I've always wondered how different religions and schools of philosophy look at medicine, health, illness (and by inference Diabetes) and whether anything they say could be of use to us in living with diabetes. So I decided to take on the challenge and see what I could find and I couldn't believe how much is out there ... but the more stuff I read, the more interesting it was and the more fun I had with it. Some of the ideas I read about were absolute garbage, but others really made me think of illness and health in a new light.

Modern western medicine even has a philosophy underpinning it. I think it is essentially that the body is a machine, one that can be modified and repaired. Diabetes is a perfect example of this in that our pancreas has broken down, I like to use the car analogy, 'I've gone from auto to manual' I tell people, just inject a bit of chemically concocted insulin and 'she'll be right!' so insulin is essentially considered the cure.

In general, the Buddhists believe that 'Suffering is part of life' however Christianity seeks to ask 'Why is there suffering, is this corollary for those in pain?'

Merleau-Pointy, the first philosopher in Western tradition to recognise the crucial role of the body in the context of perception explains this in terms of a 'subject body'. We do not experience our bodies by touching or looking at them like we do with objects and situations, instead we experience our bodies in their 'movement'. So we don't HAVE a body, rather 'one is one's body'. This in turn means we have our own bodily way of knowing and responding to its surroundings - this being a purely involuntary action. The body, therefore is not an object of knowledge but a means by which the body learns about the world. Through diabetes we have acquired an increased awareness of our body and Merleau-Pointy's work would suggest that we have also gained a heightened sensation for perceiving the world around us. I also found this useful analogy: 'Language is ultimately a bodily expression, in truth we can say that the body is the condition for thought.' Put simply - what I see as a response from diabetes such as a hypo, is not just effecting me physically but also cognitively and spiritually.

Christian thinking (as Reality Check's official priest, Mike Rayson reminded me) is about 'love and compassion and the belief that we are created in God's image'... and that gives many Christians great inspiration. However, if we believe in a higher being who promotes peace and justice within a civil society, then why are humans inflicted with disease and harm? More specifically, the big 'Why me?' question. This needs a new paragraph.

Why did I get diabetes? Has any one NOT asked this question? Well, here's an inspiring thought. "A man of suffering is well acquainted with infirmity" (Isaiah 53:3). Suffering makes us more Christian. Theologians, mystics and saints have long thought that one of the best ways to grow closer to God is through the way of suffering and pain. Christians believe that with pain and suffering in return come compassion and an ability to connect more deeply with others who suffer. I sort of went off the philosophical topic here, mainly due to my strong personal faith in Christianity, nonetheless, I'm right back into it.

'Otherness can be like an illness; being a stranger can be analogous to experiencing a form of madness - those same intimations of the unreal and the irrational, when everything that has been familiar is stripped away'. This is taken from Paul Theroux (2000) a renowned American writer. I see having diabetes as 'otherness', diabetes not as an illness but diabetes is a strange intruder.

Ancient Greek mythology addresses illness through Philocteses who had a wound but this wound (disease, condition, illness...diabetes) made him noble and strong. Philocteses had 'a power derived from his bearing the pain of his wound'. I took this as a lesson; that if we remain strong, we also remain superior.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, a prominent psychologist and author of 'The man who mistook his wife for a hat' and 'An anthropologist on Mars', explains that a 'disability' in one area is like opening the doors to a greater access of strength or inspiration in another area of one's life.

Foucault looked at illness slightly differently: 'Bodily illness has become the province of experts ... Deviations from the norm (us diabetics, nicely put though) are policed, not by violence, but by scientific management...because it induces pleasure, forms knowledge and produces discourse'. Foucault here turns the enlightenment's ideas, the ideas that there are human goods, happiness, health, reasonableness which are the necessary pursuit of all human to the extent that they are truly human. The motto of the enlightment Sapere aude 'Dare to think for yourself' makes the essence of enlightment a critique and a permanent creation of ourselves in our autonomy.

So what do we do as diabetics, do we turn onto alternative medicine? Reject scientific knowledge? I prefer to combine all elements into an ideal that suits my own particular line of thought (which can be very weird at times!). But our options are huge...which path will you take? Let the enlightment liberate us to new possibilities.

Unfortunately I have to stop here and I hadn't gone into half the stuff that I wanted to. There's so much philosophical discourse on illness that I feel overwhelmed, but I hope that what I have written inspires you, in some way that you don't have to believe everything you are told, no matter who the expert is. I believe that your own opinion on your condition is paramount.

Good luck,
Andronicki

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