Reframe Diabetes

For those attending the Diabetes and Mental Health Conference this weekend, you can log in for the conference by visiting our webpage at https://dmhconference.vfairs.com, clicking “LOGIN” and entering the email you used to register. Join the Conference Facebook group for more updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dmhconference/?ref=share

www.dmhconference.vfairs.com

Trauma is a *normal* response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms someone's ability to cope. It shifts the nervous system and causes feelings of helplessness while diminishing someone’s sense of self. This nervous system shift explains why people don’t just “get over” trauma. Instead, it needs intentional treatment to help someone to heal through it.

Medical trauma is when trauma occurs in response to pain, injury, serious illness, medical procedures, and/or invasive or frightening treatment experiences. It’s rarely discussed, but may occur in response to a single or multiple medical events.

Diabetes involves constant effective management in order for someone to survive. The need - and messaging around needing - to be “on” all the time can feed anxiety and create hypervigilance, an elevated state of alertness and sensitivity to potential threat.

In addition to blood sugar monitoring, it’s not uncommon for diabetes to also include financial hardship, public shaming, medical dismissiveness, inaccessibility to medication, lack of information, and feelings of helplessness.

It’s important to understand that not everyone who experiences a seemingly traumatic situation will become traumatized. Trauma can also exist without developing into PTSD. Trauma is highly individualized and takes into account multiple factors.

*This post is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat or imply any medical or psychological issues. If you resonate with certain information in this post, please discuss it with a licensed mental health professional.

You may also contact .ny at [email protected] for more information about our Intensive programs for medical trauma.

*
*
*
*

If you aren’t following our Diabetes + Mental Health conference IG page yet, let me give you a reason to start.

Meet our conference keynote, Jiggy Yoon ()! A motivational speaker and performance coach, Jiggy will kick off our virtual conference weekend on Friday, May 20th and lead a fireside chat🔥 for attendees that evening.

Jiggy was diagnosed with T1D while attending college at Penn State. Now a passionate advocate for mental health, burnout prevention, and self-compassion, she has endured a number of her own personal challenges including depression, suicidal ideation and self harm.

As a therapist who focuses on trauma healing and inner work, I was immediately drawn to Jiggy’s “Vulnerability is dope” movement. So many of my clients (those with diabetes and without it) struggle to sit in vulnerability. But, as Jiggy notes, our brains are wired to process and experience emotions. So, to tell each other to "stop being so emotional" or to "stop being so sensitive" is to tell each other to stop being human. (🙌🏼👏🏼🙌🏼👏🏼)

Jiggy was born in Seoul, South Korea and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. As her official bio states, she’s “the only Korean, le***an, hip-hop dancing and rapping Type 1 Diabetic girl-who-lifts with tattoos, piercings, who speaks so boldly or vulnerability.”

We can’t wait to have her kick off the FIRST-EVER conference focused solely on diabetes and mental health. Follow for more updates. Or, click my bio link to be notified about registration - which opens on March 7th!

*
*
*
*