Explaining which 'type'

Good Idea to have the speech prepared.
You can cover all the usual questions in one go.
Hana

Depends on the situation I suppose, never really thought or worried about it. I've never made a big point of telling anyone, unless logic/circumstances dictated otherwise e.g. employer, DVLA etc. Maybe I did at first but I think I'd remember as I can still (just) recall my youth... 99% of the time it doesn't affect anyone else but me, so is really none of their concern? As you say Deb, random strangers on the bus remain blissfully unaware!

I tell anybody who asks, the only way to get the message over that we are Diabetic.....not 'freaks'.

I certainly don't lecture unsuspecting stranger's, however I was once spotted injecting in a restaurant and the guy asked what It was I was injecting......he was then treated to a 10 minute lecture on that and Diabetes in general....turned out his wife was Diabetic on oral meds and he was very interested, so he was pointed in the direction of this site Diabetes.co.uk. Job done.

It's a breakdown of the bodies Chemistry, that's all. Nothing to get hung up about and certainly nothing to hide as some do. As for the different types, that too is fairly simple process so I don't need a script or a speech prepared.

Deb - "need to know" for me includes those doing the occasional/celebratory/festive cake rounds, normally approached along the lines of "how DARE you just walk straight past me?" etc! :lol: Best done in a Catherine Tate (Derek) style of course! :lol:

I don't need a speech my 2 boys(5+6) let the world know for me strangers family anyone who makes eye contact. It's great that they know whats what except the youngest likes to tell everyone "my dad injects in his fat hairy butt hee hee" they have there plan in place incase I fall over they've taken to coping with diabetes better than me

I like to tell everyone and everyone, because there is far too much ignorance within society. I hate the fact that books, magazines and media publish diabetes as a cause of obesity. I am far from obese, and people think it is my lifestyle that has caused my diabetes. I wanna scream at them sometimes. It's a small minority that have type 1 diabetes - approximately 250,000 in the UK and the amount of type 2's roll in at over 2.5million. Big difference and people should be made aware.

I tell them that i was born with a defect in my body (the pre-disposition) and that it's assumed that a virus triggered my immune system to attack the beta cells in my pancreas, leading to me producing no insulin, and currently it is incurable so i have to inject 4 times a day. I tell them that the majority of diabetics are type 2 and that this type is generally a result of poor lifestyle.

There needs to be more awareness of the facts about diabetes. I really hate the thought that there are many people in society who could simply alter their lifestyle and never have the disease. If I had been given the oppertunity to do that, i'd have accepted it with open arms. If more people were aware then perhaps less lifestyle inflicted diabetes would occur. I wouldn't want anyone else to have to inject everyday for the rest of their lives or worry about any complications that could occur with the disease.
Making awareness would also create more acceptance. I inject in public. I have the disease, I don't like needles, it's totally necassary for my survival, and I don't want to go to a manky toilet to inject. I've been gawped at as if i'm an insane druggie getting my next fix and i've been looked at with curiosity. I've also recently found out that my collegue's girlfriend thinks that i'm disgustingly rude for injecting in front of her. If more people knew about it, less people would have this opinion and more would be accepting of the fact that diabetes is an increasingly common disease. In my opinion, it is ignorant not to discuss the disease.

I've never really thought about it,if some-one needs to kown then they get told about my condition, I certainly never felt the need to have a pre-planed speach about diabetes or provide a lecture on the condition...

My children who are now young adults, have always kown mum to be a diabetic and all from a very young age knew how to get help if they couldn't wake mum! They never been one's to broadcast my diabetes but there again it's completely normal to them to them mum's came the same way as I do, I've never been ay different to other mums in the main, we did as a family all that other famlies did/do...

Wow.... reading through this thread it would seem that even some Type 1's have a narrow awareness of Type 2 and see it as a "lifestyle disease".

If you think about it rationally, if Type 2 was a lifestyle disease, an overeating couch potato, then surely every obese individual would be a Type 2?

20% of Type 2's are not overweight. Some of us have a predisposition within our family. Some are diagnosed after a long period of stress. Some have other illnesses that bring on the diagnosis as do some other medications, (steroids is a good example).

No one, whatever their type, asked for diabetes and I am quite saddened to think the myths concerning Type 2, prevalent in the media, can be accepted by a Type 1.

I agree with what you have said and feel quite upset . It would seem that at least one poster thinks that we have brought this on ourselves which, for me and many others, is not the case . As a newly diagnosed lady of 62 with diabetes in my very close family who eats a very healthy diet and exercises , I am still in some shock and confusion over it all and am saddened by this attitude . I thought that I was joining a forum which would help, not prejudge so its goodbye from me !

Debloubed said:

in the same way that 'some' type 2's think type 1's have to low carb etc, we're all in this together as far as I'm concerned and should take the time to learn from one another

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What an excellent comment......learning AND tolerance......that's what it's all about. We can ALL learn from each others experiences, whether Type 1 or Type 2. There should be no divisions, no them and us !

We are all Diabetic's, however that came about. We are ALL special in our own particular way.

kateincornwall said:

I agree with what you have said and feel quite upset . It would seem that at least one poster thinks that we have brought this on ourselves which, for me and many others, is not the case . As a newly diagnosed lady of 62 with diabetes in my very close family who eats a very healthy diet and exercises , I am still in some shock and confusion over it all and am saddened by this attitude . I thought that I was joining a forum which would help, not prejudge so its goodbye from me !

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Kate.

Please don't let the opinion of one very young person cause you to leave. One person who has an opinion you don't agree with. Just post your opinion and stay to get the help and support that the majority give out.

This forum is the best on the web for a Diabetic, varied, factual and full of helpful people. You will always find opinions that are not to your taste, don't judge everybody else on here by ONE comment. We will never get everybody to agree - this is life. Opinions vary, if we don't agree we either ignore it and move on or challenge that way of thinking.

If everybody left because somebody said something that upset them this place would be very different, no discussion, no banter, no facts and figures. We would all still be left in the dark to deal with our Diabetes with no help at all.

Stick with us Kate.

i have a lot of sympathy for the post from Rebecca , it is difficult in my mind to compare my 4 year old type 1 daughter with an adult with type 2 who in many cases (not all , but still a large number) has allowed the condition to develop.
Sometimes it seems from posts I have seen types 2's aim to be upgraded to taking insulin so as to legitimize there condition.

However there are loads of great posts on this site and some good natured debate does no harm.

It does seem unfair though that types 1's (and the minority of type 2's) are viewed as causing their own condition through poor diet / no exercsie when that is not the case

Wow, what a can of worms just opened! Just one question: why is it ignorant not to feel obliged to launch into a diatribe about the condition(s) with anyone and everyone who can be bothered to listen? That's anything else, but certainly not ignorance. I also pay little attention to what others might think of me, which really is their problem not mine.

This thread has highlighted an issue that I've sometimes thought about, which is the classification of the diseases: given that there are so many differences between the types of diabetes, is the only reason they're lumped together under the one title of "diabetes" the overlap with some of the physiological aspects, symptoms, treatments etc? There often seem to be more differences than similarities? Possibly why tempers get frayed so often in forums such as these? I know a great deal about Type 1, but considerably less about Type 2 and would never dream of offering advice on the subject specifics. Just a thought.

I was diagnosed 6 years ago as type 2 my own fault as far as I'm concerned I was hugely overweight ate to much **** & drank to much. I'm now type 1 and underweight anyhoo I could'nt believe the massive difference between the two