54 Comments
How much do you think your blood glucose levels impact your overall mood? (For example, being more likely to cry or feel sad when low, feeling irritable when glucose levels are high, etc.)
You must be logged in to post a comment.
© 2023 T1D Exchange. All Rights Reserved.
Very hard question to answer precisely. For the most part, i.e. most of the time, not at all. However, there is a very, very big “but.” And that is at a certain low level (60? 50?) where that irascible personality trait irritability kicks in. It’s not pleasant and neither am I. 🥶
It is the same for me.. When I worked [a long time ago] my work mates would say ” get charlie some candy”… Sometimes when I am out of range, I know what I did wrong… other times I just say it is part of life with T1D….
I answered “moderate.” How much BG affects mood is hard to measure. But, there is definitely a difference in my personality when I get very low, 40’s, maybe 50’s. I get easily irritable.
Years ago, before insulin pumps and blood testing, my BG levels were all over the place (but, I had no way of knowing that). I can remember feeling sad, even crying for no reason. It was like being severely intoxicated. It was common back then, but very rare now.
I resent even having T1 diabetes and having to deal with it, and I think they could find a cure for it, but big pharma makes too much $$ off of us to be really try to find a cure.
Cheryl, please don’t give up on a cure! I work with scientists, some who have spent decades and some their entire careers trying to cure this disease. There are good people working on it.
We need to have replicating living Beta cells reintroduced into our bodies … science hasn’t some up with the solution yet … but they are working on it.
In the meantime, I am grateful for the science that identified insulin as an important life sustaining hormone 100 years ago, and for the science of making various the synthetic and recombinant insulin formulas that have kept so many of us alive for the past 100 + years … The drug companies don’t make all that much money off of us … it’s the greed of PBMs in the health insurance industry that set high prices to suck up the profits.
All I can say is that 70 years ago when I started insulin the cost of it was my wage of one hour work !!!! The vial lasted for almost 2 months….
ConnieT1D62, what is a “PBM?”
I correct highs or lows immediately. Don’t have time for mood changes. Only get annoyed with myself if I go high. Means didn’t count carbs correctly.
See Mike S thread, I don’t feel it is as simple as getting the carbs right. Too many variables.
Fluctuates depending on how far out of whack they are, either high or low. Before cgm things could get out of hand before I realized now it is much easier or at least I am more aware and take time to correct
If my blood sugar goes high (+ 180) try making a bad line call on the tennis court. I get very, very argumentative. I’ll hound my opponents about their bad call the rest of the match. Truly the first sign of high blood sugar for me.
Conversely, low blood sugar might make me cry over an opponents’ bad line call. So, yes, my blood sugar influences how I perceive and react to the same event.
I think the only time I really notice it these days is when I’ve been in really close range for a good while, and then go out of it. I recently had such an experience, while struggling to get high readings down after a long (for me) period well in range. Couldn’t seem to keep myself from being crabby, after a period of being in such a good mood.
I remember being so astonished, in the months after I started pumping with the then-new Humalog, how much better my mood was (I’d been on Reg/NPH for most of my then 40-some years of diabetes). I remember asking if other people ordinarily felt that good?
I’d be interested to find out the difference in answers here between highs and lows. I would have said very much or moderately for lows for sure. They affect me with actual physical changes. Feeling floaty/tipsy, tingles in my hands and a tendency to snap more easily if someone asks me a question that I take the wrong way. Highs (which itself should be quantified – for me from a physical standpoint, I’d consider anything over 200 a high). These don’t affect me physically, so I might have said not at all. But those occasional steady highs of 160 that won’t go down – especially if I’m not eating anything to cause them – will make me anxious and grumpy. But that’s an emotional response vs. physical to this annoying disease that sometimes doesn’t follow the same set of rules from day to day. No food, but I’m having a bad day at work? T1 decides to make it even more challenging by spiking my blood sugar and keeping it up no matter what I try to do. Often I end up doing too much insulin to compensate, (especially if it creeps up even higher an hour after I’ve done the correction). And then I’ve done too much and I’m rollercoastering for the rest of the day and feeling like a failure for not being able to manage the disease…which of course the docs all claim is easy peasey based on carbs and nothing else. So physical effect of a high, not really – emotional effect, yes. especially if it’s a puzzler.
Amen to that! I find myself irritated when my BG won’t come down after an hour, so I do the same thing, with the same result, You’d think after 60 years of this, I;d be more ‘adult’ in my management, but not so. Still beating up on myself when bugs aren’t in range. Xx many variables. Sometimes I just want to cash in my chips…..
Good point! Sometimes hard to tell if the blood sugar levels physiologically causing mood changes or just the stress and burden of trying to manage T1D non-stop. Both valid. I was having a persistent high the other day and thought with frustration how I’d been doing this for 27 years and still sometimes suck at it. With T1D, practice does not make perfect. It’s endless guessing and troubleshooting.
Exceptionally well worded.
In junior high algebra, teachers used to admonish us, “Don’t try to solve 3 unknown variables with 2 equations.” Welcome to T1D [expletive deleted] where the variables vary considerably and the constants are only constant when they wanna be. 🤺
Well said, Mike S.
I definitely get irritable when my blood sugar is higher — but I’m never totally sure how much of that is because I’m annoyed *at my blood sugar* (or at myself for letting it go high) and how much is me actually being more irritable at the world in general.
I totally agree!🤪
After several months when I was low too often I even went for a mental check up. Now I have CGM, and am managing better, at least, that mood depression has left me
So glad you’re doing better RegMunro!
I mentioned my moods changes with lows above, but didn’t mention the sadness that sometimes follows a severe low. It can be defeating to work so hard to take care of yourself and have it sometimes go so scarily wrong.
Right now is moderate. I have accepted that at times I’m going to get lows and highs. The lows can be corrected easily. The highs are the one that take longer and are more annoying. With the Dexcom G6 at least I know ahead of time which way it’s going.
All last year I suffered of highs that were difficult to bring down. I learned three things: 1) they were caused by poor absorption on infusion site
2) I changed the site to my upper front thighs and that has helped a lot.
3) I inject a very moderate amount of insulin when I have absorption problems and reposition the site.
I also do this if I’m
having food that would bring my BG peaks very fast.
I don’t advise anyone to do this since it could bring you down faster than you want, but it works for me.
Highs make me tired, but low blood sugars can sometimes affect my mood and personality drastically.
Usually just a bit irritable and sometimes snotty. Like when going low after preparing Thanksgiving dinner last year and multiple unsuccessful attempts at wrangling the family to the table, I shouted “I’m low and a I’m getting less thankful!”
Sometimes lows make me very chatty. Other times quiet and spacey – a look my sister used to call “glassy-eyed” and my dad called “squirrelly.”.
Apparently once when the family tried to treat a severe overnight low, I fought them off and bit the cup when they tried to force me to drink juice. (Geesh self, don’t bite the hand that tries to save your life!) They jokingly referred to me as Old Yeller for a while after that. I’m the affable family pet when my blood sugars are normal, but if severely low sometimes act like I have rabies. Haha These are stories that are only funny in retrospect.
Oh man, so much! When my blood sugar runs high, I’m miserable to be around. I’m irritable, grumpy, annoyed easily. When it’s low, I tend to be emotional or get frustrated easily.
Feeling like I have no control at times. I especially feel anxious about high readings. I am a little grumpy when low.
More frustrated than sad or irritated
My only reaction is feeling very irritable when I’m going low. Otherwise I have no other emotional changes when high or low.
I was told that having diabetes intensifies your emotions, it doesn’t cause them.
Yesterday was a day when it took FOREVER to get my supper high down. 274. Totally frustrating!!! I had changed to a new set that am too which should have had the “low” effect going on for me. I am terrified of lows and when I get below 80 I just want to withdraw from everything and everybody until my control returns. Didn’t have that problem before getting the CGM. The alarms and arrows cause some anxiety at times.
No issues with mood change due to blood sugar – My husband agrees
Just a reply to commenters about the irritability of highs that won’t go down. If you can, try out Afrezza. Game changer for me. Don’t have the long, drawn out highs anymore. If your doctor is a naysayer about Afrezza, I would suggest finding a new endocrinologist. 😊
I said a little bit, but that’s my opinion. My husband might have had a different answer 🤣
😄
I went with tight control from diagnosis and for 15 years kept my A1C in the 5.2 – 5.4 range. Eight years ago I tightened things up and got my A1C below 5.0. In six months I realized that I felt much better than I had in years. I think the reduced standard deviation plays a large role in that. High blood sugar is anything over 125.
It really depends on multiple other factors.
How long has it been high or I can’t figure out why.
Also, it depends on if I’ve had multiple lows in a short period of time.
If the question is asking how the BG level actually impacts/affects mood, a suspect a relatively minor amount unless very low or very high. However, the psychological impact of needing to monitor levels, of both low and high alarms, of needing to treat those conditions, and the resulting psychological impact to daily life is moderate if separated by time, becoming more impacting if they are frequent.
Lows have a definite impact. After 68 years playing this game, I now need to rely on what the CGM tells me because I can’t tell anymore. If something I’ve read/heard brings tears, I now know to check my bg. My CGM alerts are on vibrate because they annoy me, scare our cat and create a nuisance when I’m in public . Highs, on the other hand, are very frustrating. If possible, an injection of 1.5 – 2 u by syringe usually brings me into range faster than the pump.
I am highly sensitive to my blood sugar levels so like you I know my sugar is going low before my CGM alerts me because I get anxious about anything and everything or I can’t read.
When my blood sugar is low my anxiety is through the roof.
I don’t think there is a physical connection of low BG to mood, etc for me. It is psychological. I don’t feel good about myself or my management.
Actually, it is seeing my BG’s that sometimes predict my moods like anger if it’s dropping low too fast or fear when I feel symptoms in my body/chest from super high BG’s.
When I am low I feel anxious, partly due to the adrenaline response and partly due to the jarring sound of the alert.
I answered “A little bit” … because it depends on the circumstances. I get irritable and spaced out when BGs are going low and I feel sluggish and disconnected from the energy of my body, mind, and emotions when BGs are extremely high. As long as my BGs range between 75 to 180, I am in my optimal target zone.
It used th be worse in the days of NPH and Regular insulin. I would get depressed around 2:30pm every day.
Have a little or no patience when I’m low very irritable when I’m high I’m just tired
Irritability/grouchiness sometimes accompany low glucose.
Moderate amount
Lows in the 50s leave me desperate to get the level back up.
People read my disposition that I’m a little distracted when dealing with high bgs. I’m “not all there” when talking with others.
Your question is fundamentally severely flawed. Diabetics can/have all kinds of emotions with ZERO causality to -D- of any kind. A greater likelihood of stronger or far less inhibited emotions possibly with lows/highs. But to automatically attribute them is a severe mistake.
Glucose levels impact your mood a lot and they are quite different from each other, Decisions and reactions after a Low are sometimes more radical, after a High they are not as well thought out and when you are in target seem a lot more reliable.
It’s not so much the level of the BG, but the dang alarms constantly going off. Yes I know I’m low…. I ate carbs…. please SHUT UP! But you can’t turn them off…. I’m hypoglycemic unaware. Ugh! I get frustrated and cranky when stress makes my BG go high and insulin doesn’t bring it down. I’m crankier when it’s high than when it’s low. As a brittle diabetic, lows are a part of life (T1D for almost 57 years). I like to eat, so lows don’t make me upset! LOL!