What annoys me about it is i'll go on skype with me after school, just me and him and he'll be fine but as soon as i get to school he's a prat infront of all my other mates for some reason...
Hi
@alexwilko99,
It sounds to me like 'fear and loathing'... or rather, fear and misunderstanding... and many other things besides...
Perhaps, he's trying to be 'normal' and fit in - which is a relatively natural human desire that afflicts us from time to time - and all of a sudden his best mate is no longer normal. In fact, he's got this thing called 'dia... err... dia... *** ...die my hair? Oh, yeah, diabetes.' (Which is something to do with EMO and GOTH music yeah?)
Is it infectious? Could he get it too? I mean, you've probably both seen and heard a few things about obesity in children and adults and the rise of Type 2 diabetes across the UK, and the fact that sweets and coke and pepsi, etc., etc., are all being blamed for the rise in diabetes. And you used to drink coke, etc., and eat sweets and you've got this diabetes, so it MUST be your fault AND surely he's gonna get it too because he eats sweets and drinks coke, etc. So surely, if he stands near you or sits next to you in class, he's gonna catch it!!!
But, of course, what he forgets is that Type 1 diabetes is NOT caused by sweets, coke, etc., and that it's not catching.
And even if he doesn't really think or believe that, he's probably surrounded by other wannabe normals who are thinking and saying something like it and some of those will be truely ignorant and cruel and make a perverse calculation that if your body has a weakness (a defect) they can pick on it and make fun about it and forget their own emotional and psychological weakness and fears.
But what they are unable to compute and explain in words at this moment in time is that as much as a pain in the backside, arms, lengths, fingers, etc., as Type 1 diabetes can be, it actually makes you a stronger person. I suspect your friend is suffering from a complex range of emotions that he's unable to express intelligently and maturely in public and that he may not even truly understand anyway.
When you consider your misfortune from his point of view, once upon a time his best mate could just go out and play sports, etc., and eat and drink whatever you both fancied at whatever time. All of a sudden, you've got to stab your finger to check your blood glucose levels, then you've got to work out whether you can eat/drink that cake, etc., or go for that game of footie with your mates after school. And maybe, he feels partly responsible for you getting it or worried about how to cope if/when you have a hypo, etc.
I'm just guessing and throwing these thoughts at you, because that may help uncover what's going on in his head - which you shouldn't have to do because you're the one making the real life adjustments.
Has your school had anyone in to talk about diabetes - either as a whole school, year assembly or tutorial and class based session? It may be worth getting someone in to broach the subject with your friends, class mates, year group, so that people can air their ignorance, etc., and get to feel part of your journey... many of my school friends wanted to try blood testing and injecting! But, then, we were all a bit weird.
