Diabetes Blog Week 2016 Day 1: Message Monday

Lets kick off the week by talking about why we are here, in the diabetes blog space. What is the most important diabetes awareness message to you? Why is that message important for you, and what are you trying to accomplish by sharing it on your blog? 

I don't think I have a particular message or theme that I try to get across in my blog, other than "you are not alone", which I think is common across a lot of diabetes blogs.  I've been part of the DOC for a long time now, starting on forums and gradually moving over to Twitter and Facebook, and blogs happened somewhere along the way.

For me, blogs continued the whole "wow, you too?!" thing that had begun in forums, and I loved being able to read about someone's story, particularly if we were going through similar things.  When I started, there really weren't that many blogs around, and most of the ones that were around were from the US. I thought that maybe I could offer a slightly different perspective coming from the UK, and I've been blogging on and off in one way or another ever since.

I keep coming back to the idea that I'm blogging to send a message, and I guess in some ways I must feel I have something to share, otherwise it would be a private blog, but I don't feel that I blog because I want to stand up and shout about something that's particularly important, it's more like I'm sat in a quiet corner in a bar telling stories about my experience. Hopefully some of those experiences will strike a chord with some people, and they may find something that helps them, even if it's just that other people have crappy days, and horrible clinic appointments, and also take joy in small things that no-one else gets if they don't live with diabetes.  I think I probably blog partly for myself, because there's something therapeutic about writing things down, and partly in the hope that I can maybe help someone else.