Well I’m severly depressed, lol on anti-depressants that don’t do anything and I was just wondering if there was anyone else in a similar situation. But otherwise my A1C numbers have always been “perfect” last time It was 6.0, never been above 7 which is amazing since I don’t test my blood sugar, lol and just give shots when I get the feeling. Doctors are amazed that I do almost nothing that a regular diabetic does but I have such good A1C numbers.
Depression tends to go with diabetes as well as with other illnesses, such as heart disease,... but not necessarily. There are plenty of people suffering with a major depressive disorder who are healthy in all other aspects. So, your depression may have very little or nothing to do with your diabetes.
I have been a Type 1 diabetic for 39 years, and like you, have also suffered on and off with severe depression. Like diabetes, depression also runs in my family. Depression can be terribly difficult to treat and in my case, again like yours, it's been just as challenging as my Type 1. The doctors have tried at least half a dozen of the popular anti-depressant medications on me (eg. prozac, paxil, zoloft, celexa, etc.), but unfortunately I couldn't tolerate most of them long enough to reap any improvement. Presently I take 60mg of Cymbalta daily, which is somewhat effective, but I still "break through" a few times a week with a depressive episode.
On the other hand, what IS beginning to work for me is "talk therapy" with a very good therapist who uses "cognitive behavior modification" techniques in conjuction with some traditional psychotherapy. I have also begun a regimen of aerobic conditioning and anaerobic weight training,... six days a week at the gym. I am on a very low carbohydrate, high protein diet and have decided (at the age of 56) to go back to college in the Fall for yet another degree.
My point is that anit-depressant medications, while they may produce stunning results by themselves with panic attacks and anxiety disorders, rarely "cure" depression alone. At best, I believe they can put you in a position to muster up the "psychic energy" required to take other measures like talk therapy and behavior modification. I believe that management of depression is actually more illusive than the management of diabetes. Treating Depression as an illness which comes as close as anything to touching on the questions regarding "the meaning of life".... and this is not simple stuff.
There are probably more books written on depression and related issues than any subject in the world. I just finished a short book called "Finding Flow" Mihaly Csikszentmihaly which offered some good insight. I had also just read a new book from which I benefited called "Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection" by John Caccioppo.
Hey, congratulations on your great diabetes control. Way to go! It doesn't matter how you do it..., long as it works!
Hi lllison, The Aic is something to be thankful for.The depression,one of the hardest things to deal with.Sometime their is a root to it,and with help,that can lift much of the depression away.I first met depression in my teens.I had no way of understanding it then.I have had it come and go throughout my life.It is hard....I understand what toll it can take,get help with it-as in someone to talk to that understands it.I am with Paul on everything he just said.I hope things get better for you.
Yea I see a therapist and a psychatrist, but its getting better now since I found this residential program up in idaho that seems to be something I want. Just hope they accept me being a diabetic, it can def be seen as a liability. Hopely
Like you, I was severly depressed. I had a drinking problem as well as suicidal thoughts and tendencies. I spent 7 weeks in treatment. The "thing" with depression is you have to be willing to meet your treatment half way. You can't solely depend on medications and therapies. If you aren't actively doing anything to change your lifestyle and habits, the depression won't magically heal itself. I've spent 3 years sober and almost a year off of meds. While I'm not going to say my life is all rainbows and butterflies now, I feel I've learned to cope differently (and better). I don't feel overwhelmed by my thoughts and have developed new and healtheir ways to deal with those emotions. For everyone, how they handle and treat their own depression is different, however there isn't a "magic bullet" that will make the pain and sadness go away. You have to be willing to change.
I understand how you feel and what you are going through. I wish you the best of luck and hope you are able to find the help you need. We are here to help you where we can, but your treatment is ultimately up to you. Keep in touch and please let us know if we can do anything for you. It takes a lot of courage to admit you have a problem and actively seek help for it. You have an amazing start already. Best wishes.
[quote user="C"]
Like you, I was severly depressed. I had a drinking problem as well as suicidal thoughts and tendencies. I spent 7 weeks in treatment. The "thing" with depression is you have to be willing to meet your treatment half way. You can't solely depend on medications and therapies. If you aren't actively doing anything to change your lifestyle and habits, the depression won't magically heal itself. I've spent 3 years sober and almost a year off of meds. While I'm not going to say my life is all rainbows and butterflies now, I feel I've learned to cope differently (and better). I don't feel overwhelmed by my thoughts and have developed new and healtheir ways to deal with those emotions. For everyone, how they handle and treat their own depression is different, however there isn't a "magic bullet" that will make the pain and sadness go away. You have to be willing to change.
I understand how you feel and what you are going through. I wish you the best of luck and hope you are able to find the help you need. We are here to help you where we can, but your treatment is ultimately up to you. Keep in touch and please let us know if we can do anything for you. It takes a lot of courage to admit you have a problem and actively seek help for it. You have an amazing start already. Best wishes.
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Yea I understand the idea of meeting them halfway, but for a while there and kinda still it was def hard to get the desire to do anything. Well last few days since I found that program I like, I've been feeling good, and been wanting to get better so maybe I will, hopely I will.
Hi Chris,
I have battled depressed as well. The main problem I had was with the word you used "perfect" I couldn't deal with not being perfect. It drove me mad. Although I try very hard, having diabetes can't ever be that way. It took me a long time to realize this.
I never took anti-depressants but, I did see a therapist for a while. Talking it out does help. If you don't think the medications you are using work have you talked about it with your doctor? Maybe they need to up the dosage or you need a different medication. There are tons of different medicines for depression you may just need the right one for you. I definitely suggest talking to your doctor about it.
I am glad your a1c's are good even though you don't check your blood sugar. But, I am curious if you don't check your blood sugar, how do you know how much insulin to take? What do you mean by taking insulin when you get the feeling? For me I only know when my blood sugars drop. High blood sugars do give me a headache but, I never know what the exact number is to correct it if I don't check. Do you have a lot of low blood sugars? Maybe you can try checking at least once a day to start and then work your way up to more times a day?
If you need anything or need someone to talk to you can reach me anytime by contacting me through my personal page on juvenation and sending me a message.
[quote user="Gina"]
Hi Chris,
I have battled depressed as well. The main problem I had was with the word you used "perfect" I couldn't deal with not being perfect. It drove me mad. Although I try very hard, having diabetes can't ever be that way. It took me a long time to realize this.
I never took anti-depressants but, I did see a therapist for a while. Talking it out does help. If you don't think the medications you are using work have you talked about it with your doctor? Maybe they need to up the dosage or you need a different medication. There are tons of different medicines for depression you may just need the right one for you. I definitely suggest talking to your doctor about it.
I am glad your a1c's are good even though you don't check your blood sugar. But, I am curious if you don't check your blood sugar, how do you know how much insulin to take? What do you mean by taking insulin when you get the feeling? For me I only know when my blood sugars drop. High blood sugars do give me a headache but, I never know what the exact number is to correct it if I don't check. Do you have a lot of low blood sugars? Maybe you can try checking at least once a day to start and then work your way up to more times a day?
If you need anything or need someone to talk to you can reach me anytime by contacting me through my personal page on juvenation and sending me a message.
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I use perfect, as in being in the range recommended by the ADA. Always right in the middle. Not as being absolutly perfect, hell no. I have had maybe 4-5 times where I been pretty low, where I don't remember it. I don't know if thats alot, someone on this forum was saying he had 20 which seems excessive, but maybe I'm not counting the ones I cant remember? That also isn't counting the delibrite use of insulin in an suicide attempt. Yea I don't test my blood sugar, when I was real younger me and my parents would bet to see who could get the closest to the numbers while testing. And I always had a nak for it, always being within 50.
I will admit its a very hazordous way to live life as a diabetic, but it has been working for about 5-7 years. Not sure when I stopped testing my blood sugar but its been a while( and I'm def not recommending anyone do this). Will def be hard to change, but maybe I should. I do go through ALOT of humalog, 2 packs of insulin pens in 2 weeks, they have like 300 units in them. I guess if i started the long acting insulin i been prescribed(lantus) i wouldnt need so much) I will admit, since I started looking at that program I really want to get into I started testing, cause they might be on my case about that. so might as well get use to it.
Wait,
Let me get this straight. You don't use any long acting insulin? And you don't check your blood sugar and only use short acting insulin?
Yea, been doing it for a while.
What does the residential program you want to get in entail?
well i have had diabettes for 2 years now the first year went great it was all controlled untill i hit puberty then it went for about 3-4 months it started to go low high low high. Then it got out of that stage then went allritee for about 2-3 months now its high permenatly i have tryed adding extra insulin walking around my home town for 5-6 hours non stop and when i test befor dinner its like 20-30 and every nite i get depressed and very angry with myself and then i think stuff it im ova this so then i dont eat and from here i dont know wat to do i have tryed everything. Each time i go to my diabettes doctor i go in there happy and come out depressed and angry with myself as if wish i was never existed i have never sufferd depression till this year and im not on any medication. should i go see a doctor about this depression ? is this serious depression? if i could pay $10000000000000 to get rid of diabettes i would just to be normal again!
I have been a type 1 for almost 40 years. I normally have an extremely sunny disposition ("the glass is half full"), but through the years, I have noticed that in my case, a feeling of depression ALWAYS means my blood glucose is off kilter. Usually it means my glucose has gone too low, but sometimes when it goes too high, I get the same symptoms (after all, both low and high causes the brain to be starved for carb fuel so it makes sense that the symptoms are the same). Because I am normally so disgustingly cheery, it is very noticeable when I get that blue feeling. I have learned to test my glucose at the time and to correct the glucose levels. Amazingly, the depression goes away immediately when I normalize my glucose levels. I, too, am very easily controlled, always with an a1c similar to yours with little effort.
In my case, if depression hits because my levels have gone temporarily awry, I can have these kinds of feelings: completely overwhelmed and panicked by tasks at hand; feeling worthless and incapable in my work (which is strange, 'cuz I am supposedly one of the two favorite coin designers of the U.S.Mint, so I SHOULD feel confident); and sometimes just sort of mellowly blue and unhappy with all of my surroundings. Since I know that this is not my normal attitude, I know to look to possible PHYSICAL DEPRESSION, in other words, look to see if something (off-kilter blood sugar) is messing with my seratonin levels.
So I am wondering if those of us whose levels are normal most of the time may be a bit more sensitive when we do go out of the normal range. For instance, i break out in a sweat if glucose goes below 70 OR IF IT GOES ABOVE 150, SOMETIMES EVEN IF IT HITS THE MID-140s. I suspect that my body is so accustomed to normal levels that my brain sends out strong signals when the levels are not normal. Maybe stronger signals than people whose brains have grown accustomed to levels out of the normal range.
All that being said... I wonder if you might want to, as an experiment, try testing when you feel a blue funk hitting and either drinking a tiny bit of juice or taking a tiny bit of corrective insulin if the level is not normal. Then give yourself a half hour and test again to see if your levels are normalized in the 70-146 range. And if so, take careful note of whether the emotions are better. We do know that seratonin levels are affected by glucose levels being out-of-kilter. And I know from my own personal experience that even being off the normal range for a short period of time, say a half hour, can sometimes make me feel blue or sometimes sort of critical of everything. These moods go away immediately when I take care of the glucose levels.
Since you admit to being a bit on the lazy side as far as knowing what your levels are doing, I would suggest that you make an experiment out of checking for a week or so every couple of hours and correcting. Then, see if your emotions are better. It may make a difference in a very healthy and easy-to-do way. An excellent a1c can be either the result of: 1) even, normalized glucose levels, OR 2) lots of ups and downs out of the normal range, with lows counterbalancing the highs. If your great a1c number is due to item #2, then evening out the numbers may do a great deal to help your emotions. It really is worth a try. And testing often just is not a big pain to do. Easy to do and it could make a life-changing difference in how you feel.
Like everyone dealing with a chronic illness, I am quite sure that depression is a "by-product". Although for most of us, it's a clinical depression and really has to do with our physical being, a lot of it has to do with our emotional being as well.
You are so fortunate that you aren't dealing with more complications than depression. As someone else said, it isn't easy to get depression under control, but it can be managed once you find the right professional to help you.
I have lived with diabetes for 43 years and with depression for probably half of that. I struggled with several medical professionals before I found someone that would help me both with talk therapy and drug therapy and have been on a successful treatment plan for many years. Fortunately, I didn't give up when it came to finding the right person...because that is truly the key. It's like making a new friend...you have to feel you can trust this person because you know you're going to be telling them things that are personal, important and perhaps things you don't or won't tell anyone else. Find the right professional that might even have an idea what living with diabetes is all about...as we all know, it's a life like most people know nothing about.
Like Susan, I'm a pretty optimistic person...definitely a Pollyanna type, especially when it comes to living with diabetes. But one thing for sure is that living with diabetes is nothing compared to other diseases. I recently lost my older brother to lung cancer. Cancer is a horrible disease where people lose control over what happens to them. My other older brother passed away several years ago after a brave battle with Alzheimer's. Again, a disease that takes over. WE are in control and need to continue to remind ourselves of that fact and practice it with as much diligence as possible. I also agree that depression tends to increase when blood sugar levels increase and just because an a1C level is low doesn't mean all of the numbers are wonderful. You haven't said whether or not you deal with any low blood sugar levels.
Keep us posted, Chris. We're in your corner. This "veteran" strongly recommends that you start testing regularly and get on a better schedule with regard to meds and taking care of yourself. You may find the depression will subside considerably.
Best --
Jane
My thoughts on depression are that it generally stems from inactivity. It sounds so simple that it is almost ludicrous, but I believe that if you get out and exercise once (or more) a day, it is very difficult to stay depressed. I have had diabetes for about nine years now, and have had my share of disappointments in life, though I cannot say that I ever succumbed to depression. Still, I know that when certain chemicals are released into the blood via exercise, it really does help one's mental state. Any rush of adrenaline, which is usually exercise induced, similarly provides a type of natural high that is very healthy not only for your body but your mind as well. Exercise will get your mind off of the things that may be causing your depression as well. It is difficult to think about your problems when you are involved in an activity that demands your attention. I do not want to go on too much more about the benefits of exercise, but the bottom line is that you need to take a proactive role to change things for the better. Depression does not get better on its own, and all the pills in the world will not bring any happiness. So I would encourage you to take up some sort of athletic endeavor, whether it be running, cycling, swimming, lifting weights, basketball, or any combination of things. I think you will see the benefits right away.
-Darren
[quote user="Chris."]Well I'm severly depressed, lol on anti-depressants that don't do anything and I was just wondering if there was anyone else in a similar situation. But otherwise my A1C numbers have always been "perfect" last time It was 6.0, never been above 7 which is amazing since I don't test my blood sugar, lol and just give shots when I get the feeling. Doctors are amazed that I do almost nothing that a regular diabetic does but I have such good A1C numbers.
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Hey Chris, depression is common to people who have diabetes. In my opinion, it's both the stress from dealing with a chronic illness, and I also believe that the illness itself causes depression symptoms.
How long have you had diabetes? A LOT of people are okay fro a few years and then go through a rough spot. Hey i think it's great that you have a good a1c and don't have to test much, but I have had a1c's in the sixes and have also had daily ranges from 46 to 380. pardon the expression but the swinging can suck.
Treatment for depression is as tricky as the illness. and it is an illness, clinical depression isn't something you can snap out of. My wife had the worst time on the most popular antidepressants 'cause they were all SSRI's and her problem was not serotonin. I think keeping in close contact your doctor and telling them about what and how you are feeling is your best bet. Maybe he will adjust/switch your meds... maybe it's just a low you have to endure for a while before things turn around.
Therapy helped me a lot. So did accepting my situation with diabetes. Let me tell you , for me it was a long hard road.
there is also a non-chemical treatment called biofeedback, it's not for everybody but it's out there.
Still other times, the best thing is to yell and scream with your friends who already understand - I guess that's why Juvenation is so great.
take care
Well thanks guys, I'm hopely on the road to changing and getting better. I also decided from reading a lot of your stories to start testing, even if its once a day and build it up and start retaking my long term insulin, because I may have good a1c numbers but really don't know how much of my depression is contributed to lows/highs.
As far as excersise, it never helped me. I was trainning for a marathon I was gonna run and it would feel good for like maybe 15 mins after I stopped running, and then it would all hit me like a car hitting a brick wall. And it def didn't make things any better. I decided not to run that marathon, but I still occasionally excerise just so I don't gain anyweight.
If depression would hit you after running, it sounds suspiciously like it may have been happening because your blood sugar was dropping after exercise. I think you are smart to do some testing to see if you can find out if it is related to off-kilter blood sugars. One more note on that... I notice that I can FEEL it when my glucose is dropping quickly, and it feels like low blood sugar even though the numbers can be perfect. Remember that I am a long-timer with this disease -- I have learned that the feeling is ALWAYS right: if I test again 15 minutes later when I feel this way, my glucose will have dropped, and I sip a small amount of juice to bring iit back up.
I suppose that if I coud offer any diabetic person only one piece of advice, it would be to test often. I test every 2-3 hours, and what this does for me is to catch any highs or lows before they become serious. I adjust to each number that is not normal and then test again in a few hours. What this does for me is to regulate my glucose levels all day long, keeping me from having spikes or severe lows. And it makes a big difference in my ability to do my creative job and to feel energetic and well.
I suppose my inspiration was thinking about how a non-diabetic person's brain adjusts his blood sugar all day long, adjusting often. When I compared this to what the standard is for us type 1 diabetics, which is to test and adjust only before meals and at bedtime, it occurred to me that it would be healthier to adjust every few hours just like a non-diabetic person's body does. Testing only takes a minute of time and the habit is easy to build into a daily routine. Each person is different, but for me, this works beautifully to keep me in excellent health and to help me feel good.
On a more humorous note, my best pal, my huge black pet cat, was diagnosed as being diabetic 2 days ago. The vet told me that I can't test his blood sugar, but when I did some research on my own, I discovered that he is out-dated in his treatments. YES, even diabetic cat owners test their cats' blood sugar levels rather than just blindly giving insulin without knowing what the levels are. Much is written over how important it is to KNOW so that the perfect amount of insulin is given. If this is so important for furry felines, it is much more important for humans. He is on insulin now, and he had his first hypo this morning. I can't fix it if I don't know about it. Wish us luck.
Susan,
Is your cat Type 1 or Type 2? How old is your cat? Is the normal blood sugar for a feline in the same range as a human?
Paul
It's a first with a diabetic feline for me, a learning experience. It is called diabetes mellitus, so I think it is considered type 1. Poor Black Bart. But the difference (I have been doing a lot of reading) is that in cats, the cause is not autoimmune, like it is with us humans. The most modern thinking is that the cause is not being overweight, but is truly bad diet. There are some websites that list carb content of modern cat foods, and the dry foods have HUGE carb contents, as much as 24-33%, while there are many wet foods with carb percentages of only 2-7%. It is thought that the overload of carbs (feral cats don't eat carbs... just meat) overloads the pancreas and temporarily or permanently disables it.
Old school thinking was to put the feline on a high fiber diet. This is what my vet wants me to do. But new thinking is to instead go with low carbs. Which makes more sense to this long-time diabetic. So I switched his food yesterday, and he started Lantus insulin (one injection) yesterday morning. He IMMEDIATELY looked perkier and stopped drinking abnormal amounts of water.
This morning, I am thinking the insulin may be too much... he got hypo at about 3.5 hours after his injection and breakfast. He meowed urgently and ran to the cat food cabinet. I fed him a small snack and he settled down.
From what I read, many cats no longer need insulin if they go to a low carb diet. Of course this means I will have a hypoglycemic friend for a few days until we figure out if his pancreas is starting to recover. Dont'cha wish we humans would recover on our own with diet? :o)
It is a bit weird having a diabetic pet, but at least I know to research and not just take the vet's very outdated treatment as law. I am hoping he will recover and be able to go off insulin. Apparently, many cats do if the diabetes is caught early and the diet is changed.