I’m feeling a certain level of
sadness and disconnect; a bit like I’m not one of the group. Due to the fact
that November is National Diabetes Awareness month and November 14th
was World Diabetes Day, this disease has recently gotten a lot of attention.
This attention wasn’t just coming from diabetes advocates, but in the press as
well. Unfortunately, some of those articles were poorly worded or lacked enough
specificity and this made some folks unhappy. I have mixed emotions about that.
I’m glad to see more mainstream coverage of diabetes of any type, even though some
of it could be better. It’s improving, in my opinion. There seem to be more
articles pointing out the fact that there is more to type 2 diabetes than
gluttony and sloth. However, folks in the type 1 camp are unhappy because these
articles don’t specify type 2. We’re all lumped together.
“My child did not get his
diabetes from eating too much sugar.” “Type 1 diabetes is not a lifestyle
disease.” “I can’t cure my diabetes by avoiding fast food and eating cinnamon.”
Every time I read these types of
statements, I cringe. Every. Single. Time. They’re all truthful statements but
what they infer makes me feel…less. I feel as if fingers are pointing at me,
blaming me for my disease. They often cause me to blame myself, even though I
know I’m not to blame. You see, if I had eaten a healthier diet for my whole
life I may not have developed type 2 diabetes until much later in life. Ergo,
it’s my fault I have diabetes now. But it’s not my fault. Believe me, I did the
best I could with four kids to feed and limited funds. We didn’t eat a ton of
fast food, we ate “regular meals”. Times like these cause me to have
self-doubt. My first husband was very critical of me because I struggled to
lose weight. It doesn’t take much to start the downward spiral toward
self-blame. Even a well-educated person with diabetes can fall into that trap.
More and more research is
looking at why people eat such crappy diets, ie: addiction. Crappy diets are
not something unique to people who develop type 2. The majority of Americans
eat that way too. Research around the idea that type 2 may have come before obesity/overweight is more and
more accepted. This research costs money and there is only so much to go
around. Manny Hernandez, president of The Diabetes Hands Foundation, told me
that even though T1s have all the awesome devices to help control their
diabetes, the majority of research funding is spent on type 2 diabetes. THAT is
why T1s are unhappy that T2s are getting so much attention, well one of the
reasons.
Back to the cringing. I
understand why people with T1 don’t want the world to think that they ate their
way to their disease. I understand why parents of children with T1 are so
protective of their kids and don’t want to be blamed for causing their child’s
disease. I get it. I understand. I sympathize, no I empathize. I don’t want the
world to think those things about me either and I cringe when other PWD or
parents of CWD say these things because they are inferring that because I have
T2 I AM to blame for my disease. They
may not blatantly blame me or other T2s but there is stigma via inference. I
cringe.
There are times, like today,
when these feelings cause me to want to give up, to stop advocating. I get so
tired of feeling blame and fighting against it. It feels worse than an uphill
battle because it’s not only regular folks and D folks, but it’s the medical establishment
as well.
Maybe the point of this post is
to just get my feelings out there, for someone to read and realize how it feels
to be that person who has type 2; that person who feels blame and stigma even
if it comes from within. The reality is that I will continue to advocate, not
only for T2s but for all people with diabetes regardless of type. (Kelly
Rawlings said, “If you have diabetes, then you’re my type”. I love that.) There
will be days when I get frustrated and won’t participate but there will be days
when the stigma and injustice will spur me to more action. I also need to grow
a thicker skin, perhaps.
Let me leave you with this
thought: Defending yourself, your family, your situation should never be done
in a way that casts aspersions on another person or group. Educating about diabetes
should be educating about all types of diabetes. We all win if people have a better understanding of the intricacies of both diseases. “My child didn’t get his
diabetes from eating too much sugar and neither did any other person who has
diabetes of any type.” Think before you react to a myth or falsehood. Take time
to form your response in a way that embraces all people with diabetes and, just
maybe, others will begin to understand that diabetes is a complex disease and
no one deserves to have it in their life.