Question

Coping & Support
21

[quote user="KatVSGK"]

I have only had diabetes for three years, but I find the moods swings are psychologically based. I get upset at myself when my blood sugars are extremely high and low in the same day because I feel like I am not controlling them well and I am the one srewing up. Even if I do not consciously say this is the reason for the mood swings, blood sugars no being what they are supposed to be seem to have away of  taking over your mind.

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First off I'd say I don't notice mood swings based on high BS.  I do get angry sometimes when low though.

Second off, you might want to consider an attitude adjustment on "blood sugars no being what they are supposed to be seem to have away of  taking over your mind".  I've had it for 32 years, and this can happen alot.  No matter how hard you try or what you do, sometimes the BS gets out of whack for no apparent reason.  Please don't beat yourself up over it.  It happens.  Try to learn to roll with it.

22

i find that chasing high and low bloood sugars all day long is exhausting and often brings on a depressed mood.  Being out of conro, whether it's of your blood sugars, of your diet or of any addiction or obession just doesn't feel good.  We like to be in control of our lives.  But like DDrumminMan, I've had Type 1 for a long time (40 years), and I agree with him that you have to stop beating yourself up.  Just do the best you can each day...one day at a time, and give yourself credit for dealing with this very unique and difficult condition.  There isn't anyone on Juvenation who doesn't feel the same frustration.  We all sympathsize with your feelings and that's why we're here... to support each other.

23

[quote user="Paul Glantzman"]

To me this question suggests another related issues, and that is, overcorrecting by overeating for a low and then going sky high.  My natural tendency unfortunately, IS to do this.  It's relatively easy to describe "being high" to a non-diabetic as feeling listless, lethargic, tired etc.  Those are feelings and sensations everyone can relate to.  But "being low", a hypoglycemic reaction is indescribable, ... indescribably awful and uncomfortable.  (How many times have you been asked by your non-diabetic friends "What's it feel like to be low.")

Perhaps we should have a contest for the best description of what if feels like to go low.

Anyway, I have two points:

1) I hate going low, especially real low like the 46 I had yesterday when I misjudged the size of a peach and overbolused.  I should have gotten out the ruler becaused I guessed it was 2 1/2" in diameter.  Perhaps it had an especially large pit or I didn't eat off the pit well enough :)  It's so hard to stop at that one glass of orange juice and wait 20 or so minutes to be a human being again.  So while I'm waiting, it's hard to resist a couple of bowls of Special K and whatever else is around the house. BAD IDEA. Now I tie my hands behind my back.  Who else has these problems?

2) Going low wipes me out, sometimes for hours.  Even after the orange juice or whatever raises my sugar to a normal (or high) range, I still feel like a dishrag for hours.  Often if I'm not working (and I don't do much of that lately) I crash on the couch.  Then finally, when I wake up and if I had controlled my intake of food, I feel better.

Just wondering, who reading this believes they've had the lowest blood sugar and what was it?

 

 

 

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I totally relate to this! I hate the feeling of going low and it always seems to happen at the most inconvenient times when I don't have the 15-20 minutes to wait for my sugars to get back to normal so I eat everything in sight and then my sugars swing up too high. I feel wiped out afterward, too. It's like my body has spent all this effort trying to get back to normal that once it gets there, it just kind of gives up for a while.

I don't know if I've had the lowest blood sugar, but I beat my previous record of 23 by 3 just this morning with a reading of 20...yeah...probably should have tested before I went to bed last night....

24

The lowest I have ever been was 10.  I was still a young child, probably 9 or so and I remember my eyes rolling back in my head, tunnel vision, and it sounded like everything was a million miles away.  I have never passed out in my life, this was probably the closest I've ever been to it...

25

I have had some pretty dramatic lows in my time and I have only hasd diabetes for three years.  Lows have been so be I have actually gotten to the point where they effect me psychologically, I go to bed fearing that I will wake up low, so I debt for hours before bed how much lantus I should give myself. Lows can really mess up your life because you literally have to stop your life whatever it is you may be doing to eat a pack a smarties or something... I hate having to stop life for the lows, it is like when you get sick and you can't remember a time when you actually felt healthy. With lows you just do not seem to remember how you can ever return to reality and feel "normal."