Open letter to public health professionals and others who are trying to destigmatize a condition:
Stop defaulting to diabetes as a comparator.
Stop filling in the blank like this when talking to the media:
Having ---------- is just like having diabetes.
a. opioid addiction
b. depression
c. obesity
None of these things are just like having diabetes. Here’s how you can tell: If you were put on a desert island with food, water, shelter and nothing else and would you die in a few days from your disease? No? Then it’s not just like diabetes. So pick another disease, please. I hear arthritis is available.
They have good intentions in equating mental health and substance abuse with physical illness, but your right. No two illnesses are the same. We are lucky to be less stigmatized, but we are also stigmatized in many ways. I identify with many people with varied chronic illnesses, personally, because I think that their experiences are similar to mine. Often they seem better able to relate to my condition that the average Joe. I think this is the start of an interesting discussion. What chronic conditions do you identify with?
I don’t think they know how offensive this is to people with diabetes. I had words with my grandfather’s girlfriend because she compared alcoholism to having diabetes. I cannot TELL you how PISSED that made me. I didn’t give myself diabetes, but I bet sure as anything that you were the one who picked up the alcohol bottle. I was so incredibly offended.
Yeah, I hate that one. Came up for me in an Al Anon meeting–parents of addicts. The fact that needles are involved makes it a favorite for people when they’re talking about addiction as a disease, particularly the intravenous kind. It was actually my wife who interrupted the nodding approvals going around when the “I mean, diabetics have to use insulin, how is this any different?” thing came up–I was initially too p.o.'d to speak. I kept it civil, but pointed out that NO ONE would “use” insulin if they didn’t have to, I certainly never chose to do this, it was never fun, I get absolutely no thrill or euphoria or other psychotropic effect except when I’m having a hypo and then it feels horrible, and I sure as hell don’t crave it–I’d vastly rather NOT have to use it but I am forced to because if I stop I’ll die.
I’m sympathetic to the whole disease metaphor thing, but there are limits. I think where it makes me angry is the fundamental fact that substance abuse begins with taking something that is pleasurable, you started doing it in the first place because it feels good. But no one would use insulin unless the disease figuratively put a gun to your head. “Social drinking” is a thing; “social insulin injecting” is not. It never feels good; it’s scary and uncomfortable and we do it so we don’t die. Period. Full stop
Diabetics: The only ones who take drugs NOT to get high, LOL.
I’ll play devils advocate for a second because I have heard comments due to the heroin epidemic, about using syringes in public. Someone approached me and said that there were people in the coffee shop where I was reading, that were getting the ‘freak outs,’ from seeing me inject insulin. The barista who approached me was, himself, a type 1 diabetic and was trying to advocate for some individuals from the recovery community that were there because they had complained to him about it. I am trying to pay more attention to being discrete, but force of habit, I tend to not do a very good job and its more of an issue now than it used to be.
Many, many people end up on drugs due to physical injury or trauma backgrounds. Some people say that autoimmune disease, like type 1, can be a secondary effect of trauma. I, personally, would much rather be a diabetic, than survive some of the childhood trauma that many, many people endure. There are much harder illnesses than ours. Period. I am grateful that I’m not treatment resistant bipolar. Some of them live the most tragic stories and have NO adequate treatment options. Here is a radio episode that discusses this, its interesting to hear the range of perspectives on this matter. (see min 8:30 to hear where they talk about hypoglycemia.)
As people who want our illness understood, we should make an effort to have empathy and understanding for conditions other than diabetes. As an epileptic, I would be happy to talk about how different of an experience it is to have a condition that cannot be measured, is not always treatable, has significant side effects associated with medication, and breaks ones brain. Come on, Friends. We have great capacity to understand the physical challenges of others. There is less excuse for us to misunderstand those challenges.
I think I’m reasonably sympathetic to the struggles of addicts due to my daughter having been an intravenous heroin user for 13 years (clean for nine now). I had to make a similar accommodation to her when she was in recovery, as you describe here, about not leaving my syringes out where she could see them or injecting when she was around. I was happy to do it.
Wow, DrBB, didn’t picture you as old enough to have a daughter that age. You look thirty-something in your tiny pic. Congrats on photographing well. Maybe the addicts/alcoholics are a bit frustrated by being compared to us. Someone should ask them. We can be less than cool, except for Mr. Brimley. He is always cool. Craig Ferguson 11/23/11E Late Late Show Wilford Brimley XD - YouTube
a b c cureable a. don’t do it b. cheer up c. don’t eat so much. diabetes not cureable . big difference . I wish
I had a b or c even cancer can be cured sometimes . this is till death.
agree Captain . no one really knows what triggers this probably in genes . wish I could cure this just by not
doing something I certainly would do it. just another non diabetic person talking ^^^^ . they should thank god
every day they haven’t got it yet. but some will get it themselves. when they do get dx and Dr. or nurse comes
in office with needle . their heart will sink and they will know their life will never be the same.
My fav diabetes video. But, if you relate to that, you really should listen to the bipolar episode of This American Life. It’s a very amusing account of ‘scaring the ^^^^ out of hospital staff,’ that I find highly relatable. Been discussing the difficulty of ‘escaping’ from the hospital in a separate post. No real great options, as of yet. You might be able to contribute something.
