Living With Type 1 Diabetes
I have type 1 diabetes, I was diagnosed 12 years ago (at the age of 12) and to be honest it sucks. I have to constantly monitor my blood sugar, inject insulin upwards of 6 times a day and factor it into every single decision I make in my life. Type 1 diabetes requires a totally different approach to every aspect of life - you cannot ignore it, you cannot switch off. If you do, you die.
As Louis Philipson, MD, PhD, director of the Kovler Diabetes Center at UChicago Medicine says “People with type 1 diabetes are making roughly 300 more decisions per day than someone without type 1”. It’s stressful, it’s anxiety inducing and often exhausting and depressing. That being said, it’s just the way my life is and I’ve accepted it. I don’t know any different and I’m at peace with it.
In fact the main issues I face as a type 1 diabetic isn’t actually health related, it’s to do with other people’s perceptions of the disease and the common confusion between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is the more common form of diabetes. Roughly, one in four people develop it in later life as a result of diet and lifestyle choices (that being said, anyone can develop type 2 diabetes - I don’t mean to suggest that all type 2 diabetics have made unhealthy lifestyle choices). It results in your body not producing enough insulin, or being more resistant to the insulin it does produce. It can often be regulated through a change in diet and lifestyle.
On the other hand, type 1 diabetes (which is what I have) is an autoimmune disease which occurs when the body's own immune system attacks and destroys the insulin producing cells in the pancreas. Insulin is the hormone with which the body processes sugar, turning it into energy - therefore type 1 diabetics cannot process sugar themselves and have to inject insulin in order to stay alive. As stated on the NHS website “There are no lifestyle changes you can make to lower your risk of type 1 diabetes”.
These types are related, but they are clearly quite different. However, they are often bundled together, and due to how common type 2 is (about 90-95 percent of all “diabetes” cases in adults are type 2) when people refer to “diabetes” they are almost always talking about type 2.
This conflation is understandable, however the mainstream lack of awareness of the different types of diabetes means type 1 is almost never discussed as a separate entity.
It’s not just members of the public that repeatedly make this mistake, whilst on the Today Program Minister for Care at the Department of Health and Social Care Helen Whateley declared that “there are very serious health consequences of being overweight, including a greater risk of diabetes”. Whateley is trying to spread an important message - being overweight does increase your risk of developing serious long term health conditions - but by saying “diabetes” instead of “type 2 diabetes” she is merging both types into one catchall term which is totally inaccurate. Not great for a person responsible for health policy in the UK.
But why does it matter if people use the incorrect term? Unfortunately diabetes has a bad stigma attached to it - there is very little sympathy towards sufferers of the disease. People love to make jokes akin to “if you eat that [insert unhealthy food item] you’ll get diabetes”, but in reality anyone at any stage in their life can develop the serious and life shortening disease that is type 1 diabetes, no matter how healthily you live your life.
Not only are type 1 diabetics the butt of many a joke, they are the butt of many a misinformed joke. This can lead to years of hurt for no reason other than sitcom writers, comedians and classmates being too lazy to inform themselves on a disease before exploiting it for laughs. Most sufferers of the disease are diagnosed as children, and to constantly hear jokes from TV, films and peers ignorantly taking the piss out of a disease which will probably lead to many health complications, and is most likely life shortening is, to put it bluntly, shit.
I suppose what I’m asking for in this article is that people are just a little more considerate when talking about “diabetes”. It’s more than just an easy punchline for food related jokes, it’s a serious, multifaceted, incurable illness which takes a huge amount of physical and mental energy to manage. Your ignorance hurts, and the joke’s old now.
Written by Daniel Brashaw
Dan is a freelance writer and musician who is currently living and working in Bristol. You can find him on Soundcloud and Instagram and check out some of his written work here.