Diabetes and Mental Health

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AceFace

AceFace

Forum Moderator
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
In 2017 when I first came to this site, having just been put on insulin, first mixed then Tresiba and Humalog it absolutely affected my mental health I was suffering from anxiety and panic attacks, I was in constant fight or flight mode and was not only fighting diabetes but anxiety which was taking a huge toll on my health. I had two hidden disabilities.

Its hard to understand the irrational thoughts and behaviour with someone who has metal health issues, to give you an example, when I took my insulin I thought I was going to die, then would sit around waiting to die, eventually needing cognitive therapy, I think its underestimated the toll having diabetes takes on your mental health, you think about it 24 hours a day and sometimes it’s exhausting , I have learned to manage that now and I’m much more experienced in managing my diabetes well sort of.

I feel for the newbies who join this site, some in blind panic having just been diagnosed and what a fantastic job people do for these people on this site you all should be proud of yourself, its nice to get a pat on the back for the help you give, you certainly helped me in the early days.

You will be pleased to know those days are behind now for the moment, I would like to see a Diabetes and Mental Health Thread and am interested to know other people’s experience with Diabetes and Mental Health
 
I already had mental health issues before I was diagnosed, struggling with a loss of confidence and anxiety/panic attacks making things like going to a party or social event really challenging to the point that I would be in tears getting ready and often ducking out at the last minute. I still really struggle with those situations but oddly the diabetes hasn't really thrown any extra spanners in the works in that respect and perhaps even improved it a little because the low carb diet that I adopted at diagnosis has, I think, improved my mental health a bit.
Libre really changed my approach to my diabetes management and it has really just become a game of keeping my levels in range as much as possible and trying for a new personal best TIR result when things are going particularly well. I tend not to carb count anymore so that is a big mental strain removed and just respond to my Libre with a tiny bit more carbs if the low alarm goes off or a bit more insulin when the high alarm goes off, depending upon what it shows. Yes, I might end up doing 10 injections a day sometimes, but I have to do more anyway following a low carb way of eating because protein needs to be injected for after meals and the physical stuff is always much easier to manage than extra mental strain, so a few more jabs is no big deal compared to the weighing and calculating and wondering if I have got it right and if it all goes wrong afterwards, wondering why it went wrong. Just responding to my Libre readings and doing lots of scans to help me understand how my body works has taken a lot of the mental strain out of it for me. I think having lots of hypos and learning to manage them well and not to panic has given me confidence with that too.
 
I think what I am saying is that learning to manage my diabetes well through the information I have gained from this forum and the experiences kindly shared by the members here and using the tools that I now have has empowered me to be good at my diabetes management and that has given me confidence......just wish I could apply that to other situations!!
 
Thanks for sharing your experiences @AceFace

Diabetes UK have been researching, and trying to raise the profile of the mental health challenges which are faced by people living with diabetes - which affects perhaps 60% of people living with the condition.

www.diabetes.org.uk

Three in five people with diabetes experience emotional or mental health problems

In one of the largest surveys carried out by Diabetes UK, 8,500 people of different ages, ethnicities and backgrounds from across the UK shared their experiences living with diabetes today, and what their hopes and fears were for the future.
www.diabetes.org.uk www.diabetes.org.uk
 
I have been in psychiatric hospital twice for severe depression including several attempts to end my life . I therefore since diabetes diagnosis suffer with two serious and very stressful conditions . I find that one bounces off the other .

I have had a great deal of help and support from this site and I have yet to find a mental health forum that can provide me with armbands in the same way this one does for diabetes .
 
I was surprised by the impact my T1 had on me. I got better and better at managing my Ti with the improvement in equipment and the use of sensors, and set myself totally unrealistic targets to meet, and inevitably ‘failed’ And became overwhelmed by it all. I eventually asked for help and shared the strategies that I used on here.
forum.diabetes.org.uk

Successful strategies so far in dealing with depression and Diabetes

I found it tempting to hide away over the last couple of months. After 9 years of Diabetes I finally hit a wall as HbA1c reached the mid 40s and so no longer improved, spinal stenosis gave me numb feet over night, an MRI showing lesions on the brain and I watched my Mum die of Dementia...
forum.diabetes.org.uk forum.diabetes.org.uk

I agree that the impact of any chronic condition on emotional health is often overlooked, and it is good that people are more open about mental health in all walks of life. I also feel that peer support has a massive impact and getting help from people on here had a massive impact, including in persuading me to get help.

I reflected on this recently when I organised a concert for Diabetes UK. I had gone from being overwhelmed by my unrealistic expectations and consequent ‘failure’ to now composing and singing songs about my management, and about my pump. Then organising a concert, performing, singing a solo talking to a large crowd about Diabetes. A marked contrast to the person 5 years ago.
It felt very much like a big celebration and I know that in a weird way ‘benefitted’ from my diagnosis.
 
SB2015 said:
I was surprised by the impact my T1 had on me. I got better and better at managing my Ti with the improvement in equipment and the use of sensors, and set myself totally unrealistic targets to meet, and inevitably ‘failed’ And became overwhelmed by it all. I eventually asked for help and shared the strategies that I used on here.
forum.diabetes.org.uk

Successful strategies so far in dealing with depression and Diabetes

I found it tempting to hide away over the last couple of months. After 9 years of Diabetes I finally hit a wall as HbA1c reached the mid 40s and so no longer improved, spinal stenosis gave me numb feet over night, an MRI showing lesions on the brain and I watched my Mum die of Dementia...
forum.diabetes.org.uk forum.diabetes.org.uk

I agree that the impact of any chronic condition on emotional health is often overlooked, and it is good that people are more open about mental health in all walks of life. I also feel that peer support has a massive impact and getting help from people on here had a massive impact, including in persuading me to get help.

I reflected on this recently when I organised a concert for Diabetes UK. I had gone from being overwhelmed by my unrealistic expectations and consequent ‘failure’ to now composing and singing songs about my management, and about my pump. Then organising a concert, performing, singing a solo talking to a large crowd about Diabetes. A marked contrast to the person 5 years ago.
It felt very much like a big celebration and I know that in a weird way ‘benefitted’ from my diagnosis.
Click to expand...

Well done on your achievement
 
I still feel like I’m just muddling through and that if I get decent BG readings it’s just a random fluke...after 15 years. I get really fed up sometimes. I often feel I can’t respond to a newbie’s questions cos it just takes me back to when I was first diagnosed. But there are positives - I take much better care of myself these days, and I’ve ditched some pretty destructive habits that were affecting my mental health. This forum is so important - supporting others and being supported, and knowing I’m not alone...I’m not sure where I’d be, mentally, without it. 🙂
 
Our mental health is as important as our physical health which is why I believe in balance. Sure, I could have better “numbers” and less risk of complications but at what cost to my mental health? We all need to find the right balance. For some of us, that means relaxing our diabetes results to stop it controlling our lives. For others, the balance is different: it is about tighter diabetes management to feel more confident to minimise risk of complications.
Another way everyone differs is our mathematical/artistic tendencies. As an engineer, I am comfortable looking at graphs, calculating ratios and tweaking corrections. But for my mental health, I have had to train myself not to have the perfect result. I had to train myself that diabetes management is as much of an art as it is a science.
The other thing important to me (maybe it is an engineering precision thing), is the language we use. I do not consider food bad: it has an effect that does not suit me. I do not consider myself bad: I consider my diabetes to be less predictable some days. But most importantly to me, I never try to control my diabetes. I am not a full time pancreas with little more to do. I cannot control how much my BG rises when I am stressed. I do not control my diabetes but I can and do manage it to my best ability.
Some may think of these as just words but words are how we communicate with others and with ourselves. If we are constantly being told we are failing, we feel awful. So, for my mental health, the right words make a huge difference.
 
I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia in 1992. I've seen it all. I often wish I was dead if I can be honest. You never know how someone is really feeling and often things seem fine right before they're gone. It's interesting people's attitude towards mental illness and diabetes. I give people the benefit of the doubt and a lot of slack. Because no-one totally understands until they have had to deal with it. And even then people are only human.
 
RichardsUsername said:
I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia in 1992. I've seen it all. I often wish I was dead if I can be honest. You never know how someone is really feeling and often things seem fine right before they're gone. It's interesting people's attitude towards mental illness and diabetes. I give people the benefit of the doubt and a lot of slack. Because no-one totally understands until they have had to deal with it. And even then people are only human.
Click to expand...

Schizophrenia? Are you taking medication ?

Do you find the newer medications brought in since your diagnosis are better ?
 
I find if I am having a bad day with my symptoms of diabetes my depression and anxiety is uncontrollable. And it's bad to start with !
 
Taffyboyslim said:
Schizophrenia? Are you taking medication ?

Do you find the newer medications brought in since your diagnosis are better ?
Click to expand...
Thanks. Yes I've been on medication for years and have moved on to a new and up-to-date med last year. It's under control but something I just have to live with. Severe Social Anxiety has been the bigger problem since I was made redundant from my job. Mainly because I have had no human interaction.
 
RichardsUsername said:
Thanks. Yes I've been on medication for years and have moved on to a new and up-to-date med last year. It's under control but something I just have to live with. Severe Social Anxiety has been the bigger problem since I was made redundant from my job. Mainly because I have had no human interaction.
Click to expand...

I was on a low dose of olanzapine to help me with anxiety but it gave me huge weight gain so I had to stop . Friends of mine who have schizophrenia are helped by medication but have to have regular blood tests .
 
Taffyboyslim said:
I was on a low dose of olanzapine to help me with anxiety but it gave me huge weight gain so I had to stop . Friends of mine who have schizophrenia are helped by medication but have to have regular blood tests .
Click to expand...
Yeah I piled on the weight when I started taking anti-psychotics. But at the time I was of the opinion I would rather put on weight than have the on another planet symptoms. The anxiety has got ridiculous. I had to resign from a well paid job in the Civil Service because I couldn't physically do the job. But as you would expect with an employer like the Civil Service they went out of their way to help. But I questioned whether that job was suitable for someone with a serious mental illness from the start and three months later after going through an absolute nightmare I was proven right.
 
I remember when I was diagnosed in 2011. It was a panic going home on the bus. I called a friend who had type 1 for 30 years. He reassured me. Prior to this I had coped with anxiety and depressive episodes. It was like a delayed response. I felt angry, then before I realised a depression came on. I recall having a cry, and getting reassurance from the Diabetes Support line. Since then, I was aware I had diabetes. Had my Hba1c tests. I was OK. Then when eye screen test came last month. It put a downer. A need for me to know my diabetes is still there. Positive from it, it got me to self check my blood pressure. In the process of acknowledging and accepting the eye test results, and making the necessary adjustments.
 
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