1) "But you don't look sick." That's because I'm not sick.
2) "But you're not fat!" Thanks, I guess, but that has nothing to do with my diabetes.
3) "Juvenile diabetes? Don't you grow out of that?" I'm sure many parents of children with diabetes would fervently wish it to be so, along with us diabetic adults, but no, you don't outgrow diabetes. (This is why I prefer "type 1" to "juvenile" diabetes.)
4) "You STILL have diabetes?" Why wouldn't I? Is there a cure I don't know about?
5) "Big Pharma found a cure for diabetes ages ago, but they're withholding it so that they can make more money selling diabetes supplies." Let me adjust your tinfoil hat for you. People who work for Big Pharma get diabetes. The children and other loved ones of people who work for Big Pharma get diabetes. If there were a cure, don't you think they would want to use it on themselves or their children? Besides, don't you think they would make just as much, if not more money marketing a cure for diabetes?
6) "Diabetes is a self-inflicted disease." Yeah, when I was four years old I told my pancreas to stop producing insulin just for fun.
7) "You just take insulin because you were brainwashed by your doctor/by Big Pharma into thinking you need it." Those have got to be some amazing powers if another person can convince my pancreas to stop producing insulin and make my blood sugar go up and down just with the power of the mind.
8) "You got diabetes because you ate too much sugar when you were a kid." Infants who have never consumed anything other than breast milk have been diagnosed with diabetes. Where did all that sugar come from to cause their diabetes?
9) "That will go away if you lose weight." How is that you know how to cure diabetes when so much money is spent on research every year to find a cure? Let me show you pictures of me when I was a child, just before I was diagnosed with diabetes. I looked like a famine victim. "Skin and bones" doesn't even begin to describe me at the time I was diagnosed.
10) "People with diseases like diabetes are a burden on the health care system and a drain on taxpayers." What would you prefer us to do — die?
11) "I'd DIE if I had to take needles every day!" Guess what. I'll die if I DON'T take needles every day.
12) "Didn't Halle Berry wean herself off insulin? Why don't you do that?" Let's not talk about Halle Berry unless we're discussing her movies or TV show. It's probable she never had type 1 diabetes in the first place.
13) "If we take pop machines out of schools, kids won't get diabetes like you did." My school didn't have a pop machine, and I still got diabetes. Besides, kids are resourceful. Even if you prevent them from getting pop at school, they're going to find it somewhere. I personally think it's better to teach kids healthy eating habits (and for parents to model them) and alternatives to drinking pop, regardless of their likelihood of getting any type of diabetes, than it is to turn something into the "forbidden fruit," which will just make it more attractive.
14) "Can you eat that?" Unless it's poison, then yes, I can. "You shouldn't be eating that!" Unless you are my doctor, I don't think you are qualified to tell me what I should and should not be eating.
15) "Are you going to die?" Yes. Everyone is going to die someday. Will I die of diabetes? I don't know. Let's just say I am trying my best not to, and leave it at that.
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