violent tendencies

[jovis24]

My sons girlfriend developed diabetes a little over a year ago and at times becomes extremely violent..scratching , biting etc and has to be restrained. Is this something that happens with diabetes??

[annvuk]

I am a mother to a 15 year old with Type 1 Diabetes. My son has had violent reactions to extremely low and extremely high blood glucose levels. In one incident we had to remove all of our other children from the area because we feared he would hurt them.  He does not remember any of the indident.  That particular incident was when he went from extremely high to extremely low in a short period of time.

[JDRF Team SGG]

It does sound a lot like possible hypoglycemia, which is insulin overdose. If she misjudges the number of carbohydrates in a meal when she takes her insulin, her food may not match the insulin that she injects properly, and hypoglycemia is the result. It can make many diabetic people difficult to deal with, and she has NO knowledge of or control over what she is doing when this happens. So don't judge her harshly -- she is probably horrified when told about it later. It can take a newly diagnosed diabetic years to figure out exactly how to balance the meals and insulin, and mistakes are going to happen at first. So please be patient with her. If she starts behaving this way, or if she just doesn't seem like "herself", she SHOULD check her glucose. If low, she should drink some juice -- this will fix the problem quickly. Snacks digest more slowly, so candy bars are NOT the solution for a severe hypoglycemia episode.

Some diabetics react by becoming stubborn and resistant to suggestions that they drink some juice. We have the idea that "sugar" and sugary foods and drinks are "poison" to us, and when the brain is not functioning well because of hypoglycemia, we go into reflex mode and often refuse the food or drink we are offered. Personally, I respond best to a very firm, quiet voice -- don't ASK her if she needs juice, but TELL her very firmly and quietly: "Your sugar is low. You need to drink this." It then makes more sense to obey than to try to argue.

Symptoms that she needs to be on the lookout for are:
dry eyes,  dry mouth, yawning for no reason, sudden chills or sudden hot sweat, irritability, depression, tiredness, sleepiness, confusion, inability to concentrate (I notice this especially when reading), shaking hands, inability to make decisions. Any of these can mean that my sugar levels are dropping too low, so I watch out for ALL of them. When in doubt, test. There really is no set NUMBER of tests that should be done -- when you feel a little "off", you learn to test. I actually test when I wake up, about mid-morning, before lunch, at mid-afternoon (sometimes several times between lunch and dinner if I have a day where I need to be really on top of the levels), before dinner, and at bedtime. By testing every few hours, I can catch lows before they get dangerous, and I can catch high levels if they start to creep up on me, too. Good control is easiest when we test often.

Read this to your son so that he knows what to look out for, too. Type 1 diabetes is really a "family" disease in that it does affect the lives of those who love us. With good control, we can have very normal and productive lives -- I have been a type 1 diabetic for 37 years and I am a married professional woman with two healthy grown children now. I have no complications. I tell you this because a normal life is very possible nowadays and she will learn how to take care of herself with some trial and error.

Please feel free to give her this web address and tell her to contact us: www.jdrf.org

If she contacts us through the Online Diabetes Support Team link, we can match her up via e-mail with someone who can help her as she learns the "ropes" of how to take care of herself. We would be happy to communicate with her whenever she has a question. Each request is matched up with the very best possible match. She could request to be matched up with one of our young volunteers who are about her age, and we will try to do just that.

[jovis24]

Thanx for the reply.. she had these reactions while drinking but she stopped and these reactions continue. She has no recollection of the things she says and does and she is not on any percriptions. I'm not positive about the low blood but she does seem to be checking her levels on a fairly constant rate..I'm not sure how often exactly..how often should it be for the average 17 yr. old??

[jovis24]

Thanx for all of the information..I'll pass it on and hope it will help. I can see what you mean when you describe this as a "family disease" cause its doing a number on both families. And of course, as a young woman, shes finding this all very
difficult as I'm sure you know..thanx again.

[JDRF-Team-gg]

Hi jovis24!  We are not medical professionals, so any information picked up here on Medhelp should be verified with someone's physician/healthcare team.  The behavior you describe is not typical when it comes to diabetes but, if your son's girlfriend's blood glucose drops low, this may be her own personal reaction to it(I myself have not heard of this type of reaction).  Everybody is different though.  Do you know if this type of behavior happens when her blood glucose is low? Has she taken any drugs or had any alcohol?  Without knowing the specifics of what else may be causing this type of behavior, I really can't say if I think it's diabetes that's causing it.