To mark the start of Mental Health Awareness Month, Breakthrough T1D Canada is excited to launch its new video series Beyond the Numbers: Real stories of navigating mental health with T1D that focuses on sharing the real stories of people living with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
The idea for the video series began in October 2023, when Breakthrough T1D was approached by multidisciplinary artists Michael Pivar and Peter Dreimanis with a vision: to capture real stories from people living with type 1 diabetes, exploring how T1D affects their mental health and emotional well-being. The concept was compelling—intimate interviews that didn’t shy away from the harder conversations, and that focused on lived experience, not clinical advice.
At the same time, Breakthrough T1D had just wrapped up a round of focus groups with Breakthrough T1D’s Mental Health Advisory Council who indicated that adults living with T1D were interested in video content from “people like them” about the day-to-day mental health/wellness concerns related to T1D.
Based on their feedback, three themes for this video series were identified:
- Relationships and Social Support
- Life Transitions
- Coping and Resilience
Over the course of a year, five adults, Christine, Lujane, Meagan, Rodrigo, and Tracey—were interviewed. Their conversations touch on stigma, including changing the conversation around diabetes devices, disordered eating and diabulimia, relationship challenges, being diagnosed in adulthood, and their own personal coping strategies.
Each person shared openly and with vulnerability, with the hope that their stories might help others feel less alone. The goal was to normalize conversations around the mental health impacts of T1D and to shine a light on the emotional side of this often invisible illness—because the challenges are real, and deserve to be acknowledged.
Breakthrough T1D is extremely grateful to Christine, Lujane, Meagan, Rodrigo, and Tracey for their openness and willingness to share. We would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Mike Pivar and Peter Dreimanis—without their creativity, dedication, and care, this project would not have been possible.
We hope that Beyond the Numbers not only sparks connection and empathy, but also inspires future dialogue—at home, in healthcare settings, and across the wider community.
You can watch their stories here.
For further resources, please visit the Directory where you can find mental health providers with specialized training in diabetes at directory.breakthroughT1D.ca or our mental health resources page.
