# Emotions & Blood-Sugar Levels: How Diabetes Can Affect Your Mood



## Northerner (Jul 9, 2014)

Diabetes can affect both your physical and mental health.

A diagnosis of diabetes certainly adds a huge emotional weight, which can often manifest as depression, anxiety or some other emotional issue.   The same goes for the stress of managing diabetes 24/7.

Recently, Joslin researchers discovered a link between high levels of glutamate (a neurotransmitter in the brain that is produced by glucose) to symptoms of depression in people with type 1 diabetes.

http://blog.joslin.org/2014/07/emotions-blood-sugar-levels-how-diabetes-can-affect-your-mood/


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## bill hopkinson (Jul 9, 2014)

Northerner said:


> Diabetes can affect both your physical and mental health.
> 
> A diagnosis of diabetes certainly adds a huge emotional weight, which can often manifest as depression, anxiety or some other emotional issue.   The same goes for the stress of managing diabetes 24/7.
> 
> ...



The figures are that if you are diabetic, you are three times more likely to suffer from depression than a non-diabetic, http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-and-depression.html

Chinese doctors say don't eat mango (high levels of glutamic acid) if have depression. Perhaps they are on to same effect as Joslin researchers?


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## trophywench (Jul 9, 2014)

Well - have to say, it does affect you mentally.  Dunno about T2 obviously, but I think that living with T1 if you treat yourself properly, just HAS to bring out the inner control-freak in a person.

The trouble is, if I let it spill over into my real, laissez-faire, life.


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## KookyCat (Jul 10, 2014)

trophywench said:


> Well - have to say, it does affect you mentally.  Dunno about T2 obviously, but I think that living with T1 if you treat yourself properly, just HAS to bring out the inner control-freak in a person.
> 
> The trouble is, if I let it spill over into my real, laissez-faire, life.



Well my inner control freak lives about a quarter of an inch below the surface, and she loves all the testing and weighing, and she loves a spreadsheet, practically hysterical if I let her have a graph.  When I got a new meter I could hear her squealing with delight . 

My blood sugar definitely affects my mood, if I'm in the fours or fives I'm my usual giddy self, higher and I'm pretty disengaged and my anxiety levels increase.  I'm usually eerily calm so much so that in hospital they were concerned I was in denial because I was so calm, I wasn't I'm just very logical.  Or I should say I was, lately I'm much more emotional


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## Redkite (Jul 10, 2014)

Control freakery doesn't come from fluctuating blood sugars - I admit to being a bit of a control freak about my son's diabetes!


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## Northerner (Jul 10, 2014)

Redkite said:


> Control freakery doesn't come from fluctuating blood sugars - I admit to being a bit of a control freak about my son's diabetes!



It's an interesting point. We have had, as you can probably imagine, countless people here on the forum who have been very upset because they are told they don't need to test and won't be prescribed strips. But what a lot of HCPs seem to ignore is that, whilst there are many people who are happy that they don't need to test, there are many people who feel much more in control if they know what their blood sugars are doing and not having that element of control can be very depressing. I think that people who seek out a forum such as this one soon after diagnosis tend to be the sort of people that need information so that they can get to grips with things and make any necessary modifications to improve things - they want to take an active role in their self-care. It is a shame that testing is discouraged by so many HCPs looking to save money short-term, rather than educating people on the benefits of testing and supporting them in doing so: it would lead to far fewer complications in the future and better quality of life.


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## bill hopkinson (Jul 31, 2014)

I went to my GP yesterday to lower my depression medication.

Since taking canagiflozin instead of sitagliptin and glicazide my moods are much more stable. 

Can still turn grizzly when sugars are low though.


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## Northerner (Jul 31, 2014)

bill hopkinson said:


> I went to my GP yesterday to lower my depression medication.
> 
> Since taking canagiflozin instead of sitagliptin and glicazide my moods are much more stable.
> 
> Can still turn grizzly when sugars are low though.



Good to hear Bill


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## HERE TINTIN (Jul 31, 2014)

I am awful if my bs is high, I shout and generally become quite scarey , ask my OH . I also freak if I don't know my bs and recently in hospital was totally unnerved when they insisted on doing my bs for me and when they started to tell me how much insulin to have and had to watch me set my pen and do injection I was about hysterical (on the inside, calm on the outside)


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## Northerner (Jul 31, 2014)

HERE TINTIN said:


> I am awful if my bs is high, I shout and generally become quite scarey , ask my OH . I also freak if I don't know my bs and recently in hospital was totally unnerved when they insisted on doing my bs for me and when they started to tell me how much insulin to have and had to watch me set my pen and do injection I was about hysterical (on the inside, calm on the outside)



Hehe! I remember right back when I was in hospital after diagnosis and I always had to ask the nurse what my numbers were after they had taken a reading - couldn't stand not knowing!  Can't imagine how it would feel after decades of doing it yourself!


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## KookyCat (Jul 31, 2014)

I committed the cardinal sin of doing my own blood sugar when they weren't looking AND changing my insulin dose.  They were most annoyed, they locked my pen in the drawer and threatened to take my monitor away.  My Mother was there at the time and I saw her visibly tense since she knows how much of a control freak I am.  I didn't say a thing, mostly because the DSN who came to see me had given me two monitors and two pens so I'd already stored one of each and half the needles in my handbag 

You did well TinTin I'm not sure how I'd react to someone trying to take control, but I imagine that since my childhood catchphrase was apparently "no Catherine will do it" in response to everything it wouldn't go well.  Not sure why I referred to myself in the third person but it probably doesn't bode well for my future mental health


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