depression with blood sugars below 100

[Pat588]

I am trying very hard to achieve tighter control.  I have had Type 1 for 46 years.  I am not presently having problems with extremely low blood sugars, but am getting more blood sugars between 70 and 100.  I become seriously depressed at those levels.  For example, last night I was working on a craft project and I started to feel blue and started to cry for no reason.  My blood sugar was 80.  Am I the only person who has this type of experience?  

[DennisIDDM]

Yep..your right on my friend.. Been there, done that..

eg: Low Sugar, means less sugar going to the Brain.. the brain needs sugar to keep itself working and In a positive mood..
Less sugar and you have less Endorfins thus Less blood flo to the body/brain and thus less  energy...( Like a Depressed Drunk )

And as for Immotions? Only those who have had this ( or a serious) Disease for many yrs and are getting older can understand..
We are getting older, we also know our Disease Kills us Sooner and at the least will make us more 'Dependent" on others and thus adds to our "Secret depression" we all carry around in our Brains..and starts to come to the surface subconsensly and then  rises to the surface..

Have you noticed your more Immotional watching some touching Story on TV?  Start to get Wattery eyes while even laughing or getting a Fell good moment..?  How about at family gatherings, watching the Younger Kids running around or How about the older one's whining about a minor problem...get you angry little...?

It all adds up my friend.. and it's part of growing Older..

And you didn't mention what your A1c's have been, but 70-90's shouldn't make you hypo... unless your've been  having High Levels for quite awhile ( 8+ A1c's ) and your body isn't used to Normal Levels... Get your Meter Calibrated at the next Blood Test- bring it with, etc.. odds are it's off 5-utpto 20%! ( mines off 6% I have to add to my readings, after going thru 4 meters.. the rest were worse..)

You can :
1. Test more often> every 2 hrs and see what's going on
2. get a CGM monitor
3. And do  the best you can towards ave <6% A1c's or better..
4. and try to Exercise  more... this raises those endorfins for hours...( Pumps your Metabolisum up ) to keep the blood flo going...

Keep the faith my friend...

[scw33]

I too get depressed with low sugars (around 50.0 mark) and have been told by 3 different endocrinologists that there are advancing studies linking hypoglycemia with depression.

The one good think about having depression brought on by a hypo is that it acts as a symptom.  I usually don't get sweaty or have headaches, but when I do get depressed I know it is time to check my blood.

I realise your concerns about the linkage.  Unless you have this strange form of depression you can't really describe it in words as it is unlike any other form of depression (it is literally physical!). It comes on so fast - accompanying the rapid drop in sugar levels.  

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can take for it besides glucose - or what you need to obtain for normal levels again.  It is such horrible experience, but remember that it is fleeting and will only last as long as your hypo.  

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

Actually, at 70, I can start to feel pretty awful at times, even though 70 is not particularly low, just borderline low. And sometimes at 80, I can start to feel some hypo symptoms if my blood sugar is dropping pretty fast. I think sometimes the fast drop is what triggers my symptoms more so than the actual number at that time. If I feel these symptoms, test, and find the number in the normal range, but test again a half hour later, it ALWAYS has dropped tremendously.

With tight control, we live on the borderline of hypoglycemia fairly often, and if your levels are dropping at times, you might feel symptoms of hypoglycemia even if the levels haven't quite dropped low yet.

Feeling depressed can be one of the symptoms of hypoglycemia. For some people, the symptom is more a sense of being irritable and snappish, and in other people it is unexplained depression or dissatisfaction with life in general. In my case, that depression lifts as soon as my sugars return to normal. I have a couple of suggestions that help me remain cheery:

1. You might want to calibrate your monitor to make sure that it is reading your levels accurately. Best to be sure about that.

2. You might want to do some experimenting to find out if you are having symptoms when dropping low BEFORE you are getting low. I mean testing when you feel this way, then holding off on juice and testing another 15 minutes to a half hour later to see what happened. Do take notes to see if there is a pattern.

3. Just tell yourself that this is PHSYICAL, and not emotional. You don't say if you are male or female, but women have other hormones to deal with that also affect moods, so it may be somewhat temporary. I have noticed through the years that my symptoms change constantly. One week I will feel blue if hypo, while another week it will be severe headache, while the third week my symptom may be breaking out in a sweat. I suspect that when we are tightly controlled and on that borderline of hypoglycemia a lot, our brains keep varying the signal to try to stop the hypos from happening. Sort of, "if this doesn't work, I will give her another signal".

[JDRF-VOL-RL]

Hello.  I'm not a medical professoinal, just the parent of a kid with diabetes.  You should be commended for dealing with this disease for 46 years without complication.  I hope my daughter can do that well.

First of all, blood sugars between 70 and 100 are awesome.  We should all strive to have that tight of control.  I don't understand why you would feel depressed with scores that good?  Blood sugars for healthy adults should be between 70 and 110, so if you're able to do that as a type 1, you are doing much better than most.  These are not low blood sugars, these are normal blood sugars.  

Are you becoming depressed any crying because you consciously think about these scores, or are you doing it involuntarily?  If it's the former, please understand that you are doing so much better than you are giving yourself credit for, and you shouldn't be beating yourself up for something that isn't a problem.  If it's the latter, than you should talk to your endocrinologist, as he may want to change your insulin therapy.  Good luck!