Hypoglycemia and anxiety.

Underatand your fear

Hello Mark,

Only Someone who experience hypoglycemia can really understand you.
However, I do beleive that you should work on the fear from the difficulty to integrate the medical imperatives in your day-to-day live. I don't know how many times you test your blood sugar . I hope it's not too many times because of the fear. You should retain slowly to full life. The worst that can happen is hypoglycemia and if you have something to eat for it in your pocket, nothing will happen. I help several people with that fear. Some times it is hard to do it alone and you need someone to escort you on you new journey. I'm sure you can. If I do it, you can do it.

Iris Peleg

hya mark,
i can understand where u are coming from,
when 1st diagnosed i was in the middle of cbt for severe anxiety and the hypo bit made it worse for a while, once id experienced hypos the fear wasnt as bad as i realised that noone knew what was happening, e.g id have to sit down quickly and have glucose,
hypos are pretty awfull but you can soon remedy them,
i dont worry about hypos anymore, they happen and they go, plz try not to worry too much,
what exactly are u afraid of if u hypo??

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I have similar problems, and I'm treating them with diet. My anxiety got bad enough that it went into WPW heart arrhythmia and fainting.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases cluster. Where there is one, likely there will be others. Autoimmune diseases, not autoimmune conditions, are characterized by the immune system attacking tissue because it thinks the tissue has been compromised by an antigen. All but one of these diseases are attacks against transduction nerves, the nerves which control organs.

Anxiety is highly correlated with hyperthyroid ........graves disease. You can be tested for graves disease, and treat the symptoms. Or you can treat the cause. I prefer treating the cause. Otherwise autoimmune disease can continue spreading.
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just hang in there mark,
it does get better ..honestly,
its a big shock to the system being diabetic

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Do you feel that your problem is psychological or physiological?
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Keep a pack of glucotabs in your pockets and handbags, gym bags etc. Hypos are unpleasant, but not usually dangerous. In most cases, even if you were to pass out completely, Gluconeogenesis would bring you round. The exception would be an overdose of insulin.
The BIG risk with long term diabetes is complications from HIGH Blood glucose.
Take care if you've been drinking alcohol. Hypo can look like drunkenness.Wear a warning bracelet and once you've taken all precautions,go out and enjoy yourself. Taking a supportive friend with you if necessary for the first few times.
Hana

Mark

I'm 41 and was diagnosed with type 1 two weeks ago. I do understand how you feel, in general I am doing OK, but I am scared to go to sleep at night in case of a hypo (Its 2am now, looks like another sleepless night!).

I am also worried about going back to work in case I have a hypo.

I hope it will get easier.


Catherine

I thought that type 1 diabetics were usually diagnosed in their childhood years to late teens and that it was a rarity to have type 1 diabetes at the 30 to 40 era....
I am I misinformed or is this another case of doctors labelling type 2 insulin dependant diabetics as type 1's???

I thought that type 1 diabetics were usually diagnosed in their childhood years to late teens and that it was a rarity to have type 1 diabetes at the 30 to 40 era....

I was diagosed with Type 1 aged 39. It's more common than you might think to get it later in life!

diagnosed type 1. 11 weeks ago at 30. we're a growing bunch. Still trying to get back on my feet but this forum has been a great help

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Have a read at this page from the American Diabetes Association:

Thyroid Disease and Diabetes

Table 1 is significant. If I'm reading it correctly......... It says 6.6% of the general population have thyroid disease. The table says 11% of diabetics have diagnosed thyroid disease. It says roughly 56% of diabetics (513% of 11%) have subclinical thyroid disease. This leaves 44% of diagnosed diabetics who are either thyroid disease free or have diagnosed thyroid disease. Again, 11% of diabetics have diagnosed thyroid disease. This leaves 33% of diabetics with no thyroid disease.

It would be good if you could have your thyroid hormones checked while you are having anxiety.

Physicians and the public should get used to this. Autoimmune disease is one disease. The immune system loses the ability to distinguish between certain food proteins and antigens. So any time a threshold mass of these food proteins plugs into a body protein receptor, the immune system attacks the receiving tissue.

In the immune system specific chemical mechanisms distinguish food proteins from antigen proteins and translate these patterns for an immune response. These mechanisms get broken. In any individual the tissue which gets affected depends on genetic makeup and organ weakness of the individual.

(Edited to correct math errors)
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Hi Mark

Welcome to the site, it's good that you're able to talk on here and to your GP about how you're feeling.

There's quite a big overlap between the symptoms of anxiety and the symptoms of a hypo (the racing heart, the shaking and the sweating etc) so I can see how one thing might easily feed off the other as you might feel a bit anxious and then interpret that as the start of a hypo and then become more anxious and so on.......

Are you due to see your GP again for a review? It might be worth asking if you could be referred for CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). CBT is really good for specific anxieties or phobias and might be a way for you to tackle how you're feeling.

Have you had many bad hypo experiences yet where you lost control in public or is this something that you've yet to experience but fear will happen?

Take care and let us know how you're doing?

goji

mark,

No doubt that 10-12 times a day is too much tests. I know it is hard to say and even harder to listen but to have to let the diabetes control you life. Testing so many times is doing it. Try to reduce the number of testing slowly so you can see that you are safe. We are all facing hypoglycemia and nothing bad happens. We eat something sweet to raise the BG and it is OK. The first time it happened you were not prepare to it. But now you cab be. There are all kind of glucose that you can keep with you to be on the safe side.

Iris Peleg

I have to disagree. Testing 10 - 12 times a day is sometimes the only way to keep good control of your Diabetes. At the moment because of an unrelated medical condition I have to take a powerful drug which is playing havoc with my blood glucose levels. If I didn't test so often then I wouldn't know if I was safe to drive or do other tasks. I go from hyperglycaemic to hypoglycaemic in a matter of an hour or so with the resultant terrible feelings at each extreme. I want to stay safe and not endanger others.

As for some who say hypo's are nothing to worry about, that may be the case for most Type 2's, however for a Type 1 it can be a matter of life or death. So to gloss over the risks is not a wise move when answering a Type 1. There are well documented cases of Type 1's who do not have good control and are perhaps hypo unaware going much too low, dropping into a sleep, then into a Diabetic coma....after that who knows what would happen if nobody is around to help. I think it is best to tell the facts not gloss over something as if it is of no consequence.

As for the OP, have you ever suffered a hypo ? Do you know what one is like. They are not too bad if you are well prepared, then you will not worry, won't become anxious. Because you will be in control by knowing your Bg levels and what you need to do to get out of one.