The Truth Behind Diabetes Stereotypes

Have you experienced any of the following scenarios?

1. The "Too Much Sugar" Scenario

You're enjoying a large piece of chocolate cake and someone comes up to you and says something along the lines of, "Hey, are you sure you should be eating that? Isn't sugar bad for you?"

2. The "What Did You Do To Yourself?" Scenario

You're minding your own business and someone comes up to you and asks, "You have diabetes because you ate too much sugar and didn't exercise, right?"

3. The "Let's Rate Your Disease On A Scale From 1-10" Scenario

You're explaining about Type 1 to your friends and one of them asks, "Is that the good diabetes, or the bad diabetes?"

4. The "My Internet Search Trumps Your Diabetic Knowledge" Scenario

You're at a party and a family friend starts talking to you about how they read somewhere that eating cinnamon does wonders for blood sugar levels. (*eye roll*)

5. The "Let's Comment On Your Body" Scenario

You tell someone you have diabetes and they look you up and down and say, "WOAH! You don't look like a diabetic!" 

6. The "Is That A Video Game?" Scenario

You're testing your blood sugar with your meter and someone confuses the machine for a video game.

7. The "Is That A Nicotine Patch?" Scenario

You're wearing your Omnipod on your arm and someone sees and asks, "Hey, is that a nicotine patch?" (*bangs head against table*)

8. The "WHAT?? YOU DO DRUGS??" Scenario

You're doing an injection and someone sees the needle and assumes that you're injecting something illegal into your arm (Right. With a medical pen. *eye roll*), OR you say "I'm so HIGH", referring to your blood sugars but someone assumes you mean... well, the other kind of high.

I can pretty much guarantee that every T1Diabetic has played the main character in any number of these scenarios at least once in their diabetic careers. These kinds of things happen, people say those kinds of things and make those kinds of assumptions all concerning people with diabetes because of this annoying thing I like to call a diabetes stereotype.

A Brief Moment in Anne's Diabetic Dictionary

DIABETES STEREOTYPE; noun

Pronunciation: dye-uh-bee-tees steh-ree-oh-type

1. A stereotype, generalization, assumption, cliche, and/or standardized idea/image concerning one or more person(s) with Type 1 diabetes.

Cause: An extreme lack of advocacy.

Used in a sentence: "Type 1 diabetics can eat sugar. A lot of people just think they can't because of a diabetes stereotype."

(to the right is a picture of a sugary food that I, as a T1Diabetic, can eat)

This Has Been a Brief Moment in Anne's Diabetic Dictionary

Diabetes stereotypes exist because there are a lot of people who have no idea what Type 1 is or that it even exists. That lack of knowledge is caused by lack of advocacy.

Let me explain.

So many people don't know what Type 1 diabetes is, but everybody knows about Type 2 diabetes. If you don't live with Type 2, then you obviously won't understand everything about it, but everyone has heard of Type 2 and knows that it exists. 

Since practically nobody knows what Type 1 is, when you tell someone that you have diabetes, they associate it with the only kind of diabetes that they're familiar with: Type 2 diabetes. 

1. The "Too Much Sugar" Scenario

Type 2 diabetes can be caused more by lifestyle and diet, and T2Diabetics have more restrictions on what they should be eating. Too much sugar is actually not healthy for T2Diabetics (just as too much sugar is not healthy for anybody), and that is something that non-diabetics associate with Type 1 diabetes as well.

So, when a non-diabetic sees a T1Diabetic eating sugar, and all they remember about diabetes and sugar is that they shouldn't mix, it makes sense that they would ask about it.

2. The "What Did You Do To Yourself?" Scenario

Again, if Type 2 runs in your family,  lifestyle (lack of exercise) and diet can be a trigger for it. When this is the only cause of diabetes that a non-diabetic has ever been exposed to, it makes sense that it would be the first thing to come to their mind when they hear "diabetes."

3. The "Let's Rate Your Disease On A Scale From 1-10" Scenario

After having only known about Type 2 diabetes for their whole life, a non-diabetic who has just learned that there's another kind of diabetes might think that one is better than the other.

4. The "My Internet Search Trumps Your Diabetic Knowledge" Scenario

I don't have anything to say about this except that whoever is telling you to eat cinnamon only wants the best for you and knows not what they do.

5. The "Let's Comment On Your Body" Scenario

Because Type 2 diabetes can be caused by diet and lifestyle, T2Diabetics are stereotyped (yes, there are also Type 2 diabetes stereotypes *eye roll*) as being overweight. Non-diabetics who associate being overweight with diabetes expect all diabetics to be overweight. Since Type 1 diabetics aren't necessarily going to be a certain weight, non-diabetics who have that expectation and meet a diabetic who is at a healthy weight are surprised and make comments.

6. The "Is That A Video Game?" Scenario

This happens because meters look like video game consoles. There isn't much to say about this.

7. The "Is That A Nicotine Patch?" Scenario

Again, this happens because people don't know what insulin pumps are because they don't know what Type 1 is.

8. The "WHAT?? YOU DO DRUGS??" Scenario

This one actually makes me laugh. A non-diabetic seeing a diabetic giving themselves an injection and immediately thinking "Oh! That must be narcotics!" Again, using a medical pen? Seriously? I honestly don't have an explanation for this.



Most of these diabetes stereotypes form because the general public does not know that Type 1 diabetes is a thing. That's up to us to change.

It's called ADVOCACY, my friends! Standing up and making your voice heard so you can educate the people around you! When people ask questions about your devices, answer them! If people give you strange looks while you're doing injections, explain what you're doing to them! If you get placed under any of these stereotypes, yell out the truth!

If we use our voices, we can END the freaking stereotypes! So let's do it.

Let's end the stereotypes.



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