Gosh, I love baking a cake! It’s excellent therapy, super relaxing and is one of my favourite stress busters. I can pretty much guarantee to turn out something that not only looks Instagram-pretty but will also taste divine. I’ve written before that one of the reasons I love baking so much is because it is the exact opposite of diabetes: I know precisely what I’m going to get when I follow the steps of the recipe, and know enough that when I’m making things up as I go along what works, what doesn’t and what will yield the best results. Which is the polar opposite of diabetes, where following a ‘recipe’ guarantees nothing but confusion, frustration, and a completely different result to yesterday, and making it up can mean winding up with a rollercoaster or a straight line on the CGM. No one knows. It’s a mystery. It makes no sense to anyone.
Next week is National Diabetes Week here in Australia, and focus is going to be on diabetes-related stigma. I’ve spent a lot of time in recent weeks involved in the preparation of our campaign, listening to people with diabetes share their stories. You can check out this post on the Diabetes Australia Facebook page to see people sharing some examples of stigma they’ve experienced. It’s heartbreaking. It shouldn’t be happening.
I am very conscious that in the past I’ve probably contributed to stigma associated with type 2 diabetes. I’m horrified by it, and ashamed. I should have known better, and maybe if I’d bothered to learn from people with type 2 diabetes, I would have been more sensitive. When we blame and shame diabetes, we are blaming and shaming real people living with diabetes. I seemed to have forgotten that when I thought it was okay to demand that my diabetes was seen as the more serious diabetes, and that people make sure that they get my type of diabetes right.
And that brings me back to my cakes. And cakes in general. And comments about cakes. Especially comments about cakes being ‘diabetes on a plate’. They’re not. We all know that, right? And we all know that they are not any type of diabetes on a plate. Right?
And we know that when some idiot on a cooking show refers to a delectable, rich dessert as ‘diabetes on a plate’ that demanding clarification about ‘WhAt TyPe Of dIaBeTeS yOu MeAn’ is only contributing to the stigma. Right?
Right?
Stigma sucks. It really does. It makes people just want to curl up and hide from others, and hide their diabetes. It makes people feel ashamed and guilty and, really, that’s just not fun at all.
We don’t all need to love each other in the diabetes world – god knows that there are people who steer clear of me, and I am more than happy to return that favour – and we don’t need to align our advocacy efforts. But maybe we can all agree that all stigma associated with any type of diabetes is pretty nasty. That actually seems like a pretty simple thing upon which to agree.
That time I wrote about this (and then a HCP misread it as me saying PWD don’t need to know what type of diabetes they have. It doesn’t say that…)
That time I owned my own shitty behaviour.
That time I wrote about how heavy diabetes stigma is.
Diabetogenic 
7 comments
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July 7, 2021 at 4:40 am
CM
And they all look fabulous!
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July 7, 2021 at 9:21 am
RenzaS / Diabetogenic
Thank you!
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August 28, 2021 at 2:15 am
Mosiah
Diabetes stigma is real. However, what do you think of recent rise diabeteetus jokes? Is issuing issue a disclaimer beforehand enough. Am a fan, and i written about them on my blog; but where should we draw the line?
Nonetheless, diabetogenic is stimulating (to say the least) a much needed conversation. By sking the right questions we become aware that we are as much victims and instigators of this stigma. I also like your specificity in spoting overlooked aspects of diabetes stigma – Keep up!
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July 7, 2021 at 11:52 am
Rick Phillips
Stigma occurs to some extent in every chronic disease community. In he Arthritis community RA is top dog. You say that you have osteoarthritis, you are stigmatized, You know take some aspirin and leave us alone. Have a nasty case of Fibromyalgia maybe you need a therapist. Think you have Lupus, we have a group for that.
Stigma is just awful. Like diabetes each of these types are portals to the same general end. Be it Type 1 or Type or Type 9, we all end up with the incapacity to process glucose.
Types are human classifications because we deal with types better than a whole. First it was the animal kingdom, now it is diabetes and other diereses. These classifications lead to one thing tribalism in the patient population. Its the tribalism I hate.
Our tribalism shields us form the one truth. We all cannot process glucose properly. Diabetes is one disease with many front doors.
rick
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July 7, 2021 at 1:20 pm
Min
I agree totally, but I am in 2 minds about this. I worked for a chef who was huge, bless him, beautifully so. He lived on crap,junk food, high fat, loads of sugar and drank like a pirate, as well was a head chef in a stressful job. I watched him guzzling water all day over a week and told him “mate I think you may have diabetes, would you like me to check you bsl”? He said “BS, as if”. As I am Type 1 I knew the symptoms, I then asked him are you doing this?, and this? and that? rattling off all the symptoms. He said yes to all. I then got out my BCM, threw in a new needle since the one in it had been used on me for the past decade, hahahahaha and low and behold his bsl was 22. I said “mate, off you go to the doctors, you have diabetes”. He was devastated and broke out in a sweat, but did what I asked.
He then went on a health kick, a strict whole foods diet, and took out the pirate habit. He shed 30kgs within 6 months and BINGO, he was no longer a Type 2 diabetic. While I have great respect that all diabetes are diabetics I wished in that moment that my diabetes was the type you could cure by cleaning up your life style like in this unique example. So while I support with respect all diabetes, I always remember the day I felt jibbed with the shitty Type 1 diabetes in this experience, stigma or not, I did feel like that.
I also find myself saying “I have Type 1 diabetes”, because now I am old and round and its assumed I have Type 2 but yes I once was a 5 year old child with diabetes. The fact that I state I have “Type 1” suggests that stigma is real and experienced a lot by all diabetics. The things people say to me about my diabetes is infuriating, I just pull people up in the moment and educate them. When my friend said to me “how many years have you had diabetes and you still don’t get it right” after having a unconscious night hypo, she was replied with best you google type 1 diabetes, and I’m here to tell you that its never right even after 50 years of practice.
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July 8, 2021 at 10:10 pm
smcunningham4
“I am very conscious that in the past I’ve probably contributed to stigma associated with type 2 diabetes. I’m horrified by it, and ashamed. I should have known better, and maybe if I’d bothered to learn from people with type 2 diabetes, I would have been more sensitive.”
I am also in this category. Next month, I will have had diabetes for 20 years. I will have been in solidarity with type 2s for approximately 10 years. I am absolutely ashamed of ignorant things I have said in the past, but now know better and advocate for everyone. Even at work, my supervisor has T1D and three of my colleagues have T2D. All of us take insulin. All of us receive inconsistent and non-comprehensive care from our corporate-provided health insurance. All of us receive promotional materials that do not apply to our treatment plans. In the United States, we must also work on the stigma in terms of misguided medical care and health insurance problems. Is this an issue in AU?
Thank you, again, for the work you do.
Sonja
P.S. your baking looks INCREDIBLE!! What a great hobby!
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July 29, 2021 at 4:33 pm
Type
Stop the stigma! Understanding diabetes stigma and what to do about it
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