Peoples knowledge of diabetes

I was wonder if anyone has ever had the experience of peoples misconceptions about diabetes? Such as when you blood sugars high someone offers you a coke. Or act like an insulin pump is a bad thing. Or that someone who is diabetic is sick all the time. I just want to tell these people to get with the times. Some many people are diabetic and some people who are not act like it’s the worst thing ever and have no ideaabout what diabetes is. I am sorry to rant but was just wondering if anyone else has had similar stories. I really had someone say to me that your diabetes is so bad that you have to be on an insulin pump! A pump is a good thing not a bad!

yess…especially with…well old people…they say with diet and exercise i can be cured…hello! like we all havent tried that…i mean come on…this makes me wish that i had a pamphlet to throw at uneducated people entitled…“type 1 vs type 2…yeah thers a difference…now get with the times”…lol

Yep, all the time. Think we’ve all experienced this & it’s frustrating. Sometimes I try to educate people (keeping it simple). Sometimes I’m not in right frame of mind & try to ignore the ignorance.

What’s worse is that people with diabetes are given misinformation by doctors & other healthcare professionals. I’m constanly dismayed & angered by what members here relay. Not just bad healthcare, but outright stupidity from people who should know better.

Yes, especially everytime I go to my home country. There are still many misconceptions over there, mostly from rural communities and older people. First, very few know the distinction between type 1 from type 2. Many recognize diabetes as the stereotyped obese. older and somebody who eats too much sugar. Another,is many insist on medicinal or herbal plants can cure diabetes (the likes of Bitter gourd, okra, or a veggie called Moringa Oleifera) I do not discount whatever medicinal capability of the plant however, many insist that taking/eating them cures diabetes. There are even GPs that includes rice in the “vegetable” portion of the food pyramid.Sigh…There is so much to edcuate, inform or corect…sometimes I try to do so (Im a type 2) but I also get tired of repeating myself over and over again.

Yep. Yesterday at my in-laws. A niece relates how she knows someone on shots - who doesn’t have “it” as bad as me because he’s just on shots, not a pump. My father-in-law who relates how he doesn’t have it as bad, because he just takes 1 pill per day. He’s pre-diabetic T2.

this is exactly the reason i never tell people i’m diabetic. after 50 years of successful control i simply don’t need it. that’s why only my wife, my kids and my doctors knows. i’ve never told anybody at work; went through my school and college career without telling anybody and all is well. it helps that i’ve never run into serious trouble.
diabetes has never prevented me from achieving anything in life (including a stint in iraq) and it has never stopped me from accepting a challenge. so … the less people know the better.

Thank you all so much for sharing. I still cant believe how ignorant some people can be. It is so nice to have this site to share experiences and know that I am not alone. Thanks again for sharing!

Ive only had it for a week and a half, but I’m already encountering ignorance, even in my own family-- I learned a great deal about the disease (i have type 1) by cramming information about everything. My parents this thanksgiving would freak out every time I’d go for a particular food-- ‘are you sure you should have that’? Etc…

I put it pretty bluntly after it happened enough times-- I basically told them I know a lot more about it then they do, that I can make these choices on my own, and will continue to do so up until I think they know more about it than i do. They havent said anything since, and I think they warned my siblings not to make any comments. I wasn’t rude or anything just forceful, they’re my parents so i understand why they’d worry even when they dont know what exactly they should be worrying about.

So while people’s ignorance annoys me as it does you, we all have our ignorance on different things – i try to treat other peoples ignorance forcefully, but with understanding-- as 99% of the time they don’t actually mean harm (even if they’re causing it).

Whenever I’m out with my sister and I sigh, or cough, or whatever, she goes “are you o.k? Is it your Diabetes?” It would be funny if it weren’t so annoying.

lol that is actually pretty funny… well, up until it starts happening to me that is