Today’s blog post is going to be short and sweet, and about a subject that I think every person with diabetes deals with whenever they tell someone new about their diabetes.
It doesn’t matter how diabetes comes up in conversation. Whether it’s in a joking, serious, educational, happy, sad, or angry manner, the person I’m talking to almost always says…
“I’m sorry.”
Sometimes, I think it’s because society has instilled this weird reflex in people to apologize for something that they didn’t do. Other times, I think it’s because people just don’t know how else to respond to something that may be sobering or grounded in reality. But the simple fact of the matter is…
People need to stop apologizing to me, and other people with diabetes, for having it.
Here’s why:
- It doesn’t make sense.
- We weren’t given a choice – it’s a simple truth that we’ve learned to accept.
- It makes me feel strange, because it’s almost like the other person is taking accountability for my diabetes.
- I believe that human beings apologize too much, in general, and it diminishes apologies when they matter most or are most sincere.
- I’m not sorry that I have diabetes, so why should someone else be?
While I genuinely empathize with and appreciate people who apologize as a knee-jerk response, I’m just here to gently tell them that it isn’t necessary. Save “I’m sorry” for times that it’s warranted, and not for something like having diabetes, a matter in which no one has a choice.
Hugging the Cactus 
lol When I read this headline, my first thought was I am not sorry I have it and no longer hide it from the world like I used to do. In the break room at work, I pull out my syringe and shoot up in the open (bad wording makes me sound like a druggy a fear I used to have doing it in public bathroom). I Some times find people with needle phobias in the group who then leave the table. You are right in this post as well though. People do say sorry way too much for things they have no control over. Saying I’m sad to hear about it makes more sense to me. Diabetes is hard. It complicate one’s life tremendously. To say you are sad to hear about it fits in my mind, not sorry about it.
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