Daniel on Being Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as a Teenager

Has your teenager had to deal with something life-changing? Life can be tough, and when something big happens to change your child’s landscape it can suddenly throw them right off the track they thought they were on, and into what can feel like quite a scary place for the whole family.

Daniel Newman is HR Advisor at JDRF, the charity dedicated to Type 1 Diabetes awareness and research. He was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes - a life-threatening disability - when he was 10. Although he handled things well to begin with, things took a more difficult turn for him when he started secondary school, and didn’t want to stick out as being the one with the disability.

Teenage years are often when children start to wobble with previously well-managed situations. Daniel ended up failing his GCSE’s because he simply couldn’t engage with school as well as dealing with the implications of his diabetes. But he says that wake up call gave him a can-do attitude that he thinks everyone can learn from scratch.

My guests always tell me that they wished they’d been able to talk to their parents, but Daniel – who isn’t a parent – goes one step further and tells parents how he thinks they might be able to break through the wall that teenagers often put up when we try to get them to open up. Have a listen, it’s certainly made me rethink my strategy when I want to know what’s going on inside my teenagers heads! 

I think Daniel’s learning curve is a fascinating insight into just how possible it is to turn things around even when you’re at your lowest. I love the fact that he started with just tiny goals to make himself feel positive about his progress, and start turning the curve upwards. I also think his advice to parents about how to engage on their teen’s level is a genius way to get them to open up and start a more natural conversation about what’s worrying them.

You can find Daniel on Twitter and Instagram. You also can listen to his podcast on living with Type 1 Diabetes - The Talking Type 1 Podcast.

Further Resources

JDRF - information and support on living with Type 1 DiabetesThe Mix is a charity dedicated to supporting young people with mental health strugglesSee if your diagnosis is a recognised disability, and find out what help you can getFacebook groups offer a lot of support - try the Parents of Type 1 Teens in the UK groupIf you're worried about diabetes complications, and you're on Twitter, have a look at tweets by The Grumpy Pumper, who talks openly about his experiences of foot ulcers.

There are lots more episodes of the Teenage Kicks podcast – do have a browse and see if I’ve covered anything else you might find useful. And if you have a suggestion of something you’d like to see talked about on the podcast please do email me on [email protected] I have loads more fabulous guests coming up to help families navigate some of the most complicated – but wonderful – teenage parenting years. I’ve also got some posts on the blog that might help parents with other teenage parenting dilemmas, so do. Pop over to Actually Mummy if you fancy a read.

Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe now to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear all my new episodes. I'll be talking to some fabulous guests about difficult things that happened to them as teenagers - including losing a parent, becoming a young carer, and being hospitalised with mental health problems - and how they overcame things to move on with their lives.

I'd love it if you'd rate and review the podcast on iTunes too - it would really help other people to find it. You can also find more from me on parenting teenagers on my blog Actually Mummy, and on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.

This episode is sponsored by Blue Microphones, who gave me the brilliant Yeticaster for the recording of the podcast.

For information on your data privacy please visit Podcast.co. Please note that I am not a medical expert, and nothing in the podcast should be taken as medical advice.