Lived experience with diabetes – Jacqui

'The time' continues

It’s the time you sit, sweating and vague in a meeting, trying desperately to hold out for the last ten minutes so you don’t miss out or be seen to be lacking commitment.

It’s the time you subtly cover the front of your blood glucose meter, so people don’t see if your results aren’t perfect.

It’s the time someone whose second cousin, twice removed had diabetes feels qualified to offer unsolicited advice, as if you’re not already doing the absolute best you can.

It’s the time you get your best HbA1c in years, but your endo wants to interrogate you on why you had a reading of 14.0 approximately two months, three weeks and four days ago.

It’s the time a complete stranger at the tram stop asks why you’re drinking a diet coke over a regular, and when you explain you’re diabetic, he says ‘but you’re not that fat’ (true story).

It’s the time you feel eyes tracking you as you leave the disabled toilets, having needed the room and sink space to change your pump reservoir.

It’s the time you spent 45 minutes crying on the phone to tech support while they politely interrogate you to try find out what you’ve ‘done wrong’ to make your horrifically expensive CGM not do the job it’s meant to.

It’s the time you’re made to feel greedy negotiating for a higher salary, because you know diabetes has a lifetime cost of about $150k – and that’s without any complications.

It’s the time you feel guilty for getting your COVID-19 vaccine before aged and disability care residents, because really, ‘you’re not THAT sick, are you?’.

But most of all, it’s the time you realise how much energy you’ve wasted worrying about what people say or think. Because mostly, they’re not thinking it at all, or are genuinely just trying to help. And if they aren’t? Well, they’re hardly worth your time at all.

If you are experiencing diabetes stigma, there are NDSS diabetes and emotional health factsheets, peer support groups and our advocacy team to help with social and emotional wellbeing, these are some of the handy resources available for looking after your emotional health...

You can read more about diabetes stigma on our campaign website, Think again. Let’s reduce diabetes stigma.