Insulin For....Depression?

[Austin_98]

Not sure if this is at all related to the fact that they used to use "Insulin Therapy" [deliberately-induced severe hypoglycemia in non-diabetic patients via insulin] to treat mental illness until the mid 20th century, but...
I get significant and immediate relief from almost all symptoms of depression when I become hypoglycemic?
I was feeling the lethargy and low mood pretty badly today and I'm hypoglycemic right now* (BG 3.0) and feel 90% better. I notice this happens a LOT. And if my glucose gets below 2.3 or so I get a very high, giddy, happy feeling. Is this some weird effect unique to me, or is it common?

*Note: not on purpose! I made myself some food, calculated the carbs, injected the insulin, but when I started eating it, discovered I had no appetite and threw it away.

 

[Inka]

Insulin therapy was a barbaric treatment @Austin_98 People were put into comas and had seizures day after day. All for nothing really as studies showed that other treatments had similar affects. It was mainly used for schizophrenia not depression.

The ‘calm’ you feel when your blood sugar is low is your brain ‘switching off’. It’s not a good thing. Depression is associated with anorexia, both directly and indirectly. Eating regularly and properly can help, as can finding the appropriate meds. Frequent low blood sugars, especially severe hypos, can cause brain damage and affect the heart.

As a note, if you inject your insulin but then don’t fancy your meal, you still need to make up the carbs with something else eg biscuits, milk, cereal or whatever.

 

[helli]

Just to add, if you often finds you don't finish the meal you have taken your insulin for, you could try injecting after eating. You may experience a BG spike but that will be better than hypo.

 

[Satan’s little helper]

Not sure if this is at all related to the fact that they used to use "Insulin Therapy" [deliberately-induced severe hypoglycemia in non-diabetic patients via insulin] to treat mental illness until the mid 20th century, but...
I get significant and immediate relief from almost all symptoms of depression when I become hypoglycemic?
I was feeling the lethargy and low mood pretty badly today and I'm hypoglycemic right now* (BG 3.0) and feel 90% better. I notice this happens a LOT. And if my glucose gets below 2.3 or so I get a very high, giddy, happy feeling. Is this some weird effect unique to me, or is it common?

*Note: not on purpose! I made myself some food, calculated the carbs, injected the insulin, but when I started eating it, discovered I had no appetite and threw it away.

Hello, “insulin shock therapy” was wrongly assumed to reboot the brain out of psychosis.
I don’t have depression but at those levels can be quite chatty & open in social circumstances spouting esoteric nonsence. (Think Spud in the job interview scene on amphetamines, in the film Trainspotting?)
Before the sensors. I would get a sweaty feeling of “euphoria” before realising I was low.
I’m lucky in one sense. I have seen others argumentative & spoil for a fight?