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How diabetes campaigns can be damaging to the cause they aim to serve

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It will be an impossible job to change that entrenched view. Every newspaper, every TV channel, Radio channel, and lifestyle guru? It's not just entrenched, it's immovable.
 
That stereotype definitely exists, in the past it is an impression I have even felt from the @DiabetesUK Twitter account, though I cannot think of any examples at the moment.

But in professional contexts in general, there is a constantly linking of type 1 diabetes with something that happens to people through no fault of their own, whilst type 2 as often linked with obesity. So even without the suggestion of fault or blame, it exists. Both by contrast with the way type 1 is differently portrayed in this regard, but also that the obesity connection focuses on poor diet and not it being a genetic thing that affects some people through no fault of their own.

Whilst it may be totally unconscious and unintended, but no active effort is made to avoid this and consider those who are not obese.

But I feel it also exists within healthcare. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes but was not obese, so was immediately put onto Metformin and Gliclazide and given a glucometer. I then attended a DESMOND course. However the only good helpful about it for me was being constantly told how thin I was. Because I was not thin so that felt good, eve if it was only relatively.

The entire focus on the course was on diet to lose weight, though. Meanwhile my biggest issue was that I now was at risk of hypos so help understanding and dealing with them would have been useful. This was not covered at all, which was understandable when it affected no one else on my course dates. So it was something I had to work out and understand for myself.

Because I was prescribed a glucometer and told to test twice a day I did not even know that I was supposed to test whenever I felt one. I did not want to use up my prescription. I also struggled to understand why they were happening whenever they did, which caused anxiety and upset until I reached the point of accepting they cannot be explained. I have never tested after treating a hypo, I never knew you were suppose to do that until recently.

Even aside from the stigma of how the two types of diabetes are discussed, even the support for type two diabetes seems aimed at people who are obese. Again it may be unconscious and unintended, but again with no active effort made for those who are not obese.
 
First, there is the confusion with 'thin' T2s who are probably nearly all LADA but the medical profession is only slowly catching up and realising that viruses etc can cause beta cell death and hence T1 as well as antibodies during life. I don't agree about the stigmatising. I believe those who are seriously overweight and T2 need to be told, politely, that they really should adopt the right diet to maintain overall health and avoid long-term damage. They need to be given good diet advice and not the PHE nonsense and not just sent to WW or SW where weight loss may be by accident rather than design. The current politically correct NHS approach to not offending the obese is in my opinion not helpful. Once LADA is more generally accepted by the NHS then it will become more obvious that T2 really is a condition of being overweight together with genes and approached as such
 
all i was given was a Hba1c test nothing else to determine what type of diabetes i have. bet there are loads of t2 who are not been diagnosed properly and are just been rubber stamped to save money.
 
DaveB said:
I don't agree about the stigmatising. I believe those who are seriously overweight and T2 need to be told, politely, that they really should adopt the right diet to maintain overall health and avoid long-term damage. … The current politically correct NHS approach to not offending the obese is in my opinion not helpful.
Click to expand...

So you think stigmatizing people is being polite?

On another forum the current issue of people not wanting to wear masks was being discussed. Someone related it to an article written by an expert who was part of the effort to fight AIDS in the 1980s. They had said their success was by deliberately avoiding shaming or taking a stand against promiscuity but instead by positively promoting the importance of safe sex and making access to condoms accessible.

What are good examples of bullying working?

And what of all those who do make the effort to do the right thing, they are still being stigmatized too. Do they deserve it? Will they feel it is worth their while to keep trying when no matter what they do they still have to suffer public shame? Especially those whose weight is a result of genetics and not their fault. How dare they be born with those genes!

And what of all those who are not obese but also not LADA, are they just sacrificed to suffer the shame for something that is not their fault? Although it is the general public you need to educate, because that is where the stigma and shame comes from. I am sure many mental health charities will tell you how easy that will be. Although I doubt they would agree that in the face of public scorn the N.H.S. should be joining in rather than being supportive of patients.

But why are they to be politely offended anyway, because of the risk to themselves or the demands they put on a public health system? Do we need to offend mountain climbers, motorcyclists, and those who are pregnant too?
 
optomistically,perhaps the coming waves of sickness and economic depression will solve the issue!(/s)
although if you needed to portion blame on anything for T2 diabetes it should be on processed food and their substitution in place of more traditional whole foods without added fats ,sugar and the internal combustion engine...
 
It's ridiculous really - start off with T2 and your body gives you no symptoms whatsoever of high BG because you have insulin resistance and your poor overworked pancreas is chucking of shedloads more insulin to cope, and your body rewards you by laying down more and more fat ........ but you still don't feel iffy, so you carry on regardless and just invest in bigger clothes .......

You are FAT mate and that's why you are diabetic!!

All economic depression does is make more folk turn to cheaper food to feed the family - so when they discover frozen chicken nuggets are cheaper than buying a whole chicken and roasting it themselves .......
 
Strangely enough i was thinking about this only this morning. To date I have had nobody sit down with me and give me a few minutes to talk about diabetes. While i am here might as well share my story. My diagnosis was odd. Went to GP with knee pain, and told it was wear and tear. I asked if i could have a blood test for diabetes (both my parents had late inset), so thought i would get it checked out. A few weeks earlier I had had a finger prick at the chemist and that was 5.5 . The GP said, as I had no symptoms I couldn't have the test. True, i didn't have any symptoms and didn't need to.lose weight. I nagged a bit and she then said it could be done privately. I did that, the blood test results for all the stuff were ok. Alas they lost my Hba1c test result. They found it again and it showed 74. A 30sec chat with GP.You are diabetic, prescription for Metformin. Goodbye. Back to my ever so painful knee, couldn,'t sit or stand. Again, went privately for an MRI, hey guess what nothing to do with wear and tear I had torn my ligament. Some physio and all ok. Back to the diabetes, every finger prick i have done over the two years has been 5.5-6. Three Hba1c, first from private test -74, 2nd and 3rd NHS 39.9and 36. Can't turn the clock back but am wondering if i should have had a 2nd test after the 1st one? But was in so much pain with torn ligament. Didn't know know if i was coming or going.Now of course i have little faith in my GPs. Tried to change but they are all full. As i posted recently i had a telephone consultation with the GP, i was interested to learn how much the metformin worked with diet and exercise. Her immediate response was oh it is too soon early to come off it. Which wasn't what I had wanted to know. She is a youngish GP, but clearly no room for any discussion. I just left it at that. However, all the above just niggles a little. Finished.
 
So is the torn ligament 100% healed by now? and have you tried knocking off the Metformin and seeing what happens to your BG when it starts waning?
 
Ligament 100% fine. God was it painful. Took about 10 months. Only good thing learnt from the MRI my knees were fine no sign of arthritis or anything else. As for the Metformin reduction.Am slowly building up to doing it TBH a bit nervous, which is so stupid.When I build up the courage, having read what others are told by their GP, I was going to go down to three.I was put on four 2am and 2pm straight away.
 
Back in the early 1970s I was told to diet to lose weight as I was 147lb, and muscular. I could swing across horizontal ladders going hand to hand along the rungs. I was given the sort of diet sheets which start with porridge or cereal with skimmed milk or wholemeal toast and low fat spread.
It made me feel ill, and I gained weight - I was told I was eating the wrong things, and as time passed, that I was cheating, that I was lying, that if I didn't start to do as I was told that I would be denied all care by the NHS, later on I was told that I would have to eat carbs (after starting to insist that I could not eat carbs) or I would lose my baby, that my child would be taken away, that I would be taken to be fed properly, that I was delusional and dangerous - this was over a 40 year period and a number of different doctors. I have seen doctors furious, red faced and spitting with rage at my claim that carbs made me feel unwell.
In the face of that I ended up at 64 years old weighing 264 lb when I just stopped weighing myself as it was too miserable. The diet was supposed to be for reducing cholesterol - which it didn't and I was almost spherical and felt so old. At 65 I was diagnosed with type two and knew what I had to do.
People who are still giving out the 'eat healthy carbs' message ought to be stopped - for the sake of those who need to cut down on the carbs in order to be well and maintain normal weight and energy levels.
 
That is one of the most defiant and uplifting posts I've read in a long time Drummer. I bet you've outlived most of those early advisers!
 
Personally I was really pleased to see that one of the areas Diabetes UK is really wanting to focus on as part of their next 5-year plan is reducing diabetes stigma.
 
Cant say i have ever felt stigmatised for being a diabetic in the last 40 year of being a diabetic ,even injecting in public,though it would have been nice if the government had given diabetics some sort of hardship payment after telling us all to shield before they backtracked
 
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