Are you a person with diabetes (PWD) or diabetic?  Which do you prefer and why?

Those are questions I hear quite frequently, and were the topic of discussion during a Diabetes Social Media Advocacy chat session on Twitter a couple of weeks ago.

To me, "Person with Diabetes" and "Diabetic" are labels.  Yes, I do use each of them interchangeably when speaking and writing, because I am both a person with diabetes and a diabetic, but those labels do not define who I am.  Those are just two of the hundreds of different labels with which I can identify myself.

And to be quite honest, my preference would be not having the need for either of those labels, but I do have Type 2 Diabetes, and it came wrapped in a package with PWD written on one side, and Diabetic written on the other side.

In many ways, it's like someone handing you a box of the one food item that you dislike more than anything in the world; No matter how pretty the box is, or how good they try to make it sound, it doesn't change what's actually inside the box.  And I know using a food analogy here probably wasn't the best idea, but it's all I've got right now; doesn't help that I need to find something for dinner either. But I digress.

So I ask you, which do you prefer and why? Person with Diabetes or Diabetic? Feel free to comment below, and after you've done so, go over and read what Carey Potash had to say on the subject in his post, You Say Tomato, I Say Diabetic