I came across this thread on Soyddit during my usual lurking, looking for slop to repost.
As an autistic T1D, the thread below naturally caught my attention. I'll also leave the original quoted underneath:
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Type1Diabetes/comments/1ofuy79/the_impact_of_type_1_diabetes_and_autism/
My nephew is 14 he's been a type 1 diabetic since he was 10. For whatever reason he stopped eating. He will eat maybe a Mac and cheese cup here and there. But that's it. He stopped eating regular meals and ik thats not really good for him. He was just recently in DKA and it seemed to really scare him. I have asked him about it and tried talking to him about it and he says it's bc he's tired of his blood sugars spiking. I've always told him if it spikes it's okay bc we can work together to fix it. I've told him I'm always available to help him when he needs it and I have helped him when he's asked. I just think rn we are in the thick of it. Diabetes is just not fun sometimes and burnout is real.
He came to me last night and asked me that if he didn't have diabetes or autism if people would accept him better. I honestly didn't know how to respond to that at first. I pretty much told him that he is perfect the way he is and he is very strong and resilient. He then broke down crying and said it really doesn't seem that way and he felt so alone. That just really broke my heart. I didn't know what else to do except hug him and tell him he's not alone. He cried in my shoulder for a good hour and a half until he fell asleep. I just held him while also crying.
My heart really breaks for him having to go through this. Having to constantly look after his sugars and change out his sites and deal with needles and poking and proding. While also being made fun of and teased about it on top of that. Ik dealing with diabetes can't be easy. Especially for him. Now he's having to deal with his asthma flaring up again and the treatments he's having to do is making his blood sugars even harder to manage. I think he's just severely burnt out.
I am sharing this with his approval bc ik alot of you have probably been through this a time or 2 before and if you are also going through this rn you are not alone.
However, the thread alone wasn't the reason I made this thread. There's something more I wanted to address, which was one of the replies:
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Type1Diabetes/comments/1ofuy79/comment/nlbyeas/
He came to me last night and asked me that if he didn't have diabetes or autism if people would accept him better. I honestly didn't know how to respond to that at first.
The answer to this question is always "no."
No, midwit, the answer to this question is "yes". Why do you think OOP's nephew was like that? I am socially isolated (relatively). Luckily I usually hide T1D from others but autism is something I can't hide well.
Diabetes (of course) or autism (of course) aren't personality flaws.
"personality flaws" JFL. Normgroids see it that way. Diabetes is a fucking disease. Autism basically is one, the neurodiversity crowd are just coping about it.
Some people are just not nice people, and Nephew could be the star quarterback of the football team, prom king, and just wholly kind to boot, and some people still wouldn't like him.
From my experience, most people aren't nice to people that are too different. I think everyone here can attest to being rejected by others.
I like to remind my son that if people don't like him it's not a trait of his own character, but a trait of theirs and it's their loss that they don't want to know him.
Once again, anyone who says "iT's TheIR LosS" is coping. This is literally the definition of cope. Brother, it is your loss. They are living a good social life while you are isolated.
It's the same as if he had red hair instead of brown. or blue eyes instead of green. Some people just don't like blue eyes but it's not something he has control over.
How about being short rather than tall? Many of us aren't tall. Manlets get so much shit thrown at them. ALL of us get shit thrown at us for things we have zero control over. Lookism is the mother of all discrimination.
. Nothing but platitudes.
