• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Diabetes and Anxiety

B

Beanie

Newbie
Messages
4
Hi all,

I am 35 and have been diagnosed with Type 1 for about 4 months now (after being wrongly diagnosed with Type 2 for 5 years!). The trouble is i have been suffering with anxiety ever since i found out that i needed to go on to insulin. Not because i'm scared of needles but because i'm terrified of hypo's or the thought of hypos. I started off ok but since then i've had quite a few hypos and the symptoms are very similar to anxiety ie raised heartbeat, dizziness, confusion etc etc. So now when i'm anxious i keep thinking i'm having a hypo and panicking (running to prick my finger etc), so now i keep pricking my finger all the time. The trouble is sometimes i am having a hypo and so i just keep going round in circles. I have spoken to the doctor about my anxiety and she has given me some medication but that was only last week and is yet to kick in. I'm also due to recieve some counselling. I try and remain calm and say to myself "dont test your bloods" but i cant help it, i would say i'm checking at least 10 times a day. At this rate i wont have any fingers left by the time i'm 40 :?

Does anyone else suffer with this?

Thanks

Beanie
 
What a relief in reading this! I'm 21 with 2 young children and the anxiety over hypos has taken over my life. Problem is the signs of lows are similar to panic so I probably over test.
I can't go out alone with my kids if it's been less than 2hours since I've had my novorapid, since I find it hard to get out of a hypo once I've had that. I had a carb free day today and only had my basal and I've felt alot more relaxed but still abit on edge.

I've spoken to my dsn about this but I've had no advice.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Hi Beanie
I've had something similar, so I know where you're coming from, even if no two people have exactly the same experience. The first time I had a panic attack, many years ago, I thought it was a hypo, ate lots of sugar, then panicked even more because the 'hypo' wouldn't stop. Getting a hypo and panicky feeling mixed up is easily done so testing is probably pretty sensible.

The anti-anxiety meds will kick in soon and you may find you're just not as anxious, so in the meantime test whenever you feel have to, and use different parts of each finger each time. Please don't feel guilty about about testing; better that than not being bothered! I've just gone on a pump and am testing about 10 times daily too.

Things really will settle, Beanie, so hang in there. You've had a bad experience being misdiagnosed but do remember that now you're on the right track, which is great. Good luck with everything.
 
Hi Beanie,
I went through EXACTLY what you're going through. When I was diagnosed I was given insulin, a glucose meter and told to get on with it. As a result I had a couple of really bad hypos, whilst out-and-about and this TERRIFIED me. I went from a confident, out-going 19 year old to being riddled with anxiety about hypos. I once didn't leave the house for two weeks because I was scared of having a hypo whilst out of the house.

I used to panic if my sugar levels were below 7. If they were I'd test every 10 mins to make sure I wasn't going hypo. I was a nervous wreck. I had the same symptoms as you, dizziness and confusion. It went on for about 2 or 3 years.

What got rid of most of my anxiety was learning that I could deal with hypos. I could always get myself out of them, so convinced myself that I would be ok every time I had one. I accepted that I was going to have them not matter how hard I tried not to. There's three rules I'll give to you: always carry your glucose meter with you, always have some dextro tablets on you and always have a bottle of Lucozade for emergencies.

As for hypos, if my sugar levels are in the 3s, have 3-5 dextro tablets, if that doesn't work have a couple of glugs of Lucozade. If in the 2s, you need to get some Lucozade in you.

The key to avoiding lots of hypos is to eat fewer carbs. Fewer carbs means smaller doses of insulin, which leads to smaller mistakes and less severe hypos. I've been low-carbing for about 8 months and went from a few hypos a week when eating carbs to less than a few a month. The hypos I have now are only ever in the high 3s and are easy to deal with. I strongly advise you to follow a low-ish carb routine if you want to avoid the hypos as this is the only thing that worked for me and the only thing that got rid of my anxiety. In fact, for anyone with hypo-related anxiety please seriously consider low carbing, it's removed any anxiety I had about hypos.

BTW, beware of the honeymoon period where your pancreas will produce a bit more insulin before completely giving up. You may experience a few hypos before it packs in completely.

Sorry for the waffle!!
 
Thanks guys

Thats some really usefull advice and i'm so glad that i'm not alone!!

I'm still feeling really anxious but it would appear i'm in the 'Honeymoon' period at the moment. I'll give you an example. The day before yesterday i had sugar levels of 17 pre meal, i know i've been going low recently so i only had 8 units of insulin. I had lots of carbs, mash potatoe, fish cakes etc and two hours later i went into hypo (2.4). A few months a go i would have had at least 12 or 14 units of insulin for a meal like that and i would have been fine. So its no wonder i'm really anxious at the moment. If i'm honest i wish my pancreas would just pack up completely so that at least i know where i stand with regards to injecting the correct amount of insulin. At the moment my bloods are all over the place.

Thanks for the support guys!

Beanie.
 
Beanie,

Do you carb count? (I am not a medical professional) but it seems to me that perhaps 8 units was too much even for the large serving of carbs. Perhaps you should ask to go on a DAFNE / BIANCA type course to help you to better match your insulin to carbs? It does seem though, that you might well still be in the "Honeymoon" period.

Just a thought.
 
Thanks Dougal

I actually attended a Carb counting course yesterday and that was pretty usefull. Only problem is that everybodies sensitivity to insulin is different and thats the hard part for me. As i said the amount of insulin i require at the moment is half what i needed a couple of months back. But i will get there in the end.

Thanks for your support and advice.

Thanks

Beanie :thumbup:
 
Hi, sorry if this is off topic but may i ask how you were wrongly diagnosed?
 
Hi Andy

They assumed (because i was 28 at the time) that i was type 2. In fact i spent the first two years on diet control and achieved hba1c's of 5.9! Then it started going wrond and they kept upping my tablets until i was on maximum Gliclazide and Metformin. In the end they did a C peptide test to establish if i'm T1 or T2 and it came back positive for T1. Apparently i'm quite a rare case whereby i have 'late onset T1'. It appears that it got caught really early, hence the low bloods to begin with. Only positive thing is that i never went any time without knowing i had it. Hopefully that will pay dividends with potential complications later on in life :)

Regards

Beanie
 
As you can see Beanie you are definitely not alone with this problem. I suffer too from fear of hypos and am waiting on a course of cognitive behavioural therapy to help me cope. It's not just hypos either - since having a pump I have a real fear of high sugars and developing ketones. I'm hoping that these sessions will help me cope in extreme anxiety situations. If it's any consolation at my worst point 2 years ago I was testing almost every 30 minutes and getting up through the night to test. Like you I would feel hypo, sweat and almost collapse to the ground. i would immediately think hypo and drink a bottle of lucozade and test straight afterwards to find it was an anxiety attack and not a hypo. My journeys home from work would take forever as i would have to stop every 10 minutes to test. There was no immediate help available so I just had to stick in there and grin and bare it for about 6 months but somehow I managed to improve things especially why I started really believing that glucose would get me out of a hypo. My husband and work-place were understanding and a huge help too so I hope you have support around you. I still test and awful lot though as that re-assures me. I think the counselling will help you as I've read from others on here that it helped them enormously. All the best. :thumbup:
 
Back
Top