Monday 16 May 2016

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.


9 comments:

  1. Your last sentence really nailed it-I do it for me but if it can help someone then that's even better! Thanks for sharing :)

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  2. Oh yes. well said!!! Standing quietly in the corner of the bar telling stories paints the perfect picture in my head. And I feel likes kind of the way I approach things too. Thanks for sharing your story!

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    1. Thanks for reading! It took me a while to write this, because I kept thinking "but I don't have a message" then realised that's exactly what I should write!

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  3. I agree with you. I'm proud to add my Australian voice to the community, and it's so therapeutic to empty my head. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. It's so nice that the community has become so international - it's great to see the different perspectives. Thanks for reading!

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  4. Bar stories are great. Its how I prefer my stories...real life stories.

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    1. Thanks for reading! It's pretty much my favourite thing too. :)

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  5. I love to read blogs from folks with diabetes all over the world, we deal with a lot of the same things while also dealing with very different things.

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