4 years into being Type 1 and mood swings

[robsafe1]

I was diagnosed in 2004 and been on novarapid and glargine since then. I have suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since about a year after diagnosis - similar feeling to going high for me so may have been sooner.
My whole life seeems to have changed for the worse in terms of mood swings in my relationship with my wife and family. I take 40mg of citalopram a day for the panic attacks which I have been on for 18months +.
Anyone else had similar problems?
What about changing insulin?
I have seen numerous doctors,psychologists and even done some CBT and NLP.
Any help appreciated!!

 

[jopar]

robsafe1

How are you BG's in general,

If you are swinging from hypo to high on a roller coaster effect, then this can have quite a effect on your mood swings... Even running high can have the same effect..

You could always ask to be swapped to animal insulins, as I'm sure that some have said similar to what your problems are and moving to animal insulin have seemed to have helped..

 

[sugarless sue]

Please ask your doctor to review your use of Citalopram, sometimes anxiety medication can have the paradoxical effect of causing anxiety and mood swings.

 

[Geoff]

Hi robsafe, I was on glargine for the first 18 months post diagnosis of type 1, I also had problems with mood swings during this time, I read some ware that glargine can have this effect on some people, so I asked my Diabetologist if I could swap to levimer, he had no problems with this and within about a month the mood swing problem was gone.

 

[DiabeticSkater]

The mood swings can be a real pain. tighter "control" can improve things but I still get mood swings after 30 years and its just something which you must learn to live with. A different insulin may help as in the past I have used insulin which just didnt work well for me. I also find that my mood is far worse when high and is far more difficult to deal with. The stress put upon those around us due to the diabetes is really hard to deal with. I know exaqctly where your coming from.

 

[robsafe1]

Thanks my levels are good with my readings averaging out at around 6.7.
I will ;ook into changing insulin and spea to the quack about the happy pills. First time on a forum like this and really appreciate the feedback....and most of all reassurance that this is normal!!

 

[hanadr]

robsafe
you say your readings are good at 6.7. thats what the medics think is good enough for us diabetics, but it's higher than a non-diabetic would be.
Read Richard EBernstein's Diabetes solution and see if you can't tighten up to non-diabetic numbers. Several T1s on this forum have managed it.and quite a few t2s. the average showing on my meter at the moment is 5.2. i'm a very stable T2 on Metformin and low carb diet and try to keep in the non-diabetic range i.e. 4.5 - 5.5

 

[janabelle]

Hi Robsafe1
Your posting struck a chord with me, regarding the anxiety.
I came off Lantus(Glargine) after 4 years of misery, last May, and switched to Pork Insulin.
Last week I set out, after putting it off for 6 months, to write my experiences for an article for the IDDT about the awful time I had while on Lantus and the side effects I suffered.
The first side-effect I was aware of was feelings of anxiety. At the time, my 12 yr old son had just finished cancer treatment for Ewings sarcoma and my father was dying of lung cancer, and died in 2004. At the time I put the anxiety down to stress and grief, as did my doctor.
When I think back, it all started soon after starting on Lantus. Sometimes I felt like I couldn't breath properly, othertimes strange feelings in my mouth and tongue, almost like a panic attack. I didn't think I was stressed. I had been under much more stress than that in previous years with my son's illness, so it didn't make sense to me. I now believe it was directly to do with the Lantus. In the same year I developed joint and muscular pains, which is a common complaint from people on Lantus.
While on Lantus I often felt unusually tense, and almost like I was about to have a fit; since coming off it I have not felt like this.
I appreciate that some people on Lantus appear to suffer no side-effects, but I know of others who have suffered similar probs to me.
In your case I think a change of insulin is worth a try. Pork insulin is highly purified and the closest to human insulin. My suspician is that insulin has many functions, and while synthetic insulins try to minic it's action by lowering blood sugar, it must surely lack in some other things vital to us. Perhaps tis is why people like me suffer side effects after such a long time on synthetic insuliins. I was on "human " synthetic insulins for 15 years, and Lantus for 4.
Let me know what you think.
Jus

 

[farmerfudge]

Oh my God! This is fascinating stuff. I've been suffering incredible mood swings since being diagnosed type 1 three years ago. I'm on 24 units of Glargine a day. I get really angry with a very short fuse too and I was never like this before. I also blush really heavily now which I didn't do previously. Obviously going to talk to the doc. No ones ever mentioned the side effets of any insulin to me before. Unbelievable!

 

[janabelle]

Hi Farmerfudge,
Your symptoms are not caused by your diabetes, unless your control is brittle;that is swingling high and low, cos that can make u feel like **** anyway. Lantus did not control my blood sugars at all, it was yo-yo all the time.
Don't expect to get any sense from your doctor though. I reported all my problems to many doctors and I was ignored., this is a common problem. The only real test is to get off the synthetic muck, and go for pork or beef;pork is the closest to natural human insulin, that's what I'm on.
Your doctor should not have any objection to you trying it and seeing how you get on. If he/she does, you need to question it. If you've any further probs you really should contact the IDDT, they are a good source of info on this issue if you've any doubts.
What we all strive for is a good quality of life and good blood sugar control, medics and pharmaceutical companies have their own agendas.
Good luck and let us know how you get on. Hope things improve for you.
Jus

 

[KimSuzanne]

I have to say I agree with Janabelle about the Lantus - I've just started demanding to come off it as I've been suffering the worst fellings of anxiety and tension plus very low sugars in the middle of the night which cause quite severe psychosis states. I'm sure it affects other functions in the body afterall it is a hormone. I worked with someone who was a body builder and took insulin as a steroid - he had a seizure and became epileptic! It messes with the brain/body chemistry I think.

 

[farmerfudge]

Well I must confess that I do go through frequent periods of YoYo-ing from high to low readings, mainly from taking strong corrective doses to counteract high readings. So Janabelle is probably bang on right with the assessment that this is the cause of my mood swings (massive periods of irritability anyway).

I know this YoYo-ing is bad but just been me really and my personality, I want things quick if you know what I mean. There's no excuse, I just hate having high readings everytime I test my sugars so I take the larger dose to bring it down quickly but then I often over-shoot and go v.low as a result . You worry about being high all the time and it's longterm effects etc . The worst thing is since looking at this forum with regards to everyones brilliant Hba1c results envy has also kicked in and I really want to acheive these good results too (although I know my current actions aren't the right path to this). I've had better Hba1c readings before but this was when I was hyop-ing all the time which drove down the average reading. My consultant says my current result is high but indicative of better control , ie, less hypos.

I adopt the DAFNE approach and eat what I like, but take the insulin to cover it (in theory). Although it's taken a long time for me to get the courage to take the larger volume of insulin to cover the larger volumes of carbs. I have an erratic lifestyle too.I spend my working day largely sat at a desk, then home to look after a young toddler, and at weekends loads more physical activity. 3 years from diagnosis I'm still finding control evasive as ever. Fair play to the folks on here who exercise common sense, knowledge and will power to get the results they want!

 

[jopar]

farmerfudge

Reading your post, has left me wondering something...

Can I ask? When you are correcting a high do you?

using DAFNE I unit of insulin reduces your BG by 3mmol/l

If you have a high BG 12.6 using DAFNE theory, you would inject 2 units to achieve a BG of 6.6mmol/l?

That you are looking at this figure and thinking to yourself, well if 2 units brings me down by 6mmol/l so if I take 4 units this will bring it down quicker than 2 units of insulin?

If this is how you are correcting, then it is now surprise that you are getting hypo's, 4 units wont actually bring you down quicker than 2 units, all what happens is you BG's will reduce at the same pace but what you will do is end up with more insulin in your body than worakle glucose in the blood, when you hit the hypo, it is hard to know how much insulin is still left in the body, which by treating the hypo and having to guess how much insulin there is to to feed glucose can cause a high.. Then a rebound low again...

I may have read your post wrong and I do apoligise if I have and I'm getting the wrong end of the stick

 

[farmerfudge]

Hi jopar,

What I was told at DAFNE was to take no more than 3 units for a corrective dose at any one time(I think), then wait, re-test and then give further dose if required. I wasn't thinking that a higher dose acted quicker but anticipated (wrongly) that the 3 units wouldn't be enough and that I would have to take further doses anyway so take a larger dose in one go to begin with. Obviously this is where I come unstuck. My doses are often ill-matched for the BG andf hence the resulting hypo. I think the key thing I'm missing is the patience to wait?

 

[jopar]

farmerfudge

I thought I might have read it wrong, sorry

Hmm, if you are correcting that much, might be an idea to look at what your background insulin is up to..

Might need to increase your dose of this, or if you haven't already split the background insulin to you can adjust to be able to get a better more stable coverage..

Another thing you could so is revaluate your carb counting, as you might be having more carbs than you think, as it is easy over a period time for this to increase and knock everything out

 

[farmerfudge]

Hi jopar,

I'm on 24 units of Glargine a day taken at night. I've had conflicting advice on this one. During the course of the DAFNE week this was gradually reduced to 16 units under the nurse's instruction, which was fine in the short term, but by the time of my annual review with the consultant a few months later he advised to go back up to 24 units. I asked about splitting it and he said no because there was no benefit to this as it is an effective insulin for a 24 hr period. :?:

I strongly suspect my carb counting is off as I use a lot of guesstimation when eating things that dont have a packet with carb breakdown on it. And as mentioned my lifestyle is erratic so I move from doing little exercise to a lot of physical exertion so planning is a complete mare at times. But that's why I'm on this site really for some education and advice to get things more 'controlled'. Thanks for the input

 

[Blackadder]

I was told no to splitting Lantus too as it is a 24 hour working insulin and as my written down BS results were so good there was absolutly no need to do so.

What I didn't say was that I had already split thats why they were that good. Unfortunately not good enough for 4-5mmol permanent which is what I strive for, so more work to be done.

I don't believe that taking Lantus at night it lasts anywhere near 24 hours, 12 at the max in my short experience of it.

 

[farmerfudge]

I usually take my 24 units of Lantus at 10pm at night.
So if i was going try splitting this dose would I literally take 12 units at 10pm and the other 12 at 10am?

 

[totsy]

hya,
my lantus does last me all day but i would half it like u say and over a few days see what happens you can always add a bit to one and take from the other to get a perfect result

 

[farmerfudge]

I imagine the consultant will go nuts but I'm going to give it a go