There are a few things that irk me about articles that I see written about diabetes.
Where to begin? Well, let’s give you my credentials and my “right” to be upset about this. I’m not really upset as much as I am just bothered. I’m sure these articles have great information, however, when you’re writing wrong about something I know so well about, I stop reading.
So, here are my credentials.
- Person with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 7, which is approximately 23 years.
- Diagnosed as having juvenile diabetes or diabetes mellitus.
- Journalist with an M.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Reporter for 3 years.
- Professional writer since 2008.
- Editor for 2 years.
- Freelancer since 2007.
- Blogger since 2011.
So accuracy, writing and creating well-rounded pieces on diabetes is kind of second nature to me. I’m not bragging, since these pieces of information can be found on my bios, on Facebook, Twitter and numerous other outlets. I’m literally showing you why I’m going to complain about this in a second.
It’s November, which means it’s National Diabetes Awareness Month and an array of diabetes articles have been published left and right about things that the DOC, or diabetes online community, have known about for years. YEARS.
I saw an article recently about how medical professionals are now calling diabetes an epidemic. However, this term didn’t just start this year. Diabetes has carried epidemic traits for a long time. People are just noticing now.
So here’s my list of things to do should you decide to take on the mission of writing about diabetes:
- We are people with diabetes, or PWDs. We are not diabetics. Since diabetic is an adjective for objects, it doesn’t necessarily apply to people. We are not things. Take a gander:
- People with diabetes have diabetic supplies.
- Diabetic comas, diabetic ketoacidosis, diabetic socks
- This disease is not foreign to the world. Don’t write like it’s foreign and don’t write about it like it’s something that people have never heard of.
- Write to educate the community. If you’re talking about new technology, write like you’re excited about it, not like it’s an alien species.
- Put forth credible information that explains when statistics were collected and who is collecting them.
- Don’t trust the first thing you read. Please.
- Get to know the community. We’re here! And we’re not curing our diseases any time soon.
- Find us on Twitter, join groups on Facebook, ask questions and get real answers.
- Yes, there are four types of diabetes and none of them is “worse” than another. They’re generally all the same.
- BUT there are various strains of the disease. Yep. There are ALL DIFFERENT TYPES!
I don’t want to discourage people from writing about it. It’s a nice challenge for a lot of people, including myself. When I wrote about the epidemic and all the different types for a publication, I realized just how difficult it was to write a piece for the general population, that’s full of myths, fake cures and, quite frankly, lies. It’s a full on effort to set people straight about all the things that revolve around the disease and having the disease. Sometimes, it’s overbearing.
Try living with it.
Diabetes Types A Blog 