Juvenile diabetes vs. type 2 diabetes?

Question

Do any of you T1 Diabetics become frustrated with being grouped with type 2's?? Something you couldn't help, vs. someone who maybe could have prevented?
I know that some of the type 2's aren't overweight and had healthy lifestyles and **** happens...but do you get mad when a fat type 2 is b****ing about having to take a "pill" vs. the shots you must take in order to live?

Answer 1

Yes. She was dx with T1 at age 3 and the assumptions from people that accompany the dx of a child are that I must've fed her chocolate cake for breakfast with yoo-hoo chasers. It's maddening.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

I'm a type 1 and I get really frustrated when people assume I have type 2. People think that I can't eat anything with sugar and need to watch out for sweets. What they don't know is that my beta cells in my pancreas are completely dead - so all i need to do is give enough insulin to make up for the amount of carbs i eat. So I hate explaining that I can eat anything. Another thing I hate is when people ask me "when were you fat?" Then I have to explain to them that my type of diabetes is an autoimmune disease that I couldn't help - and then they get all confused. It's actually amazing how much people don't know about diabetes. I even know some type 2 diabetics that know nothing about type 1. They usually think I have the same problem as them. A lot of people don't even know what a pancreas is, what it does, or where it's found in the body. I guess there isn't much I can do about peoples' lack of knowledge.

Answer 5

I am constantly frustrated at being lumped in with Type 2's, so I just wish they'd give us another name. But the bottom line is, we are only 5% of the diabetic population, so they get most of the research, resources, and new developments. Actually, only 50% of Type 2's are overweight, so I don't really care if it's a fat or skinny Type 2 I'm being lumped in with, I just get frustrated that it's assumed you're Type 2 if you say you're diabetic, and I get tired of constantly having to correct people, but that's all they hear about. As for Type 2 being preventable, I've kind of let go of that idea. Let's face it, nobody asks to be diabetic, nobody wants to be. Eating too much and not exercising enough are vices for most people, including me. Most obese people do not develop diabetes. So I try not to judge anymore...we are ultimately all in this together.

Answer 6

Ok I'm not type 1, but I can really sympathize with the frustration for type 1s.



I can remember when hardly anybody knew about type 2 and assumed that all diabetics were insulin dependant and ready to die any day. We had home meters by then, so it's not like it was 1920 or something.



I remember too when type 2s used to get pissy about there not being separate magazines for the different types and not wanting to waste their money on articles that 'didn't apply to them'. They couldn't care less about insulins or syringes, and complained often about diabetic recipies with sugar in them. Times change. Quite a few type 2s also take insulin now, and boy do they want to know more.



I've even had people tell me my doctor is wrong about me being a type 2 because I take insulin. They have zero medical education and want me to take their word over the endocrinologist because they 'know' about diabetes.



With all the media attention on type 2 these days, not many people really understand that there are differences, and there are similarities too. Some people even seem to think type 1 is some kind of newly discovered type of diabetes (I know one person who thinks type 1 is caused by taking insulin and insurance should stop paying for it,after all, in her opinion, people can loose weight other ways). Makes you want to go bang a head on a wall, trouble is, deciding whose head (yours or theirs).



I even ran into a lady who insists that all diabetics are allergic to sugar and just need antihistamines.



I don't typically answers questions concerning type 1 where the differences are important (like how to figure insulin for a meal) since I don't have any direct experience with that (I know a little bit about it, but hardly enough).. Still, it amazes me how many people advise noninsulin type 2s to adjust their insulin for every meal or look into getting a pump (makes me believe those people don't have either type or they'd know why the answers are wrong).



Worse are those who assume that because their doctor has them on a certain medication or insulin dose, that all diabetics should be on it too and if not they should sue their doctos for not doing their job.



I suppose there are similar frustrations in every health problem.

Answer 7

Generally, one talks about genetic inheritance, when disease passes on a definite predetermined pattern, as in the case of hemophilia or muscular dystrophy. The inheritance that is not predictable is a familial multifactorial inheritance like diabetes or hypertension. Inheritance, multifactorial: The type of hereditary pattern seen when there is more than one genetic factor involved and, sometimes, when there are also environmental factors participating in the causation of a condition. Many common traits are multifactorial. Skin color, for example, is multifactorially determined. So is height and so also is intelligence. The most common diseases tend also to multifactorial. Type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes, is multifactorial. It is due to the inheritance of susceptibility genes (genes that make one susceptible to developing diabetes) plus environmental factors such as obesity. Obesity, in turn, clearly is multifactorial in causation.

Answer 8

What aggravates me is when diabetes is discussed on TV, and its just "diabetes" as if we're all the same. It bugs me, yes. But I can't blame a type 2 for getting diabetes, just as much as someone can blame me for developing type 1. Not all type 2s are fat.



I just wish for a cure, not a treatment.

Answer 9

Okay, please accept this rebuke: many Type II's are genetically pre-determined. All the people on my mother's side of the famly have it. I had no choice.



Despite the view that Type II is a "lifestyle disease" it is not for most of us. My weight is well within normal levels, and my lifestyle did not promote the onset of symptoms. True, there are diabetics in the Type II category who abrogate their responsibilities to manage their condition, but there are Type I's who do this too, just as there are people with any condition you can think of who refuse to play a role in managing whatever it is they have.