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Are you insulted...?????

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I understand completely Amigo. I have a friend whose grand son is autistic and another whose son is. They are both gorgeous boys and I agree, if I heard anyone speak of them like that they would get a slap from me also. But people do and do not think how insulting it is. So maybe making people aware when they call people with diabetes, diabetics, they might just think twice about describing someone else with another condition by the condition they have. We are people who have certain conditions.
 
When I was in hospital, I certainly didn't expect to be referred to 'as the diabetic in the end bed'.
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Bingo.

Once you are a 'something', rather than a person with something, you stop being a person. You can then be lumped into a group and then it becomes much easier for someone to write 'diabetics are costing the NHS billions' etc.

I don't have an issue with the adjective but I've major problems with the noun.
 
I don't like the word suffer being applied to me. But I think part of the problem is the way the meaning of this word has subtly changed over (probably) centuries. My elderly Oxford dictionary defines it as 'undergo, experience, be subjected to.' All,of which are true. There is a King James biblical quote 'Suffer the children to come unto me' which is usually translated in modern editions as 'let the children,'
Maybe wording needs to take into account the modern connotation of there being pain or disadvantage.
 
I wouldn't be insulted - FFS there are plenty more important things to be bothered about. I do agree with everyone about the 'suffering from diabetes' bit though as I don't 'suffer' from it. I wouldn't make an issue of it though. I've always said it's not an illness, disease or disability - simply a medical condition that can be managed. Yes, it can lead to disability but I don't agree it is a disability in itself. I think some people with diabetes don't help themselves or everyone else with it by banging on about these things.
 
I prefer to express displeasure about things that matter more than terminology, such as people having to wait too long for medical care, letters that are frightening (being told you have background retinopathy, without proper explanation), failing to be offered education to manage their conditions etc. But I don't like being described as a diabetic.
 
My pancreas is absolutely diabetic - I'm not sure eg my left foot is though, or my right boob, etc etc.

However i don't really care because as far as I'm concerned it doesn't alter the fact of who I am any more than it does if I wear trousers or a mini skirt - I am still ME. If someone else can't see any further than eg that I'm also brunette (and all brunettes are ? whatever?) - then that's THEIR loss not MINE - and worrying about it - even discussing it! - is just a total waste of MY valuable time - so I don't !

I cannot see any advantage of changing it to 'PWD' - what a complete waste of words - 'at this moment in time' - ie NOW. I have 'suffered' with it at times - but surely the WHOLE point of controlling the damn thing - is to AVOID 'suffering' - why else are we blooming well bothering!

Be better if the letters etc simply said Do you HAVE diabetes? -cos we all definitely do, no argument !
 
Insulted? Constantly. Dismissed. Condescended to. Excluded. Never insulted by the word diabetic though.
 
It is just a convenient form of wording. I have diabetes but am not defined by, I just ignore the wording because I can't think of a better way of phrasing it for ease of reading or writing.
 
Stitch147 said:
Not at all. Yes I am diabetic!!! Why would I be insulted about something like that?! One the other hand if the letter said you are fat!!!! Then I might get insulted by that one!!!
Welcome to the forum.
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Does not bother me, it is just for information in my mind. Quite a few colleagues refer to it regular, such as "he can't have the cakes. It's his diabetes", but at leaast they think!
As for being called "fat" - My nurse recently told me I was moving from the morbidly obese to the fat b'stard stage! I loved her honesty and humour, but I reckon a lot would complain.
 
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It's strange really because for all that arthritis is one of the most common medical problems, you never hear of people being called 'arthritics' in the way you do 'diabetics'.

Oh and I'd proceed carefully Diabeticliberty or the boob might be yours! Don't venture where angels fear to tread! Lol :D
 
My highly esteemed diabetic brethren you all obviously misunderstand me completely. Inside my Spiderman pyjamas beats a very sensitive heart. I have before now been compared to a rare and fragile flower that could be lost forever on the faintest breath of wind.


Alright enough of that. Come on then Jenny me darling get em oot purely in the interest of diabetics research you understand 😱
 
Diabeticliberty said:
My highly esteemed diabetic brethren you all obviously misunderstand me completely. Inside my Spiderman pyjamas beats a very sensitive heart. I have before now been compared to a rare and fragile flower that could be lost forever on the faintest breath of wind.


Alright enough of that. Come on then Jenny me darling get em oot purely in the interest of diabetics research you understand 😱
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Amigo reaches for the smelling salts! 😱 Lol....(Spider-Man pyjamas indeed. We'll need photos)
 
Well I for one do suffer from being a diabetic every day of the year because if I had not been put on a certain insulin back in the early1980s that caused me to have fits when hypo and my GP nor anybody else listened to me - I could hear my neck creaking if I tried to look left or right and I finally got chance to see a new consultant, on my first appointment he sent me to X ray and I waited and took the results back to him, he put me on to Humalog and Lantus straight away, the fits stopped but left me with so much wear and tear on my cervical vertebra that I am certainly suffering from being a diabetic.

I am a diabetic and there is nothing I can do about it, I just accept it and get on with life as I do not have a choice.

jusme
 
I don't like the term 'diabetic'
I *really* don't like the expression 'suffers with/from diabetes' or EVEN WORSE 'diabetic sufferers' (double noun-ing).

But I do not get very ranty about these things but actually deep down I think they are kinda important in how we are perceived and how we perceive ourselves. Oddly where I have mentioned my preferences I have sometimes been jumped on by people who, almost as a reaction to the furore, actively rant in favour of 'diabetic'.

For me it is about putting the person first, and the condition as an aside/afterthought - but I understand that language is often habitual and change takes time and at the end of the day it's not one of the bigger battles we have to fight.

It is interesting though, when I was working on the Guideline Development Group for NICE how careful their editors are about language. Always preferring 'adults with type 1 diabetes' and actively avoiding using terms like 'patient'.
 
Thanks for all the responses everyone. I've been sharing them with the staff where I work (all of whom get a hard time from this patient when they book in) and will once again have a word with my boss about re-wording our practice reminder letter. Unfortunately I can do nothing about the letter the patient receives from the diabetes eye screening services. Interesting to read everyone's views.
 
Like a lot of folk here, I object to the word "suffer", which in modern usage is entirely inappropriate for a (theoretically) manageable condition. But that is the way people think. It's the same kind of thinking that always fixes the word "battle" to "cancer".

I don't like the word "diabetic" as a noun, it's silly, and lazy. (You wouldn't describe Mo Farah as an athletic). And it defines me in a way that I don't want to be defined, it reduces me to a disease that owns a person, rather than the other way round.

But I can't be bothered getting that worked up about it, I've got better things to worry about.
 
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