Awareness

Its About Time…To Raise Awareness of Diabetes!

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This week, I’ve been lending my voice to Diabetes Australia’s National Diabetes Week campaign that is calling on earlier detection of both types of diabetes. It is a campaign that I am really, really proud to support.

As a person living with diabetes, previous campaigns have been difficult to stomach. They’ve often focussed purely on the serious side to diabetes. While these campaigns understandably carry a political agenda for things like greater funding and improved outcomes for people with diabetes, they often lack one crucial element. Audience participation from people with diabetes.

People with diabetes want nothing more than to raise awareness of diabetes during diabetes week. What I love so much about this year’s ‘Its About Time’ campaign (and last year’s, for that matter), is that it hits the right balance of seriousness while also encouraging those of us living with diabetes to raise our voices and promote greater awareness of diabetes.

The type 2 campaign launched on Sunday, calling on everyone at risk to get their diabetes screenings, regular bloodwork and checkups with GPs. This is especially true for those over the age of 40, those who may have a family history of diabetes, those with a waist measurement of over 40 inches and many others. If you know someone who might be at risk, encourage them to get their diabetes screening! There’s also a free calculator that will help you to assess your diabetes risk here.

People can live with type 2 diabetes for up to seven years before it is diagnosed. The onset of symptoms are relatively slow compared to type 1, and many people still feel normal until the condition has progressed further and complications may have developed. Most of these complications would be preventable with earlier detection.

The type 1 campaign launched today, calling on everyone to know the four ‘Ts’ of type 1 diabetes – Tired, Toilet, Thirsty and Thinner. 1 in 5 people are still presenting to hospital in a life threatening state of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) before being diagnosed with type 1. DKA and hospital admissions could be prevented with earlier detection of the four Ts from both our peers and our healthcare professionals.

One common argument that I see in the diabetes community, and one that I’ve certainly been guilty of in the past, is that type 2 diabetes takes focus away from type 1.

I see this campaign as something that brings the whole diabetes community together.

I think we can all agree that no matter the type of diabetes we have, we would all benefit from earlier detection. However we were diagnosed, I think many of us would still be able to find something small that could have been done better through a greater awareness of those signs and symptoms.

I truly believe that Diabetes Australia are doing a fantastic job at championing people with diabetes. Perhaps I am slightly biased as I have been involved with them in the past, but I truly believe that this is a brilliant campaign.

Let’s shout diabetes awareness to the rooftops!

Fellow people with diabetes, this is our week!

Type One: Breaking Misconceptions With Humour

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I don’t do Wordless Wednesdays, because I feel like I’m ripping you off of a blog post.

However, I feel that today’s entrant is a very worthy contender.

Landis got in touch with me last week and shared her web series, Type One with me. I enjoyed it so much that I felt compelled to share it here today.

Type One is about a young man, Matt, who has type 1 diabetes and is looking for love. Landis and her co-creator, Mike, both have personal connections to type 1 diabetes in their lives. Their web series uses comedy to break the common diabetes misconceptions and stereotypes, and if the first episode is anything to go by, they’ve done a smashing job.

It’s only an eight minute episode, and it’s well worth a watch. Look out for the part where Matt so casually pulls out his meter and insulin pen on a first date – I was hysterical.

Landis and Mike are hoping to raise enough money to film seven more episodes. You can check out their fundraising page here, which also features a Q and A with Landis and Mike.

Raising Awareness and Smashing The Stigmas

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I’ve found a few excellent statements and initiatives amidst this year’s disappointing National Diabetes Week campaign (which you can read more about here). I really was tempted to retweet and endorse them on Twitter earlier in the week, but couldn’t for one reason alone. Again, most of these words were printed on that depressing collage of sad people with eye patches and other diabetes complications. I will not endorse that. We should not be telling people that a life with diabetes is depressing. That a life with diabetes is black and grey and white. And that a life with diabetes is a death sentence.

The first one, #WalkWithD, comes from a group of advocates called Partnering for Diabetes Change. There are so many stigmas out there about diabetes. Like the other day, for instance. I disclosed my diabetes when booking my climb of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I was automatically asked if I needed to have some lollies and pointed to the direction of the kiosk. And truth is, stigmas like these simply come from a general lack of diabetes awareness. Even my family, as much as I love them, won’t understand what I go through until they actually walk a mile in my shoes (and I hope they never have to). But by reading this blog, I hope they will have a better understanding. Share your story online and use the hashtag #WalkWithD.

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The second one is #TypeAll.  I think this one was a hasty counteraction from Diabetes Australia after people voiced that the National Diabetes Week campaign was too focussed on type 2 and “prevention.” Nonetheless, its still a simple, clear cut message. I support ALL people with diabetes, no matter the type.

And my favourite one, Diabetes Queensland’s #BGLSelfies. If you read yesterday’s post, you can see my selfie and the story behind it. The message is simple. Don’t be afraid to test. And don’t be ashamed of the numbers. Proudly hold up your meter showing your BGL test result, snap a selfie, and share it on social media with the hashtag #BGLSelfies. Its really empowering.

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Finally, go over and like Diabetes Queensland on Facebook. Its been by far my favourite social media page to follow during National Diabetes Week. They’ve created a very people powered feed, with lots of positive stories, awareness messages and general inspiration. Australia, we need to see more of this please!

National Diabetes Week may be coming to a close, but raising awareness and smashing the stigmas certainly won’t.

Enough With The Scare Tactics and Blame Games

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I’m disappointed with the approach that Diabetes Australia has taken towards this year’s National Diabetes Week campaign. You need only have a read of that poster to see that it paints a great, big sad picture of diabetes. A great, big sad picture of me and the 1.1 million other Australians living with this disease. And yet another diabetes stigma that I will have to combat. Another 280 people will be diagnosed with diabetes in Australia today, and that poster doesn’t give them much hope for a healthy life.

Look, I honestly get that type 2 diabetes is preventable. And if there’s something that we can do to reduce it’s impact on other lives, then I’m all for it. But I think in the midst of this campaign, Diabetes Australia may have forgotten that some of their audience following this campaign are people with already diagnosed diabetes.

And as a person with already diagnosed diabetes, I absolutely hate reading such demoralising statements. Diabetes is NOT a burden that I “will have to spend the rest of my life managing 24/7.” Its not a great burden on me, and most certainly not on my family. I can confidently say that I’ve done and achieved everything that I would have done regardless of my diabetes. If diabetes was a burden, I certainly wouldn’t have graduated from uni, travelled, worked and adventured. Hell, how would I even be able to get out of bed in the morning?

Yes, there certainly are days where diabetes does feel somewhat of a burden. But its the last thing I want to be told. Hearing those words out loud is demoralising. Its a put down. It’s enough to remind me, to reinforce to me those more difficult aspects of diabetes. It’s enough to make me lose my motivation. Its enough to ruin a good day. And I certainly wouldn’t even consider walking up to a friend and saying, “I feel so sorry for you, you will have to spend the rest of your life managing diabetes 24/7.”

And when that poster brings up the growing epidemic of diabetes, it just screams of the blame game. It seems to imply that its our fault. That we are doing something wrong. That somehow, I, and everyone like me, are a part of the problem. In the case of type 1 diabetes, I made my message loud and clear in yesterday’s post. There is no definitive cause to type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is not caused by a lack of exercise, a bad diet or unhealthy lifestyle. Its not my fault. Its not my family’s fault. It’s just another card that I’ve been dealt with to play in life.

And in the case of type 2 diabetes, an unhealthy lifestyle certainly isn’t the sole cause either. Things like genetics, family history, age, gestational diabetes and even ethnicity can play a part. And let’s not forget that some of those lifestyle factors are out of our control too. Things like slow metabolisms and actual chronic conditions that inhibit activity. And in the cases where diabetes may be caused by lifestyle factors, playing the blame game does very little to empower the newly diagnosed patient. And playing the blame game doesn’t help them in coming to terms with their diagnosis.

And then there’s the lovely list of complications. I’m haunted by the thought of complications. Every time that I’m not feeling right, I worry that maybe I’ve done something wrong. Every time that I see a bad reading, I think that maybe, just maybe, I’ve pushed my body to its limits and caused some kind of irreperable damage. I still get scared to this very day. And I’m in my twenties. What about all the poor type 1 kids out there who have to see these horrible images. What about the poor parents who have to go to bed at night with those horrible thoughts, worrying for their child’s future.

I don’t want to hear that I’m going to develop complications. I don’t want to hear that diabetes is somehow my fault. And I certainly don’t want to be painted a great, big sad picture of what my life will not be.

In my opinion, there’s a much better way of doing it.

Give me a campaign that empowers me to be healthy. Give me a campaign that empowers the whole world to be healthy. A campaign that uses great big words. Words like Conqueror. Warrior. Dominator. Gladiator. Survivor. Show me what a healthy life is capable of. Show me what a healthy life with diabetes is capable of. And make me want to go out there and be as healthy and happy as I can be.

HBF Health Insurance in Western Australia have the right idea. They have a fantastic marketing message that goes something like “it’s amazing what a healthy body can do.” Just check out their Facebook page – its flooded with bright, colourful images of healthy people, tips and advice for living well.

I would really love to see a campaign like this next year. I have the utmost respect for Diabetes Australia, but enough with the scare tactics and blame games.

Diabetes Australia’s National Diabetes Week 2015 runs from July 12-18, 2015. To find out more about the ‘280 a Day’ campaign and how you can get involved, click here.