Just wondering if anyone has been made to feel guilty for having Type 2 diabetes. Most type 1’s feel type 2 is brought on by your lifestyle and is not really diabetes. I have been made to feel foolish on another diabetes website…almost like I have a lot of nerve joining the site. I do consider this disease a serious one and anyone who doesn’t can talk to my endo. Anyone else feel this way?
Thanks, Debb, I’m really sorry that your husband couldn’t understand, wouldn’t even.
Dear debb. So much for keeping ones word. Many times what you do to others does come back to haunt you
Speaking as a Type 1, I don’t think Type 2s have caused their own diabetes. Saddens me to think that you were made to feel uncomfortable elsewhere. Glad you’re here! Since Type 2 is so much more common, I’d think there would be more web sites for your type.
I’ve said it before here–I think in many ways Type 2 is the more difficult type of diabetes because of all the meds & their side effects.
Thanks, Gerri, you have all made me feel welcome
There are wonderful people here & now there’s one more–you!
Timothy, I am newly diagnosed, and felt the way you do. I have been made to feel that I am responsible because I am overweight. Fortunately, as stated by Deb, my doctor told me regardless of the weight, I would have become a type 2 diabetic because of my family history. I have a very supportive wife and family, but, I have chosen not to talk too much to others about it, ■■■ they seem to think, “Well Chris, is you would have only list the weight…” So, I found Tu Diabetes and feel comfortable here. There was a thread that was specifically talking about this issue when I first joined, can’t remember what it was called, but, some Type 2 members on here who have controlled their diabetes with diet and exercise, stepped up to say, it’s not your fault. I think we’re in the right place now, let’s beat this together, all of us!!! Chris.
you folks are better than a double dose of zoloft!!
I find myself saying this over and over, and will keep doing so until the “mythology” that we get diabetes because we get fat is debunked. I now finally understand why I began gaining weight 25 years ago and could not control that despite diet and exercise, and that was because I had insulin resistance, which, uncontrolled, CAUSES weight gain–not the other way around! If I had been put on metformin all those many years ago I bet the rent I would not have gained all this weight. And I might not yet have diabetes. It angers me to no end, but what really angers me is that the lie is still being told that it is the other way around.
I was on metformin for over a year with no weight gain. When I went on insulin. I gained 100 pounds over the next year. My problem is Peripheral Artery Disease, which makes my legs hurt terribly when I walk very far, so, I can’t walk it off.
So damn frustrating & infuriating!
Shaming people into believing they’ve caused their condition–makes me scream.
I get so tired of this mindset. I was slim and trim and fit all my life up until I quit smoking. I know–sounds crazy huh? I gained 50 pounds the first year I quit smoking. I was 40 years old and I reckon my metabolism went haywire. Probably due to age and not having the tar and nicotine in my system anymore, and who knows what else. I spent 8 years as a vegetarian and was vegetarian when I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. But–my mother had Type 2 Diabetes, and my Aunt, and my Granny, and my younger sister. Now that seems just a little more than coincidental to me. The Dr. said it was genetic. My Dr. today says my Pancreas does not produce Insulin, but I’m a Type 2 Diabetic. I don’t understand that, but it doesn’t matter. Anyway, the way I see it is I have Diabetes–Period. It is a very real disease, and all the why’s and wherefore’s don’t amount to a hill of beans. You know, they say a lot of folks cause cancer themselves from various things they do to their body–but it is a very real disease none-the-less. People cause lung cancer from smoking, liver cancer from drinking, heart disease from eating all manner of fried foods, and Oh, Good Grief! Where does it all end? Alcoholism is a very real disease. The human body becomes absolutely addicted to alcohol and cannot, will not function properly without it. The further the disease progresses, the less likely one is to make it out alive. It causes what they call a “Wet Brain” and if you’ve ever seen pictures of it, its nasty looking. People die just withdrawing from alcohol, because their body has become so dependent. This list could go on and on and on, but you get my drift. The human race brings all sorts of diseases upon themselves, and all we can do is argue about who’s the real McCoy and who’s the impostor. I am grateful for the family I have here on Tudiabetes. For the most part, we are all simply Diabetics here. Yes there are different types, but most of the folks here are generally accepting of one another.
Dear Timothy.
I tell the Dog, you are a Dog it is not your fault that is what God made you. This is also true for all types of diabetes. Remember when ulcers were your fault for being too hyper. Plus I think there is a possibility that a lot of the diabetes is autoimmune disfunction. High levels of insulin make you fat and fat makes high levels of insulin this is a feedback situation where it is not clear what is the cause and what is the effect. Everybody including myself tells me to loose weight. This is obvious. But the treatment they give you for diabetes insulin is a make fat drug. It is like treating an AA person with alcohol.
With this said it is still our responsability to try an keep our weight as low as possible, keep the blood sugar in the normal range as much of the time as possible and do as much exercise as possible. And at the same time accomplish everything else that normal civilians do. To do all of this requires a good morale so what they should really say: Gee you are wonderful for being able to juggle all these balls.
One could argue whether type 1 or type 2 diabetes is more serious till the cows come home. I personally have met a type 1 that appeared to be better off than I am and I have heard horror stories about other type 1’s including the inability to maintain blood sugar from going into the life compromising range.
Once you are on insulin or even not what is really the difference between the classifications. A better one would be mild, medium and difficult; depending on how much insulin you still produce and how insulin resistant you are. Also the tendency of Doctors to immediately label everyone excepts kids immediately as type 2. Not allowed insulin until your pancreas is totally dead does a great amount of harm to certain patients. I took at great costs increasing dosages of Avandia for 1 1/2 years with no beneficial effect whatsoever and this was because I was insulin deficient and probably not insulin resistant. The ultimate curse is to be insulin resistant and insulin deficient at the same time. In the past mythology it was demeed that only type 1 were insulin deficient and only type 2 were insulin resistant. Well not so, some are given a much heavier cross to carry by being both. And who cares if you are a type 1 with insulin resistance or type 2 with insulin deficiency.
My doctor insists on saying the weight brought it on but, I will say he is overweight himself and doesn’t purposely come across as judgemental. I think that is what he was taught and he passes that on to his patients. Not to worry I have enlightened him.
Which came first the chicken or the egg? Not that I doubt weight exacerbates the situation but, I think my IR brought upon the weight gain which in turn didn’t help matters. However, even if the weight came first, what good is it to make someone feel horrible and guilty? That doesn’t help in the least. Not to mention the very food pyramid set forth to help us only helped in leading us closer to diabetes. Let’s face facts - it’s carb laden and until recently never distinquished between refined carbs and non refined carbs. So, even if we followed their advice to the “T”, it isn’t exactly a diabetes proof plan.
Personally, type I diabetics have been only gracious, kind and helpful to me. Perhaps times have changed and we recognize that we have two different illnesses with a common thread? We need each other for support and there is strength in numbers.
It saddens me to think that anyone has been made to feel guilty about having diabetes no matter where it comes from.
I’m happy you have now found a home. 
~Danielle
Speaking as a type 1, I sometimes think negative reactions to type 2s from type 1s happen because we’re a teeny, tiny bit jealous that some type 2s have the ability, by losing weight, to stay off meds for a while and avoid the really difficult process of being a manual pancreas via shots or boluses of insulin.
And, because so much of the public is uninformed about the differences between type 1 and type 2, I’ve heard way too many infuriating comments about how I ate myself into this condition. Tell that to my 4-year-old self who experienced an auto-immune response that killed her insulin-producing cells! The fact that I still need to lose 25 pounds has nothing to do with it. And I also know rail-thin people who have been diagnosed with type 2 and very large people who don’t have it.
I know it’s not easy to watch total calories and carbs, get regular physical activity, and do all the other health monitoring necessary to make sure type 2 isn’t harming your heart, nerves, kidneys, etc. Also, because type 2 is a progression, almost anyone who lives long enough with it, whether thin or not, will someday need pills and/or insulin to help fight insulin resistance, blood pressure, etc.
The big thing that unites us: type 1s and type 2s can end up with the exact same complications.
I have to say I appreciate how the explosion in type 2 diagnoses has helped raise awareness of diabetes and, I hope, allowed more people to figure out how to best care for themselves and enjoy long, albeit more challenging lives, as type 1s or type 2s.
Sorry you get the guilt trip sometimes. I hope you find you don’t get that here!
I don’t feel guilty being diagnosed as T2 at all. For me, family genes is what got me here. No matter how much I exercise, diet, or take meds, T2 will not go away from me. Don’t think I brought it on to myself at all, I was the healthiest eater out of everyone I know.
I don’t feel Guilty at all. Reason being, when I was told I had diabetes I was a healthy size 8. My dad has it my be bop ( grandma) has it. So I guess it was just something that was meant to be. But I am sad to say that I have gained allot of weight. Depression of loosing a baby. My husband being gone all the time(Army) and the kids.
That’s the only thing I feel guilty about.
Dear Kelly.
Maybe in 1920 there was a difference, the diabetics producing no insulin would be dead in 8 months.
Dear Timothy. Dont even think of taking that s==t i.e. the zoloff even if depressed it will lead to increadible weight gain.
I saw a diabetic educator who said type 2 diabetes was most always preventable with diet and exercise. She made me feel bad enough not to go back. I know that’s not true but someone can still make you feel bad when they say that.