Having attended the Diabetes UK Professional Conference in April as a #dedoc° voice, I was so fortunate (no, more like honoured) to be offered another #dedoc° voice scholarship for ADA 2024 in Orlando last month. I was absolutely blown away to have the opportunity to travel across to the US as one of the 25 odd PWDs to bring our hundreds of years of shared lived experience with the condition to the American Diabetic Association’s prodigious event.
Attending a T1D event, whether it be something the size of ADA, ISPAD, EASD or DUKPC or perhaps the more peer support get togethers like TAD or JDRF events, always gives me the thrill of possibly learning something new from the content of the event or hearing the lived experiences of others. However, more importantly, I always absolutely love the getting together with my peers within the community. Very often, it presents a rare chance to get together in person with folks you often talk to virtually so frequently. Friends who you’ve never met, finally being friends who ACTUALLY meet.
I’ve always said that the one blessing of this condition is the countless amazing people I’ve met through having it. These dear friends I’d have never have had in my life unless I’d had the “luck” of having a flaky pancreas. These friends live all over the world, they’re of different backgrounds, different faiths, different nationalities. Initially, the one thing that tied us together was T1D, however, now, whenever we meet virtually or in person, our condition is often the last thing we speak about. It’s more about life, families, work and a million and one other things that isn’t T1D.
Anyway, I can almost hear you whispering to yourself “I thought you were gonna talk about post-conference blues but you’re just wittering on incoherently about your hundreds of online diabetic mates”. Yes, perhaps I’m mildly digressing from subject of this post but stay with me, I’m laying some background by talking about friendships & peer support and post-conference blues plays a big part in this. Honest.
Attending events, conferences in particular, are often quite mentally and physically demanding. At ADA and DUKPC, there was a LOT of content/talks/symposia to choose from and subsequently sit through. Conferences are pretty big, there’s a lot of walking and standing involved, some of us “elder statesmen” of T1D ain’t as fit as we once were. Putting in tens of thousands of steps each day is a young’uns game.
For me these recent events were fabulous opportunities to network within the peer community and with medical/research professionals. I learnt so much by those personal and group conversations. Amazing chances to gain insights into things I’d have not had access to otherwise. However, I did find the long days emotionally & socially draining. I’ve come to realise I’m classic introverted extrovert, i.e. someone who generally enjoys social interaction but also needs time alone to recharge their “social battery” (as my daughter calls it).
Between ADA and DUKPC, there was the (always) amazing Talking About Diabetes 2024 in Liverpool, UK. Always a chance for us Brits to get together and chew the fat, this year’s event was pretty special due to lots of incredible content and a heartfelt & emotional “farewell” from the community to Professor Partha Kar as he was heading off to pastures new. The togetherness in the room as the video tribute played was indescribable. Like a massive group hug, the feeling of being part of family, a comfort for all those times when we all have felt the complete loneliness our condition can bring.
Post TAD, I started to realise that the massive dopamine hit one gets at events surrounded by dearest friends can result in a bit of a crash when it’s back to real-life and the day-by-day drudgery of dealing with T1D. For all that love, understanding, togetherness and community, going back to “flying solo” does take some adjusting to. Exactly like when I gig with the band, it’s an adrenaline rush followed by a long drive hone and hours awake into the early hours before emotions stabilise and I’m able to sleep.
ADA2024 in Orlando was possibly the hardest emotional event I’ve so far attended. I don’t know what made it so. Maybe being so far away from home, the pure size of the event with tens of thousands of attendees, an overwhelming amount of content to decide to attend, being part of a large group of incredible advocates doing incredible things and me feeling like a total fraud due to my all-consuming imposter syndrome? Probably all of those things but especially the last one.
The subsequent few days after the event were the same again, that adrenaline-fed sense of elation slowly subsiding and back to having to pull the big girl’s pants on and get on with life and T1D. However, now I realise what this feeling of “post T1D event blues” is, I just feel a little better that it’s normal for me to feel like this and, more importantly, it’s ACTUALLY OK for me to feel like this. Things have their cycles, kinda like the tide coming in and going out or the nerves of going on stage focusing one’s mind for the performance.
So, after all this rambling, to answer the question, is “post T1D event blues” an ACTUAL thing? Well, for me, yes I think it is.
Type1Tony 