Mild/Moderate Hypos Feel Terrible But Severe Ones Feel...Good??

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Austin_98

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I was diagnosed (type 3c) 2 years ago but only been actually taking my insulin properly for a couple of months so new to this.
I've noticed when I have mild or moderate hypos (BG of 3.0 - 4.0) I feel really terrible as expected, trembling, weakness, sweating, anxiety, tachycardia etc...but when they're more severe, once they get below around 2.5 all of those symptoms go away and I actually feel GOOD :/
I have depression and I notice immediate relief from all depressive symptoms and I feel really happy, albeit in a giddy way.
Is this type of reaction normal? Does anybody else experience this or know the science/reasoning behind it?
 
It is really interesting as I have been puzzling a similar sort of situation with the medication I am taking for anxiety and depression. I think perhaps what the hypo may do is starve your brain of glucose so it has to shut down some of the "waffling" that the anxiety and depression cause it to do and leaves you with less uncertainty. Not sure if that makes sense, but with my anxiety and depression I find decision making really hard or even knowing what I actually think, because my brain is dithering. The medication (Amitriptyline in my case) may be dampening down that dithering mechanism that I get stuck in. Interestingly, I am finding that I am having a lot of nocturnal hypos since I started taking it.... almost every night my BG is just below 4 and I can wake up repeated times and take JBs but it goes back down again, despite reducing my evening basal dose to zero. It is like that is where my body wants to be. The other odd thing is that I am having the weirdest dreams with this medication. Not particularly scary or stressful, but just weird and vivid, but often linked to the past. Previously, despite my mental problems, I slept like the dead and almost never had dreams, so this is very obviously linked to the medication. Sleep was very much my refuge from the anxiety and I know that I am incredibly lucky for that to be the case as many people with stress and anxiety can't sleep, but I could sleep round the clock given half a chance. The medication seems to be helping my mind process stuff which has been supressed for a long time, through these vivid dreams. These are not particularly traumatic events or anything but perhaps just little niggling regrets about how I handled certain situations in the past.
I don't find the nocturnal hypos a particular problem and I am back to sleep within minutes of treating them, it's just odd that they are happening even when I have no active insulin on board and I can eat a JB or 2 which would normally raise me 1.5-3mmols and yet my levels will rise very little and then drop back down and flat line in the red again even at 6am when most people would be experiencing DP.

You also have to consider the circumstances of your hypos before drawing any obvious conclusions. If you levels are dropping fast then you usually feel them earlier and they can feel pretty strong, but if your levels are dropping very slowly, perhaps whilst you sleep, then it can be that you don't feel any obvious hypo signs because your senses are already dulled by sleep.
 
I would think it’s a kind of brain failure/stupor (can’t think of the right word) due to your brain being unable to function properly @Austin_98 Or perhaps it’s almost a protective thing? When you’re that low, bad things can happen so maybe the brain has some kind of mechanism that floods you with calming/vacant chemicals.
 
The feelings and symptoms you describe sounds like the reason some people can be misinterpreted and are accused of being drunk by people who don't know the person is diabetic.
When I did my first aid training it was one of the symptoms to look out for and check for any medialert.
 
Austin_98 said:
I was diagnosed (type 3c) 2 years ago but only been actually taking my insulin properly for a couple of months so new to this.
I've noticed when I have mild or moderate hypos (BG of 3.0 - 4.0) I feel really terrible as expected, trembling, weakness, sweating, anxiety, tachycardia etc...but when they're more severe, once they get below around 2.5 all of those symptoms go away and I actually feel GOOD :/
I have depression and I notice immediate relief from all depressive symptoms and I feel really happy, albeit in a giddy way.
Is this type of reaction normal? Does anybody else experience this or know the science/reasoning behind it?
Click to expand...

Sometimes these things are hard to explain, although @rebrascora theory sounds like a possible one.

Just know at 2.5 or below I'm a wreck sweating away looking for glucose.
 
rebrascora said:
The other odd thing is that I am having the weirdest dreams with this medication. Not particularly scary or stressful, but just weird and vivid, but often linked to the past. Previously, despite my mental problems, I slept like the dead and almost never had dreams, so this is very obviously linked to the medication.
Click to expand...
That’s definitely a side effect of amitryptaline, it gives me those too
 
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