How bad is diabetes?

One thing that struck me every time you saw a photo of Bradley was that he was always smiling. Sure we only saw a small fraction of his life. But what we saw was a young lad living his life as full as he could. Despite the tragedy of his short life, he seemed to have a positive life.
This emphasises the point that mental outlook makes a huge difference - as much as physical illness.
Unfortunately, with diabetes, it is the physical disease which is usually treated and, unless we shout (scream?) for help, the mental, emotional side is left for us to sort out alone or with our friends and family if we are lucky.
Many people on this forum have shown how thinking positively and wanting to overcome the trials that diabetes throw at us, we can make our diabetes management better. It makes me feel that diabetes can be (or lead to) a disease of the mind as well as a disease of the body.

Not to be the bad apple in the bin but...

I've worked with families like Bradley's and the one thing I can truly say, hand on heart, is that all this media attention, all that money, all these well-wishes, all this turning him into a media star will not help them a single bit in coming to terms with his loss. It's a deeply private, incredibly personal time and the media have been feeding on that family for months and months.

There are many families in a similar situation, and they're all doing the same things with their kids that Bradley's family did with him. But they're doing it without the insensitive lens of the cameras following their every move, and, consequently, their ability to process and move through the grief of losing their children is made somewhat "easier" in that there are no celebrities and politicians to reply to on Twitter, no journos asking how they feel, no pack of paparazzi at their children's funerals.

Frankly, what happened to Bradley's family (and Charlie Gard's) was a travesty and I found the whole thing disgraceful, distasteful and distressing.

But, also, this thread is veering dangerously close to disability porn:


As others have noted, it's not about "Well it could be worse" - peoples' troubles aren't comparative like that. We each get what we get and we get along best as we can. I think it's a little maudlin to find inspiration in someone else's challenges.

Sorry.

therower said:

Hi @AloeSvea . I'm neither right nor wrong in what I post on this forum, it's only my opinion. Likewise I have no desire to undermine or criticise your or anyone else's opinion.
Occasionally a post or thread or response evokes a reaction to which we feel a need to respond. If we didn't respond and give our opinions there would be no point to a forum like this.
Fully admire your response to my somewhat knee jerk reaction earlier in the post.
Hopefully we can continue our fight together as friends.

P.S. You still have the greatest Rugby team, it hurts, but it's true.
Have a good day.

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I could not give two hoots about rugby. Just saying.