us to be alert, stay in control, and analyze every decision. Emotional suppression usually starts as self-protection but often results in deeper wounding.

Feeling through requires safety. If your nervous system is constantly braced, your insights don’t have room to create the emotional shifts you deserve.

If you’re struggling to feel, it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you or that you’re doing healing wrong. It means you learned how to survive first. That’s a common experience for many people with T1D.

Small Steps You Can Take to Start Feeling Through

If you don’t know where to start but think feeling through could benefit your approach to diabetes, here are some simple ways to begin:

• Pause after you talk about a diabetes challenge. Ask yourself, “What do I feel in my body right now?”
• Name sensations, not stories. Is your chest tight? Is your stomach heavy? Is your breathing shallow? Does your head ache?
• Check in with yourself. Take just 30 seconds for an emotional scan.
• Let feelings exist without taking immediate action. Not everything needs fixing. Sometimes it’s just a moment.
• Use support intentionally. Not just to vent, but to zoom out and reconnect with the larger picture of your life. Stay present with yourself.

Feeling through isn’t about adding to your plate of diabetes management. It’s about staying in the moment a little longer, with the goal of having fewer big moments or meltdowns later.

Those are valid, sure, but not ideal to experience on repeat. They’re exhausting. When you do the work upfront, you can manage better in the future.

Talking Matters: So Does Healing in the Quiet that Follows

Talking matters, but healing often happens when the words end. You don’t need to force yourself to feel everything. Just notice how your body responds when you allow the pause you deserve. You’re allowed to move at the pace your body trusts.

Get your mental reps in. Change like this takes time. You’re worth the investment.

More On Mental Health + T1D

• How to Embrace Your Favorite Self with T1D
• Peace at Every Range: Learning to Live in the In-Between with T1D
• 5 Reframes I Use as a Certified Health Coach Living with T1D
• 8 Tips to Live a Happier, More Soulful Life with T1D
• Finding Courage in Consistency
• In the Face of Life-or-Death Lows, I’m Dedicated to Finding My Smile
• Sometimes There Is No Lesson in Diabetes + That’s Okay