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The power of language when communicating with and about people with diabetes.

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Biggles2

Well-Known Member
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How we describe ourselves and our condition came up earlier in another thread on another topic. Rather than derail that thread, I will start a new one!
Language can indeed be a powerful motivator; it can also be a powerful demotivator. Diabetes Australia has a wonderful position statement on this topic: “A new language for diabetes: Improving communications with and about people with diabetes”:
https://static.diabetesaustralia.co...alia/e05133e8-a1eb-41a8-b5d5-a766b60ff8e0.pdf
 
Words are indeed powerful.
They can cause men to rise up armies to march and the words don't even have to be true.
 
Hi @Biggles2

Going to tag in a couple of guys from "down under"... @Tipetoo @Mike D

JTL said:
Words are indeed powerful.
They can cause men to rise up armies to march and the words don't even have to be true.
Click to expand...

The pen can indeed be mightier than the sword...
 
@Jaylee I refer to myself as a "type 2 diabetic", not a "type 2 diabetes". I know I could say "I have type 2 diabetes" but I am not politically correct, I call a spade a spade etc.

Diabetes Queensland has not rerun that article in either it's quarterly magazine or email newsletter here yet.
 
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Thank you for this, @Biggles2 . Choice of words can have an incredibly powerful effect.

I am (still, decades on, and admittedly probably ridiculously) haunted by the phrase 'good girl', whenever a blood test showed I was in range when I was a child. Not in range? Silence.

And going off-piste from diabetes, when at the time I had no experience of the mental health system I was told 'you are going to be sectioned', I absconded from the hospital, convinced I was going to be cut into tiny pieces. Nobody had explained what was meant by 'sectioned'.

Words are so powerful, aren't they?

Back to diabetes - there does seem to be an awful lot of pejorative language out there. Sometimes I hear 'naughty diabetic', 'wrong food', 'bad control'.

I'm happy to be termed 'diabetic', though.

 
I to am a type 2 diabetic. I struggle to write posts to others as it is but if I've got to add in what words and phrases I have to use then I simply will not bother to post anymore.

I don't know enough about diabetes to post advice so I only post in support as I don't want to offend anyone by using a WRONG word then I have no choice but to not,post.
 
Snapsy said:
And going off-piste from diabetes, when at the time I had no experience of the mental health system I was told 'you are going to be sectioned', I absconded from the hospital, convinced I was going to be cut into tiny pieces.
Click to expand...
At times I wished my crazy mother had been sectioned sanctioned.

Edit: better choice of words.
 
Shame their dietary info is cr*p tho. All these touchy feely words but still they say the "condition" is progressive and lifelong.. if the message is wrong however you say it it remains wrong..
 
bulkbiker said:
Shame their dietary info is cr*p tho. All these touchy feely words but still they say the "condition" is progressive and lifelong.. if the message is wrong however you say it it remains wrong..
Click to expand...
Given the lack of long term evidence to prove otherwise, you can understand why they are saying it though....
 
Many years ago people in the deaf community were called deaf and dumb. The language changed but when I was a child the signs in the hospital read 'Deaf Clinic', now they read ENT or Audiology. I never minded being called a deaf patient but we now use the term 'Hearing Impaired' simply for clarity as there are many levels of deaf-ness. Would I have minded being called a 'Deafic'? Yes, I think I would. Do I mind about being called a Diabetic? Hmmm... I havn't decided yet. Perhaps it is down to personal choice but it was personal choice that eventually changed the term deaf and dumb to hearing impaired si it must be a matter of consensus, I suppose.
 
I agree with @bulkbiker. The most discouraging piece of information is the statement that diabetes is a "life-time progressive" condition. While I personally have no major problem with the phrase "life-time", there seems to be enough evidence that it needn't be progressive (at least for some people with diabetes) -- provided you look for this evidence.

Personally, my GP told me that with an Hba1c of 100, there would be no choice, but to go onto insulin -- as no diabetic with blood sugars at this level would be able to control this with diet and exercise. It almost caused me to not even attempt a low-carb diet, which incidentally has been life-changing for me.

I really feel we tend to underestimate the importance of "Hope" as a motivator for life-style changes. Being told it is a progressive condition doesn't help.
 
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Hope can turn into action, which in turn can lead to different outcomes.

I find the "fact" that there is so much anecdotal evidence that reducing carbs works, and lesson 1.0 in common sense says a person with blood sugar issues should reduce this input, especially in Type 2's (the law of small numbers).

The argument about the scientfic model being the gold standard in relation to diabetes, I find disengenuous. A strong statement which I back by asking for the science and double blind studies which back the status quo for diabetes treatment, and come to think of weight loss (there are plenty of studies referenced on PHC which shows which approaches work for the majority when compared). The anecdotal evidence for the status quo worldwide I am confident enough to say has been a disaster even with mitigation and some other variables.
 
I am a diabetic, I am also a person with diabetes. I refer to myself as a diabetic. If anyone asks which type, I tell them. It worries me not whichever term is used.

What has always made me laugh/cry/shudder is on this forum when almost everyone calls their DN their diabetic nurse. That only applies if she actually is diabetic or a person with diabetes. A more correct term is diabetes nurse.
 
It starts off on the wrong foot by describing diabetes as chronic - which it might well be - but putting that in the first line of the article only serves to emphasis the way it is thought of and described by HCPs.
I realize now that the decision by my own HCPs not to see me until well into next year is why I am losing weight - because their attitude is that diabetes is caused by excess weight. I wanted to show them that even though I maintained my weight I could have good control - on a fairly subconscious level, I think - but I was really pleased by their baffled expressions when I stood on their scales and had lost only a few pounds.
Now that I have more energy and am often eating only a little before going out on some jaunt, I can't maintain my weight, I have to make the right choices of what to eat and as a result my weight reduces - I am not so resentful that I will deliberately sabotage blood glucose control to maintain my weight - I think that I have made my point.
 
Tipetoo said:
At times I wished my crazy mother had been sectioned sanctioned.

Edit: better choice of words.
Click to expand...
When they caught up with me, they did. But with the Mental Health Act, not the knife I thought I was running away from. A little explanation from the HCP who was using the words would have gone a long way.
 
IMO being a diabetic/having diabetes/living with diabetes is bad enough whout my also having to worry about whether my descriptive language regarding this is politically correct...

Robbity
 
I can't believe I have read all this really we are diabetics, which ever type we are I am sorry to have to say this, but stop being snowflakes, we have enough to deal with, numbers for everything, just saying
 
PS, when I say DN I mean it she is a T1 diabetic, and understands, what we are saying, since she was three, so when I had a night hypo quite low and ate my son's pick and mix, bloods were high in the morning, all she said was been there done that, are you BG down now, yes was my answer, and many more stories just like that. So what I am say let's just carry on talking about our, problems so others know they are not alone, and maybe just maybe help each other
 
I think the language is important for people who may have symptoms of diabetes, but out fear may not have sought a diagnosis. If words, and ideas instill a sense of fear, a person may decide not to seek medical help.
 
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