I was visiting
Kerri's site today, as I do most days, and she had posted on her page a comment on the sidebar relating to Halle Berry. We have all known that Halle Berry was a diabetic, but I know most of us couldn't figure out whether she was a Type 1 or a Type 2. Apparently, she doesn't know either!
The page stated that Ms. Berry was diagnosed as a Type 1 but had "weaned myself off insulin" and now considered herself a Type 2 diabetic. At first I wasn't sure if I should be ticked at the media or at Halle herself. The media prints nonsense like this EVERY DAY without researching what they are writing about and the public believes what they read. But I believe Ms. Berry is the one to blame here. Shouldn't one be knowledgeable about their own disease? Shouldn't one want to know how to control their disease, care for themselves, and be up to date on related topic? I know I want to do these things. Obviously Ms. Berry was misinformed by her "wonderful" doctors at her time of diagnosis and never bothered to find out for herself. So, in turn, she is misinforming hundreds of thousands, and possibly even millions of people about diabetes and the differences between Type 1 & Type 2.
As I sit here on my lunch break, eating my chicken salad and trying to feel better from a morning of continually rising blood sugars, I am disheartened to hear that even diabetics themselves can be, and are, sadly misinformed about their disease. In my world, knowledge is power. The more I know, the better off I am. The more I learn, the easier caring for my diabetes will be.
I'm glad Halle Berry is no longer and insulin-dependant diabetic. It's good that she was able to accomplish this task. But I am sad that she doesn't know the basics of a disease that she lives with every day.
How do we change the way the world looks at diabetes? How do we inform and educate? How frustrating it is, especially for Type 1 diabetics, to deal with people telling you there is a cure. There is NO CURE for diabetes at this time. I hope for one. I pray for one. I
work for one. But there's not one yet.
3 comments:
Woah, that's a weird story! She weaned herself off insulin?
As a type 1 diabetic, I guess if I weaned myself off insulin, I wouldn't need it anymore either - because I would be DEAD.
What a truly sad story that she knows so little about type 1 vs type 2. How sad & how irritating, too!
By some mystery, highly recognizable figures like Ms. Berry are afforded expert authority status by the media on a wide range of subjects, and their words are often accepted as gospel by huge numbers of fans.
Unfortunately, such misinformation will continue unabated until movie-goers begin to understand that these polished, script-fed icons are merely well-paid actors pretending, and not always effectively, to be someone they are not.
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