Although this topic is supposed to discuss Diabetes Social Media burnout and give some survival tips, I have no tips to offer because at this point, I am ready to throw in the towel.
I know my frustration is something that I have seen other people discuss also – the number of nasty people out there. Sadly, they seem to be breeding at a very rapid rate. The people that know me know that the past few years have been rough for me – I lost almost 3 years of my life to a foot wound and dealt with a lot of doctors that should not be doctors. I stayed offline a lot during that period. Some of it was because of being sick. Some of it was because I was trying to stay positive and that was hard to do with reading some of the stuff that I was seeing.
2015 has been a mixed bag for me. My foot finally healed. In February, I was finally able to start wearing shoes on both feet instead of the boot. In March, I was able to start walking. However, in January, I found out my cat had cancer and she died in April. In July, I adopted a 6 year old rescue Yorkie.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about the way things are and what direction I want to head. I wasn’t sure if it was truly me or just needing time for things to settle down and get back to normal. I know that I have come out of this a different person but I also don’t think it is just me when I see other people saying that they feel exactly how I feel.
I don’t have the patience to deal with some of these people anymore. It is the same people over and over. The people that run the different groups are just as bad because they allow it to happen. I understand that stuff gets out there but to allow the problem people to remain and not delete the offensive posts is wrong. Most of us have said some things we want to take back, but we aren’t “nasty” on a daily basis.
I am tired of the Type 2 bashing. I am a Type 1 but also have a lot of friends and family that are Type 2. There are too many people that think they are “better than” because they are Type 1 and they put down Type 2s at every opportunity they can.
Other people are just nasty and because they have never heard of something, they think they are right and the rest of the world is wrong. Or they think that their way is the only “right” way to do something. I know several people that have actually received threatening messages because they felt differently about what the people sending the threats did.
The other day, a conversation was started about a woman attempting to get disability and had an Ac1 of 14. Her endo told her that she was doing good. The person that started that post even said she had seen that endo before and had no doubt that he would say that. One woman in particular made a few nasty comments about disabled people. It was not directed at people cheating the system, it was directed at every disabled person. It was not the first time I saw her making those remarks about disability so I spoke up.
Her daughter was diagnosed this last year and she isn’t even on insulin – she obviously has no clue what people deal with. I was diagnosed almost 32 years ago when we didn’t know the things we know today. We had different insulin, no pumps and no CGMS. My doctor had to fight my insurance company to get a meter for me. I had neuropathy and laser eye surgery before the internet was even invented. I didn’t have the opportunity to get online and learn whatever I could. Even though she is obviously an idiot, the comments still really hurt. She obviously doesn’t know that neuropathy can be caused by other autoimmune problems so even if her daughter maintains “perfect” control, it does not mean that she is immune from getting neruoapthy.
I started thinking about the people that have depression and other issues because of diabetes. If it hurt me that much, how would someone that is super depressed react when they read that crap? If it caused me to cry, would they end up killing themselves over some of the nasty comments?
A few days prior to that comment, I bumped into the realtor I had worked with two years ago when I was going to buy a house. She told me that she was recently diagnosed as Type 2. I recommended two books for her but did not suggest joining any diabetes groups. That is the first time I have never done that.
Although Facebook is easier than traditional message boards because you have the ability to block people, it still happens. You can choose your friends carefully but if one of their friends leaves a nasty comment, it shows up in your newsfeed. You can block future comments but that doesn’t take away the impact of the first comment you saw.
It is truly sad that I no longer feel that the DOC is something we should all participate in. I have learned so much from the DOC and have gone from bouncing about between 30 and 300 every day to fairly stable blood sugar. I would never have figured out how to do that without the DOC. I would love to be able to pay back the help that I received. Unfortunately, today’s DOC is not the same place it was back in 2007 when I discovered it. I no longer feel that it is a fairly safe place to learn about diabetes. Granted, it is not the majority of the people, but there are enough of them that are ruining the good that it can bring. I really don’t have it in me anymore to want to participate.
