If anyone has seen the Diabetes Intervention (A&E) I would love to know your opinion (link above). I understand that this man should have been paying more attention to himself... but I don't think that it was emphasized enough how difficult T1D can be to manage... like its easy if you just DO it. That hasn't been my personal experience. And the depression issue isn't addressed well enough either. To me, they (the producers) make him out to just look lazy - and seriously pathetic. I can empathize with him... and I would have loved to hear more about his 'recovery' period. Anyway, what does everyone think?
yeah I did see that a several months ago when it was new. I did think the way they show the kid was kind of not fair. I also thought the more the mom wanted him to take of his diabetes the more he (typical teenager) would rebel her wishes. For me I think being a teenager was REALLY hard. And also getting diagnosed (in my 20’s) was also REALLY had. I cant imagine being a teenager and dealing with diabetes at the same time. I am amazed at the teens here on tudiabetes that handle it so well. At the end of the show when they show his “recovery” you have to admit he looked really healthy compared to the beginning of the show.
I have seen the Intervention shows on A&E before - didn’t know they had a diabetic one. Is is actually called 'Diabetic Intervention" or is it just another episode of the “Intervention” series? I know on the Intervention series they do drug addicts, eating disorders, alchoholics etc…
it is just another episode of the show intervention. Besides drug addicts, I have seen one on gambling addiction and another one on shopping addiction.
Well, I’m not happy with how they “portray” him as if Diabetes management was “easy,” and if all he had to do was just eat right, and dose insulin, and test his blood… BUT, I do appreciate and am impressed with how well they portrayed the information of what Diabetes is, and what glucose and an inability to process it means for the body at the beginning of the show. You rarely, if ever, see that on tv.
He had a LOT more issues than just diabetes. They even said, they concentrated on his depression which was at the core of his not wanting to take care of himself. No, dealing with diabetes isn’t easy for anyone and I didn’t get that message from the show. It is a deadly disease and they were very clear about that and I’ve lived a relatively normal, complication free life with it for over 34 years BECAUSE I test, take my insulin and eat right but even that is no gaurantee. Unlike his poor mother, it can be managed by taking his medications, eating correctly and testing none of which he was doing.
I don’t think the point of the program was to inform the viewer how hard diabetes is to deal with. The program was a look into an intervention in a young mans life and how his depression affected his life and family. The fact that he is T1, his dad becoming diabetic later in life and his mom dealing with MS and Lupus just made for better TV.
I didn’t get the outright impression that they were trying to sugar coat diabetes and that it’s easy to deal with. Diabetes wasn’t the point of the show but the reality is, while it isn’t always easy, we do “just have to do it” as the alternative isn’t really a viable choice. I think that’s what the interventionist meant by his comment towards the end about “just doing it”.
So what is next…heart disease intervention? That shouldn’t start from birth? This guy would have those same problems with out the diabetes. Just like Casey Johnson her diabetes was just another issue she had to deal with. It was not the entire problem. Why don’t the producers she pricking themselves 8 times a day?
