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Are you Diabetic or do you have Diabetes?

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Lady Willpower

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Someone asked me this once and I said that I use both sayings. They said to me that, if you say 'I have diabetes' it doesn't rule your life, you just have it and that, if you say 'I am Diabetic', you have defined yourself by having the disease like it's the only thing about you. I wondered what you all thought about this and which saying you use? xx
 
For me I always say I have diabetes,Its far from the only thing about me mind you LOL.
I also cant stand calling it a disease and have always,always called it a condition.

What a fabulous thread by the way Lady x
 
Definitely I have diabetes - I am many things, orienteer, cyclist, duck keeper, cat lover, various professions / trades etc, but diabetic isn't one of them. 🙂
 
I've never had a problem saying either. It does define a part of me but doesn't limit my options too much. As the song goes... I am what I am...:D

Rob
 
Fortunately it doesn't really crop up that often for me to have to comment on it to anyone. But if I did, I'd probably use both terms because it really isn't that important to me.

But I always think of myself of being a lucky 'Type 2' in that, for the moment, it seems my problem was 95% down to insulin resistance. Since losing the weight, having diabetes hasn't really caused me any day to day issues. But, having said that, I know I am still a diabetic.

See what I mean? :D

Andy 🙂
 
i try to say graham has type 1 diabetes but sometimes i say he is diabetic i cant help it
 
I say either because neither bother me.......it's just part of who I am and always has been since I was a toddler
 
Both don't bother me in the slightest, we may have diabetes but it doesn't define you as an individual and if people can't accept that then its tough🙂
 
I probably use both terms about myself, although I do try to refer to others as having diabetes rather than diabetics because you can't be sure whether they might not like the latter term.

What I do find funny is the term 'diabetic' when referred to things that can't have diabetes e.g. all the stuff featuring in this year's Advent Calendar 🙂
 
Either it doesn't bother me at all to which I'm referred to..

At the end of the day, I have diabetes so I'm a diabetic, I'm a diabetic so I have diabetes.. It all means the same..
 
I suppose other conditions come under the same thing - are you an asthmatic or a person with asthma? Although you don't call people an allergic if they have allergies, or a haemerrhoidic if they have Nobby Stiles...😉
 
Being recently diagnosed, I have told people by saying "I'm a diabetic" rather than "I have diabetes". I think for me it's part of taking on board that I am a different person who can't do - and especially can't eat - the things I used to. And that it's a fact, and it's not going to go away.

That said, I'm still dozens of other things too (golfer, writer, etc). But right now it's one of the most important things I am, probably only behind father and husband.
 
I suppose other conditions come under the same thing - are you an asthmatic or a person with asthma? Although you don't call people an allergic if they have allergies, or a haemerrhoidic if they have Nobby Stiles...😉

Made me giggle Alan , tbh i use both terms never given it much thought really .
 
I've thought about this before, and usually prefer 'have diabetes' though I recognise that some days this means muchore to me than others.
 
I told a friend I am now diabetic, but never thought about the name to be honest
 
I couldn't care less, diabetic is far from the worst thing I've been called !

I don't believe either that 'I am defined' in any way whatsoever by being brunette, twice married, hazel eyed, fat, thin, over 60, an insurance broker, am a Francophile, like reading Terry Pratchett or drive a Citroen C4.

I suppose it does change your outlook in some ways, same as having your own car or being made redundant does.

Actual PWD annoys me - nay infuriates me actually !! Why use 3 words when you can use one? Couldn't give a stuff for any PC c**p frankly .... so just don't involve ME in it !
 
Don't really care whether I am a diabetic, have diabetes or suffer from diabetes so long as I get on with life. I certainly don't see myself as a "person with diabetes" but then I find a lot of this PC stuff OTT.... I would wouldn't I? 'Cos straight speaking has always been my thing. Dinosaur that I am!
 
I say both really never really thought about it.. It does take up a lot of time in my mind but I'm slowly getting better trying to just not really think about it and get on with things... 🙂
 
I use both phrases when talking about my son.

Some years ago though I went on a training course about 'Inclusion' to do with childcare. It was run by a woman with cerebal palsy. Both her speech and her mobility were affected, and she had BIG issues with being an 'ic' as she called it.

She went on and on throughout this course about not being 'ics'. "We are not 'ics', I am a person who has......." was what we had drummed into us time and time again. (Good old political correctness!)

This stayed with me for ages, making me feel so guilty about thinking of/referring to a child as asthmatic for example, but I became increasingly aware that the parents of the child concerned called him asthmatic, and so do plenty of other people, so though the little voice in my head is still there every time I use the phrase, I don't feel quite so guilty.

I have found myself readily referring to my son as diabetic, and it really doesn't offend me if people use the phrase, it's just how it fits into a sentence I feel, so no big deal.
 
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