Managing relationships
Managing relationships while also managing type 1 diabetes, whether in college, at work, or in your personal life, can add an extra layer of challenges.
Open communication and understanding are required to strike a balance between T1D management and professional, academic, and personal responsibilities.
Personal relationships
Having a conversation with your roommates about type 1 diabetes is crucial as it can impact your well-being, safety, and relationship while you live together. Some things to talk about include:
- What type 1 diabetes is and what you do to manage it
- Ways they may need to help you, including:
- How to use a glucagon pen/nasal spray
- Where your snacks are if blood sugar is low
- How blood sugars can impact your mood
- Your pump and CGM alarms, especially if you live in a shared room, as it could wake up both of you in the middle of the night
Just like your roommates, talking to your friends about T1D is important in order to create a safe and supportive environment outside of the workplace and classroom.
- Tell your friends about your T1D, explaining what it is, and how you manage it.
- Your friends should know that it’s important to get help if they notice problems, like symptoms of extremely low blood sugar. If you’re comfortable, show your friends your pump, pens, and/or CGM and explain how they work and how you use them.
- Let your friends know where you keep your snacks for low blood sugar (juice, glucose tabs, candy) so that they can quickly retrieve them for you if needed.
- Be cautious about drinking if you plan to do so with friends. Be open with your friends about the effects of alcohol on T1D so they are aware. For your own knowledge, plan ahead for situations that involve drinking and get good at using technology to watch your trends and learn how to manage them.
- Provide your roommates or friends with your parent’s/guardian’s phone numbers/contact information in case of emergency.
Balancing your independence and need for support from your family will require conversations and discussion with your family.
- Set boundaries with your family. Discuss when you would like to talk about diabetes.
- Determine if your family is allowed to text/call you whenever you have a CGM alert.
- Provide your family with your roommate’s or friends’ phone number/contact information in case of emergency.
Healthy diabetes management should be an open and constant part of your and your partner’s life.
- Compromise
Relationships, in general, require give-and-take. Develop a strategy for how to deal with times where your T1D may need to take priority over the relationship, and the need for flexibility and understanding when these times occur. - Communication
Through open communication channels and productive conversations with each other you will be able to find your rhythm and get used to managing your type 1 diabetes together. Communicating the impact of your blood sugars to your partner can be helpful. For example, if you get short-tempered when you experience a low, your partner will better understand how to support you. - Additional Resources:
College relationships
Engaging in open communication with your professors about your type 1 diabetes is important to establish a supportive learning environment and to address any potential accommodations that may be needed.
- Get in contact with the university’s Disability Services office
Develop a plan that ensures you can take care of your diabetes during class, tests, etc. with no penalty. - Selective disclosure with your professors
You can decide to share or not share your disability specifics. This is something that you can determine based on relationship/understanding of the professor. Let professors know if you have any accommodations as soon as you receive the approval from your university’s Disability Services. - Communicate your needs
In college, you have to stand up for yourself. It is important to communicate your needs in the classroom setting so your type 1 diabetes does not impact your learning experience. - Additional resources at The Professor’s Guide to Type 1 Diabetes.
Workplace relationships
Making sure that you are transparent with the person (or people) who supervise you is important in a workplace environment, and that is especially true when it comes to talking about T1D. You need to ensure people know what to expect if you are having a T1D-related issue.
Explicitly set expectations as to what happens when you have a T1D-related issue that requires you to step away from your job temporarily.
- Additional resources at https://beyondtype1.org/employers-guide-type-1.
It can also be helpful to explain to coworkers that you have T1D and what that means when working together.
- Additional resources at https://beyondtype1.org/diabetes-work-self-advocacy-tips.
While clients do not need to know about your T1D, it can be important to let them know about the possibility of there being an issue when working on a project for them. This can be something as simple as setting a backup contact for time-sensitive matters or negotiating a larger time frame at the beginning of a project.
T1D Resource Library
What you need to know about navigating life with type 1 diabetes, including insurance, school, relationships, pregnancy, and more.
