Also, I was just thinking… about an analogy (because I am crazy about analogies)… diabetes is sort of like an inside joke. PWD know “the joke” because we all experience it. The general public only gets to hear us talking about it but doesn’t really “get it” because they haven’t experienced it themselves.
Everyone who has listened to another group’s inside joke knows… it sucks. And honestly, you don’t want to listen to them laugh & be happy because you don’t know what the heck they are talking about. Even if you listen carefully & try to catch on, you won’t fully appreciate it unless they explain the background behind it.
SO… If PWD share their experience(s) with non-diabetics, then the ignorant folks begin to understand and appreciate the “inside joke” a little more than when they had no clue what was being discussed.
See, simple. Let’s let the cat out of the bag and explain to everyone about our INSIDE JOKE
To me, the key to getting other people to “come out” as having diabetes is to educate those who don’t have it or don’t realise what it is, how it’s caused and what it entails. When I was younger I didn’t exactly tell many people about my diabetes, but that was due to bullying and the fact that I’m a pretty quiet person anyway. Now however, I don’t care who knows it, I will happily show my pump to anyone and I test my blood sugar in public…but I wasn’t always like that. I think for other people who are in that situation, it would help so much if the general population wasn’t so clueless about diabetes…
It irritates me to no end when “educated” people believe that I have diabetes because I don’t exercise, eat too much junk and was obese at some unknown stage of my life. It’s even worse when you get to be subjected to patronising comments such as, “I read that cheese prevents diabetes…eat more cheese, it might cure you!” or “I know someone who used to be diabetic!”
For anyone who is newly diagnosed or just struggling to come out of the diabetes closest, I think the best possible way to encourage them to do this would be to educate the people around them so that diabetes is no longer the misunderstood mystery it currently is to so many people!
I agree, it’s not easy to come out of the closet, especially when you are the first in your family and circle of friends to have diabetes. Even if people say «I understand… It must be so hard…», you still feel alone and misunderstood.
But thanks to Tudiabetes, I realized that I’m not the only one out there to go through each day, counting carbs, exercising and shooting myself…
I must say that I don’t mind about my friends being aware of my disease. I prefer telling them to avoid prejudices… «Oh! She’s diabetic because she ate too much sugar…She didn’t took care of her health…» I must admit that I’m scared of such judgments. That’s why I tell my friends about diabetes and even give them a lot of details.
Having comprehensive and compassionate friends that you can trust helps a lot too!!
We shouln’t hide don’t you think? We have nothing to be ashamed of…
My 25 year old daughter went all through school with a diabetic kid. I was a room mother and volunteer always and never saw the kids react to it. His mom brought in treats for him for each party. It was just so alien and invisible. (I had no idea…little did I know I’d be intimately involved myself one day.) As far as I know, he never had to be treated for a low or needed any special attention…the kids never treated him any differently. My friend’s T1 daughter had all her friends looking out for her in school. She did struggle with lows but the kids would alert the teacher and she would drink juice and they would move on…no big deal. I would feel comfortable with Noah in school. As long as he doesn’t feel the need to hide it. What a milestone! Your baby in Kindergarten!
As I re-read the replies here, I had a brainstorm.
What if we could come up with a really good analogy of what it’s like to live with diabetes that people who don’t have it could understand? I think of having diabetes as having a lot of “overhead” because I have to think about it and plan ahead all the time. It’s almost always in the back of my mind no matter what. If we could get that idea across to those non-diabetic types, it might make it easier for more of us to feel more comfortable coming out of that closet.
I’m a marketing/advertising type so I’ll be noodling around on this one. Low carb noodles, of course.
the thing we have to consider is that many don’t want to be seen as different than any other person, but the downside of that is that everyone is different in their own way. we all have some sort of issue to go through, but we all are the same in a sense. if that makes any sense great. this goes for everyone, I mean who wants to have a label? I sure don’t but then again I have many labels just like the next person has in their life.
I am sitting here crying right now. I am T2 and about half in and half out of the closet. I have one coworker who knows I am dibetic and also knows if anything happens to me at work call my husband asap. I reconnected to a friend I have known since we were 4 years old. We are now 48. It was like we never lost touch but I did not tell her of my diagnosis. We talked about everything else including many very intimate issues but I did not want her to judge me. My step mother does not take it seriously and my husband gets grouchy if we do not have rice, potatoes or pasta at virtually every meal.
So my question is why bother coming out only to face daily obstacles.
Yes, I have had many an “old wives” tale told to me that if I watched what I ate it would go away. Or I had to eat at certain times otherwise I would die !!! I would be blind by the time I was 20 if I didn’t do what the doctors told me…they had no clue either !! Yes, I was diagnosed in 1954 (approx) living in Africa where nobody knew anything…these support groups are great and I too wear my pump proudly and am willing to tell anyone about the disease, if they ask !!
Sheila
? Have you ever tried to get in touch with Oprah ?? OMG, it is impossible…I would love to go on her show and tell people a thing or two about D - I am of course a veteran, but never claim to know it all…I think a lot is just good luck and good “genes”…also being very active as a younger person…
Sheila (dx 1954 or so)
Thank you! I’ve had diabetes for 15 years (I’m 26) and I’ve JUST signed up for 3 diabetes-related social networking sites. “I never knew they existed”…amen. I’ve been on dLife for a little while. One day I clicked a link from there and read a diabetes blog…which linked to a Reader’s Digest article… through which I found Diabetes Rockstar…which contained a post that “happened” to mention TuDiabetes! I’ve read about more diabetes related items within the last month than I think I have since diagnosis. Thank you everyone for your posts!
I agree… I don’t personally consider myself to be “in the closet” with D generally, but there is a limit to how much I share with my family. I am actually much more open with my friends. Among my family members, my older sister has been the MOST supportive out of everyone. I think that’s because she’s not judgemental - she asks questions because she’s curious, and just wants to know more, and somehow the way she asks them always comes across as non-threatening, it’s obvious she just wants to know things, and she’d rather ask me than to google it (which goes both ways, she has a weird form of migraines and I have asked her a ton of questions too). I wish I could say the same for everyone… I have the whole gamut in my family from know it all and think they know exactly what it’s like to live with T1 (even though I’m the only T1 in my family) to horribly ignorant (by choice, it would seem) and it’s really frustrating to deal with… so I sort of choose not to.
We have gotten to Sept. 15 on this topic. Sorry, I lost the place to respond to this one along the way. Hope you’re still listening.
Again today, I googled diabetes support groups, and again tudiabetes did not come up. Tudiabetes is a “social networking” group. Professionals and nonprofessionals may google diabetes “support groups”. They will not google a “social networking group”.
Likewise, all of us who have been in the health care field for a while look for “support groups” combined with the disease word. We check on their utility, and we tell people to look for support groups. It’s the term we use in health care.
Social networking groups are going to be found by the under 35s cause they’re used to them, but health professionals are not using that term.
I guess my point is, don’t think everyone is closeted. In a way, tudiabetes is hidden in a closet because of its name and because of its own “social network” label.
Tudiabetes has to jump the divide between “social networking” and “support group” before health professionals will have it on the tip of their tongues. Tudiabetes has to market differently to the health care professional. Tudiabetes has to show it is not filled with nonprofessional ideas to be acceptable to the health care professional.
The word “tu” in front of the word “diabetes” when googling “diabetes” stops tudiabetes from being picked up.
