Stop Diabetes Stigma! But How?

"Stigma" is frequently heard in reference to Diabetes, especially in social media circles. Sometimes, an image is tweeted in all it's horrifyingly inaccurate and stigmatising glory. It doesn't take very long for the community, be it DOC, GBDoc or otherwise to pick up on such tweets before a torrent of strongly worded replies are sent. Often, the stigmatising tweets are recycled or edited slightly to suit the agenda of the tweeter. In my four years in Diabetes Twitter, I've seen that happen several times. The 'Ice cream cone for a leg' image has certainly been knocking around for a while and often resurfaces amid a fresh round of anger and vilification.

In four years a lot can happen. On the Internet and in the world of social media, MUCH can happen. Technology changes, attitudes change, we grow, we improve - don't we? I'm beginning to think that we haven't when it comes to stigma.

I remember the ice cream cone, and other such images and tweets, from the early days of my Twitter account. The outpouring of disgust and anger then was heartening as it was towards subsequent tweets of the same ilk. Now, in 2021 I'm beginning to think that we as a community of people living with diabetes, are wasting our time. Social Media is often described as "shouting into the void" and it feels very much like that when it comes to calling out stigma because, quite simply, nothing is changing in that regard.

Perhaps you're a keen advocate for people living with diabetes and you think that you're doing everything you can to stop the stigma surrounding the condition by expressing your anger, correcting the offending tweet and retweeting the message. Perhaps your friends notice your retweet and hop aboard the latest round of disgust and corrections and vents. And that feels great, you've had your say, somebody was wrong on the Internet and you told them! Back to posting black and white pictures of yourself or discussing last night's Line Of Duty. I've done that. I'll probably do it again.

You're probably understanding what I'm getting at here. The expressions of anger and correcting such stigmatising tweets are all fine and dandy but they are not changing anything. Other such "campaigning" continues but still the world is faced with the same issues; skin colour, sex, sexuality, disability, age, status, and on it goes. 

(Bizarrely we see those who are very vocal about discrimination, offer their disgust at stigma and the discrimination which they face, on one hand while talking disparagingly about skin colour, sex and age on the other. Something has been lost in the fight for equality, somewhere.)

If we, as individuals cannot stop the stigma surrounding diabetes then who can? Perhaps the charities and organisations that represent and support us!? A great idea. I thought I'd do a little searching around and I couldn't really find a great deal from the major diabetes charities in the UK in regards to the stigma faced by diabetics and the work they're doing to reduce it. I must be missing something.

I ran a poll on Twitter; Here it is 

I know, a small sample size but enough people took the time to vote and give their view here to make the results very concerning. Over a third of those voting think that charities are not doing a thing to help reduce the stigma we face. 2% think they're doing everything they can. 

Could it be that the charities are not aware of this issue? Perhaps. Perhaps they'll be tagged into a tweet for this blog and, indeed, more of the stigmatising tweets that we face in future. Then maybe we'll see some real work and real results when it comes to reducing diabetes stigma. 

Thank you so much for reading this blog. I do appreciate your visit and your support. As you might know, I LOVE COFFEE! So I've teamed up with a thing called Buy Me A Coffee. If you enjoy my content and appreciate the time it takes to create such things then you can buy me a coffee! If you leave your Twitter @ name when you buy me a coffee, I will personally thank you. If you'd rather be anonymous then that's totally cool. Thanks for the caffeine!

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