Ponderings on People with Diabetes

It's a real long shot, but it seems to me that there are certain characteristics that I've noticed in people with diabetes. But, I must couch saying that with the fact that, up until a few months ago, I have only been friends with two people with type 1 diabetes. One is a colleague, and one is a 14 year old. But, as I start to spend more time with other diabetics and get to be friends with them, I keep wondering if I can classify certain characteristics that pertain mostly to diabetes. Maybe it's an error to try to separate the natural personality traits from chronic illness induced ones. That's not a nice way to say it. But what I mean is that it seems like there are some similarities in people that I know with diabetes. First, they are planners, and calculators. Well that's pretty natural, considering that diabetes is such a game of calculation. From the effects of water, electrolytes, exercise (including intensity), stress, food, duration of the food, insulin, (Lantus, Humalog, Novolog, NPH, Regular, insulin pumps, insulin pens, whatever the delivery device), it all contributes to blood sugars.

What I'm not sure about is whether that habit of calculating for diabetes management permeates into other areas of our lives, so that we are planners and calculators when we would otherwise not be were it not for diabetes. I find myself thinking about not just the above mentioned, but also about how to improve efficiencies and inefficiencies in systems, how to get the best deal possible, etc.

I wonder if that's just my limited knowledge of people with diabetes. At any rate, it's very interesting to me, maybe just because of our human tendency to categorize.

As far as I know there are no scientific or even behavioral studies that have been done on this topic. And if you google 'sociology and anthropology of diabetes' not too much comes up that is directly related to the subject.

I guess trying to dissect the components of any human character is a tricky business. Whether from the perspective of diabetes induced behaviors or not, it's a relatively vague territory to be able to discern direct origins in. But it's fun to try.

I would venture to guess that having diabetes does make you a planner and a calculator. Not necessarily a type A across the board, but a maybe just a 'thinker'. Because you always have to be thinking about what's going on now and what's next. And perhaps the difference between someone without diabetes thinking that way and a diabetic is that a diabetic's physiology is actually dependent on successfully calculating and thinking.