I have recently started working at a new location and I'm going through the typical "what are those tubes and things poking out of you" conversations. I really don't mind talking about my diabetes ever so I'm open about explaining it. Today, though, when I said I'm type 1 diabetic a coworker said "hey! My son got that! He was diagnosed pretty late for a type 1 but he's gotten a lot better about it!"
I thought ok, it's unusual to be diagnosed later but definitely not unheard of. So I asked how he's doing and if he's on a pump or mdi. The coworker responds with "oh no, he was taking shots for a while but he is really strong and good about it. He's almost off insulin now"
At this point I asked if he's sure that he's type 1 or does he take medicine and use diet and exercise to control it. The coworker was very sure that he's type 1 and only controls it with good diet and I lot of willpower.
It took everything in me to not shake this man and yell at him that insulin is not an addictive drug, and that he himself uses insulin every single day without realizing it, and he's completely wrong. I get that it's a complicated disease and the fact that there are two very different diseases with the same name is confusing but after talking with him, I felt very judged for not being able to "get off" the insulin. I know he just doesn't understand it but when I tried to explain it he definitely was not interested in listening.
Normally I'm perfectly happy talking about diabetes but this conversation shut me down for the rest of the day.
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