title: Living with diabetes: lay narratives as idioms of distress among the low-caste Dalit of Nepal.
abstract: Among the Dalit community in Nepal, people consistently describe their diabetes in relation to stress caused by social inequality and social marginalization. Drawing on the illness narratives of 30 people from this community, I argue that through linking diabetes with stress as a result of caste-based discrimination, respondents use diabetes as an 'idiom of distress.' Respondents report that discrimination based on caste creates and aggravates their dire financial circumstances, resulting in the prolonged stress that causes and interacts with diabetes. Suffering with diabetes, and its ensuing financial struggles and accompanying stress, has for some led to suicidal thoughts and the preference of death to living with diabetes.
authors: a Human Development and Community Services , Kathmandu , Nepal.
authors: Tirtha B
authors: TB
authors: Thapa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D009390:Nepal / Q000208:ethnology; D012923:Social Class; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology*
keywords: Nepal; caste-based discrimination; death is better; diabetes mellitus; idiom of distress; social inequality