It's all a matter of preference, but I never truly thought about it until someone posted in a diabetes group on Facebook that she is upset that her nurses call her a diabetic; rather than, a person with diabetes. This really made me curious. What is the difference between being a diabetic or being a person with diabetes. Obviously, we both are taking insulin and checking our blood sugar - so what divides the label?
Maybe, it is just that. It is a label - calling yourself a diabetic is just like saying, I am a blonde, I am a female, I am Canadian. Whereas saying you are a person with diabetes is like saying I am a person that owns a dog, I am a person that attends University, I am a person with a car. Both can be reversed, I am a student/ I am a person that attends University. Either way, it's all a matter of preference.
However! I don't think that it is quite the same for most people, one person may gladly switch up being a student and attending University, but when it comes to the 'diabetes' issue - there really usually is one preference.
To get a good idea of where people sat on this issue I took a poll on Facebook. I realize it isn't the biggest range of people, but I thought that is better than me trying to guess what people prefer. I found that out of 22 people 20 of them preferred to be called diabetic, where as only 2 preferred to be called a person with diabetes.
I think that being called diabetic is somehow a way of identifying yourself to a particular thing. With that, you are accepting all of the other labels attached to it. Of course, if you are a type 1 and like to be called diabetic, you are probably adding that in every single time you say it as well. "I am diabetic . . . a type 1 diabetic!"
I fully admit that I prefer to be called diabetic, and when I say prefer, I don't mean I would be offended if a person told me I was a person living with diabetes. But, as far as when I explain myself, I always say that I am diabetic. I think that if I were to write a list of 10 things that I am, diabetic would be high on the list. It's one of those things that I feel is a huge part of my life and in a way it is apart me.
Kayla
I used to say I was a diabetic. Then I switched to say I'm an insulin dependant diabetic. But because there are so many type 2 diabetics out there, I now say I am a juvenile onset type 1 insulin dependant diabetic. Yes it is a mouth full but it is me. I've gotten a lot of uninformed people telling me I cannot have juvenile onset diabetes because I'm not a child. That I have to have type 2.
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