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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on September 25, 2011 at 6:58am

On the other hand, lots of people without diabetes also have emotional swings so perhaps not 100% of human emotional swings are diabetes related and, since people with diabetes are human, there's some potential that not 100% of the swings are, in fact, diabtes related. Probably some of them are and some of them aren't. There's some good discussion on the topic of the thread too but to just say "welcome to diabetes, you are doomed to a life of misery and despair" is simply not true either. As Hobbes said "life is nasty, brutish and short" and, while I don't disagree that life with diabetes is perhaps a bit nastier than the regular kind, it is still quite a bit more pleasant than the alternative.

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Permalink Reply by Pamaloo on September 26, 2011 at 5:22am

To Kelly WPA: Yes, this is what I am thinking might be happening. I know that the TSH doesn't mean much of anything and the free t4s are much more important with free t3s being the most important of all. I just thought it was weird that my TSH levels went down so much when my free t4s did not change at all and are still fairly low but I was feeling so much better for a while when nothing really changed according to my results. I was still feeling really good when I got my labwork done, too.

I'm having a hard time trying to assess the effectiveness of the levothyroxine without the free t3 result to see if I am having a conversion problem and actually need to take thyroid meds that offer both t3 and t4 (and my doctor just left the practice so I am in between endocrinologists and it's so hard to find a doc that will test for all of these things). I didn't have any thyroid antibodies as of the last time I got that checked (a few months ago) so I am really not sure why this is happening. I guess I shouldn't be so concerned about the cause but if I can find something strange that might offer a clue as to why my thyroid has decided to stop working properly then I want to do as much as I can to properly support it and keep it from deteriorating as long as possible since I couldn't do that at all when I developed type 1 at 10. I already avoid soy and flouride so I know this isn't adding to the problem.

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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on September 25, 2011 at 6:59am

One thing that occurred to me while I'm trying to decide whether to risk going for a bike ride in weather that looks rather gloomy and desperate is that a lot of people get hit with seasonal affective disorder at this time of year, pretty much until winter begins to lift?

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Permalink Reply by Gary on September 25, 2011 at 7:59am

On the other hand I believe its very possible that many people without diabetes that suffer from so called mental illness may just have both higher and lower then normal sugar ranges. I checked my brother once in the middle of the afternoon and he was around 150 which I thought was crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually gets diabetes as my dad got it later in life himself. He's 72 and been completely dependent on insulin for about a decade. Unfortunately for me I am addicted to carbohydrates which makes it more complicated to manage. The bottom line as Karen stated we are all different and I am not mental nor am I imagining things. There was someone else on here that said when she get's post 150 she feels sad and depressed and post 200 she feels suicidal. When my levels are off not only is it disturbing but its almost errie feeling like someone left me out in the middle of nowhere by myself and the sky is black. There is clearly both physical and mental stuff going on.

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Permalink Reply by Buckley83 on September 25, 2011 at 8:09am

Hi Gary,

I didn't mean to suggest you were mental and I know from experience that erratic swings in blood sugars impact on mood, nobody is doubting that causality. Although increased internal focus on these symptoms and anxiety can cause more problems.

Okay swings in blood sugars make you feel crap, probably more profoundly than most, so what can you do to minimise this? Go low carb? Test more? Adjust you insulin ratios, look at your basals? Talk to your endo?

I know you are desperate for a cure and think that your life won't change until this happens, but what about in the short term, is there anything you can be doing to stabilise your blood sugars, do you have the support of a decent health care team, have you considered an insulin pump etc?

I don't know you and am reluctant to make sweeping statements and judgements, but maybe depression, anxiety and stress are at play here as well. Maybe try discussing these with your healthcare team, what have you got to lose? I assume you want to be in a better place physically and mentally, pinning your hopes on a cure seems myopic in my opinion and perhaps if you made a few changes you might be pleasantly surprised by the results?

B

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Permalink Reply by Gary on September 25, 2011 at 8:31am

In general I am a huge worrier (parents) by nature and the swings intensify all my worries times 1k. I am not denying that back in 2001 I thought for sure either I'd be dead from diabetes or I'd be cured. I am devastated we are barely any further along to a commercial breakthrough then we were a decade ago. Like Lee Iaacocca made a promise to his wife that he would do anything in his power to help cure diabetes before he died I promised my mom I would be off insulin and finally at peace before she passes. At the end of the day I have to accept that I am going to have to live with anxiety and feel like hell physically and mentally the rest of my life and I can't accept that. It's like I got thrown in prison for something I did not do. I'm furious to say the least. I want revenge!

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Permalink Reply by Buckley83 on September 25, 2011 at 8:44am

I understand mate,

I got the disease from my mother, spent years looking after her, she died 6 years ago after a hypo that left her severely brain damaged.

The disease is f****** shitty, I don't deny that and it has significantly decreased the quality of my life, but I can't sit around focusing on the negatives forever, as I am scared I will be on my death bed and go "well you wasted that one mate" and there is nothing worse than a life of regrets.

I just hope you can make improvements, get a grip on some aspects and feel better. :)

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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on September 25, 2011 at 8:13am

You and your brother would be a *very* small sample size!!!

The original poster, a 12-year veteran, included the temporal qualifier "lately" which would suggest that those suggestions that include some reference to "now" instead of "all the time" would be more likely to address her particular complaint?

While diabetes may suck all the time for you and much of the time for the rest of us, her particular question dealt with energy now, rather than does diabetes suck? I am sorry to take over her interesting thread to argue about this stuff with you when I could just *find* one of the other threads where you have answered questions similarly to conduct this sub discussion.

Unfortunately I hate reading books about mental illness so I don't have any grasp of what percentage of human "so-called" mental illness could simply be attributed to BG fluctuations to which, of course, the answer as noted in many of the "food" threads is...low carb! I haven't read a lot of that literature either ("Game of Thrones!!") but haven't seen anything from any of the Low Carb Gang suggesting that there's a ton of evidence that low-carb makes you happier.

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Permalink Reply by Buckley83 on September 25, 2011 at 8:30am

I second this..

I have a MSc in Research Design and a huge amount of "studies" suffer from flawed methodologies and are often little more than bad science, which when looked at critically are relatively meaningless and insignificant to the general population, there is a huge disparity in the quality of empirical research and research can be used to support almost any argument, flawed research is often used in big pharma and the corporate world to sell products.

http://www.badscience.net/

I enjoy reading this website regularly and it provides a good insight into much of the above.

B

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Permalink Reply by Gary on September 25, 2011 at 9:09am

It's good to see many members here pursuing careers and accomplishing them. Another big mistake on my behalf but from my family background and with what I am suffering with from my diabetes I can barely read a paragraph and focus on it. I'd probably enjoy working in the diabetes field in regard to research (cure my own F******G disease) but I barely made it out of high school back in 84. My education is probably equal to a 5th grader at this point and time.

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Permalink Reply by Karen on September 25, 2011 at 9:23am

Well I just went through a 1/2 hour of feeling sad, angry, anxiety filled and had tested two hours ago at 92 and decided to have some cottage cheese and pineapple and no bolus.

Tested just now at 69 so it had nothing to do with any psychlogical issues, seasonal depression, etc. It had to do with a bloodsugar drop and the effects of what it does to my body physically and emotionally, and this happens all day long.

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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on September 25, 2011 at 10:32am

Ok, I'll agree that hypoglycemia produces feelings of depression, sadness, anxiety and all that. I look at hypoglycemia as a "side effect" of diabetes. Whenever I am doing something and find myself feeling sort of lost, I'll often find out that it is, in fact a hypo lurking there. I agree it's bothersome but maybe it's treating them w/ jelly beans, skittles and beer makes it more palatable for me and it doesn't bum me out. I get pleased that I figured out that it's not whatever dilemma was bumming me out and that once I get my head on straight, I'll work my way through it and feel some sort of sense of accomplishment for having done so.

I am much more bummed out by what just happened in "Game of Thrones" (#3) than anything my BG will do today. I'm a little bit bummed that my CGM seemed to have screwed the pooch on my bike ride but it's Sunday and I can always stick a new one in tomorrow. I dunno. I get plenty bummed out about diabetes but I just don't have this sense of overall misery that Gary conveys in his posts. I get tthat you have challenges too Karen but I have perceived that it's mostly tied to ups and downs. I guess it's a bit wearing but I am determined to kick its butt or die trying. Which is always a possibility now that I'm old? But I also am older than I thought I'd ever be so, in that sense, I have "won" a bet I'd have made with 20 year old AcidRock.

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