What do you call someone who has diabetes — a diabetic or a person with diabetes? The distinction may not sound like a big deal to you, but to those with the condition, it’s the difference between living with the disease and letting the disease control their life.
Indeed, being labeled a diabetic can be hurtful, says Evan Sisson, a certified diabetes educator and associate professor of pharmacology at Virginia Commonwealth University. “Referring to someone as diabetic implies that they’re nothing more than their disease,” he says. “It’s telling them that their diabetes defines them as a person.”
Instead, referring to them as a person with diabetes is a better way to recognize that although they may have diabetes, that’s not all they are. “It’s preferred because the connotation is that he or she remains a person first and foremost who happens to have diabetes,” says Michael Bergman, a diabetes specialist and professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center. “You wouldn’t define someone by the color of their eyes, and you shouldn’t define them by their disease.”
There is a stigma associated with diabetes — especially Type 2, which is often the result of poor diet and exercise habits, as well as being overweight. Using the term diabetic reinforces this stigma, Bergman says. “It blames the person for having the condition,” he says.
And while diabetes has evolved to be a manageable condition, it can still be accompanied by a host of serious complications, especially if blood sugar levels aren’t kept in check.These complications can include everything from kidney disease and blindness to amputation and heart disease, which, for those affected, can further contribute to feelings of blame or failure — feelings that labels can exacerbate.
“People want to feel a part of the crowd, not different from it,” Sisson says. “That feeling goes all the way back to grade school.”
And speaking of grade school, Type 2 diabetes — which used to be a disease of adulthood — is spreading to the younger set at an unprecedented clip, thanks to the childhood obesity epidemic; in fact, 1 in 3 kids born in the year 2000 could be diagnosed with the condition if trends afoot aren’t reversed, K.M. Venkat Narayan, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist estimated in 2013. Calling kids “diabetic” could lead them to feel like outcasts in school, inflicting damage on their self-esteem at a “very tough age,” Sisson adds.
Of course, not everyone finds the term diabetic offensive, says Sisson, who likens the term to the name of the NFL’s Washington Redskins. “For a long time, that name wasn’t a big deal,” he says. “But times change, and now it means something completely different. It’s the same with diabetes.”
Manny Hernandez, who runs an online community for people with diabetes, has lived with Type 1 diabetes since age 30 and belongs to the camp that isn’t offended by being called diabetic. However, he no longer refers to himself that way and doesn’t use the term to describe others anymore.”There’s no need to alienate anyone living with a condition that’s already stigmatized.”
Adopting more sensitive language is rooted in more than political correctness. Perhaps the most surprising consequence of labeling people “diabetic” is that it may actually worsen their disease, Bergman says. “It makes the disease a source of shame,” he says, “which can lead to the rejection and denial of the disease, demoralization and worse [disease] management, since the individual wants to be accepted and normal like others.”
Doctors, too, are guilty of perpetuating the D-word, and should work to correct-course, Bergman says. “When I address patients, I do not refer to them as diabetic either,” he says. “This makes it much easier to establish a relationship as it puts us on an equal footing rather than pointing out a handicap.”
Ultimately, when talking to someone with diabetes — or any condition for that matter — it’s important to remember that you’re just talking to another person. “If you remember that,” Sisson says, “the fact that they have diabetes becomes a nonissue.”
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Why ‘Diabetic’ is a Dirty Word originally appeared on usnews.com
