It’s difficult to disbelieve an entrenched idea, like that we can control our blood sugar. We can’t.

I wonder if there’s any synchronicity between Facebook crashing today and so the article I have pushed tirelessly to get published, which did get published today, I couldn’t even link on Facebook. Ah, man plans and God laughs.

The article was published on diaTribe – “Why ‘Controlling’ Blood Sugar Shouldn’t Be the Goal.” I’m indebted diaTribe. A variation of this article was published in Diabetes Sisters’ newsletter in December, “The Myth of Controlling Blood Sugar, And a Better Way to Manage It.” I thank Diabetes Sisters too.

That said, there’s a back story worth noting I think. It took more than four months, pitching to three organizations, push back, rejection, and numerous rewrites before these two articles were published. That’s not anyone trying to give me a hard time; that’s the power of an idea that is so entrenched, even though it is not true.

You see the sentry that stand over this myth believe that if we tell people with diabetes the truth – that we can’t control our blood sugar – that we will set our hair on fire. That we will be so dismal, disappointed and depressed, so frustrated and disempowered, that we will give up entirely on our management, and ourselves.

What I know is that when we tell people the truth, they feel validated, un-wronged and seen. They feel more powerful. Every time I tell someone that they can’t control their blood sugar, that they are responsible for their effort but not entirely responsible for the outcome, they practically cry in my arms from relief.

We’ve heard “control” and “blood sugar” in the same breath for so long so often, it’s so obsequious in the language of diabetes, that no one thinks to question it. I questioned it and I’m telling you, outright, it’s not true, and it’s falsity is supported by science, particularly neurobiology and complexity science.

Read the article and share it. I hope it takes you off the hook too many people, with all good intentions, have hoisted us upon.