Table 3.

Main themes based on empirical findings

Main themes	Empirical subthemes
Diabetes-specific loneliness
Being on one’s own	Having no one to talk to about diabetes
	Experimenting individually about how to live well with diabetes in daily life
	Lacking time with health professionals
Lack of connectedness and communality	Feeling different
	Feeling less worthy/burdensome
	Feeling shoved out of community
Lack of feeling understood	No real dialogue about diabetes
	No understanding of how difficult it is to live with diabetes
Diabetes-specific social capital
Experience sharing	Sharing real-life experiences
	No professional knowledge
Cohesion and collectiveness	Experiencing type 1 diabetes as normal
	Feeling mutual understanding
	Being able to mirror oneself in others
Trust and confidence	Feeling safe
	Trusting others
	Having confidentiality
Reciprocity and social participation	Mutual trust and support
	Necessary similarities and/or benefits of being different
	Wanting to help and create possibilities for others with type 1 diabetes