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If you have T1D, have you also been diagnosed with depression?
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Life is hard sometimes. Senior year of college was a bit overwhelming, sought help then. Also had some issues 15-20 years later, sought help again. Zoloft (minimal dosage) is my friend LOL
I’m not depressed now. I am, however, hopeless after being told there would be a cure 40 years ago (after 13 years of being a diabetic) and there is still no cure. Now that I am experiencing complications, my outlook is grim. But hey, big Pharma and medical manufacturers are making billions, so yea for them. Hopeless.
Not clinically diagnosed with depression, but certainly I feel it sometimes. It’s a lot to deal with – I am only 18 months in to T1D, plus being treated for stage 4 cancer – all of a sudden after being super active and healthy for 61 years! What the heck??? But I know my T1D is well managed and not the end of the world and that others can really struggle. I am lucky, in the end!
Yes, in the late 90’s. For about a year
I think there was a time I was depressed, but not often. I have not been clinically diagnosed.
I don’t think I am depressed. I keep very active and try to stay focused. But, as I get older, I find my diabetes more difficult to control. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when I’m having many highs and lows. I also get very frustrated when I’m trying to do work in the yard or around the house, but have to stop for hours, waiting for my blood sugar to rise. My gastroparesis makes it much worse. I have also felt very limited by Covid 19 because of my many health issues and my wife’s as well.
Ditto.
Antidepressants require diagnoses, so I’m depression-free and on antidepressants!
I’ve been diagnosed with Intractable Depression. I’ve tried many drugs along with TMS and ECT to relieve it. I grew up with complex childhood trauma, sexual assault, and a couple of other equally challenging chronic illnesses. For me, it’s not an occasional depression, it is also chronic.
What is the prevalence of depression among non-diabetics?
I remember being given a survey when I was a kid at diabetic camp. It seemed that every question was designed to ask, in yet another way, how messed up we all were psychologically. I found it infuriating.
Yes, a mild type of depression called dysthymia. It is persistent but after years of using low-dose antidepressants I choose to just live with it. Here is a link about it: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/dysthymia
I was diagnosed with clinical depression 20+ YRS ago. I have been on Paxil since then and have tried to get off of them but can’t seem to make it very long until I have to resume them. Guess I take them the rest of my life. Diagnosed 58 yrs ago.
No, I feel depressed sometimes, a couple of times a year, but have not been diagnosed
I have been taking escitalopram for 10 years. It has been life-changing for me. 37 years T1D. I don’t complain. I feel blessed in so many areas of my life. But, living with a chronic health condition 24/7 forever is a lot! The technology helps so much with control of my BGs, and I don’t have the severe lows (as long as I have the cgm on), but it is not perfect!
Over the past 67 years of living with T1 D, especially as an adolescent, I’ve received that diagnosis. Now, after the past three years of social isolation from the pandemic coupled with hearing loss from nerve damage, that dx might be applied again.
I’ve luckily always been an optimist even though diagnosed in 1960. But getting older is definitely not a lot of fun. Hope you are getting out and about at last sometimes! Covid stuff has been a royal pain! I have mostly refused to let it keep me from doing things!
Jan, thanks!
T1D since 1951. The only time I have been diagnosed with depression was after my wife died in 2021.
Bruce, 1952 for me.. I am almost 91… what age are you ???
I sometimes feel stress.
Once, situational depression not related to T1D.
Never diagnosed with depression, but with my loss of interest in things I used to absolutely love doing, had anything been done to try diagnosing anything, I probably would have been diagnosed with depression decades before my T1D was ever diagnosed and my T1D was diagnosed in September 1991, I’ve mentioned my loss of interest and what others have told me were signs of depression they could see in my attitudes and activities, yet as of today, nobody of any medical field has ever bothered to do anything to determine whether I actually suffer from depression or not, but if it was up to ME to make the diagnosis, I’d say I’ve probably been suffering with depression at least two decades longer than I’ve been dealing with Diabetes!!!
Yes. In 1982 after a miscarriage and divorce from an emotionally abusive spouse, my endocrine MD referred me for therapeutic treatment of PTSD, anxiety, and depression. I was in therapy off and on for almost 4 years, no meds, just individual healthy coping and problem solving talk therapy, group sessions with others going through similar issues, and application of holistic techniques for self-healing.
To sweet charlie,
I am currently 77.
I have many chronic medical conditions. Major depression is the one I’ve had the longest.
I assume it is chemical in nature as at times it can become severe and foretell a bad seizure which will improve my mood.
Thanks to Woody Allen’s frequent references to seeing his psychiatrist I don’t feel stigmatized. Isn’t seeing a shrink or a psychiatric social worker pretty common? Being in a small group using cognitive behavioral therapy under professional guidance was very very helpful. Regularly meeting really helped me. Tried Paxil, then fluoxetine. Took a year to be effective. 80 mg fluoxetine and a cup or two of green tea or coffee in the morning and I feel motivated, confident. Journaling, yoga, aerobics, meditation, financial security, going to a beach or woods or brook, enjoying comedians…it all helps. See the link Gary provided. Now, to cheer you up: a joke. A virus walks into a bar and asks for a drink. The mean bartender snarls, “Get out of here! We don’t serve viruses like you!” So the virus in response calmly mutates into…a martini. 🙂
Yes, when first diagnosed 35 years ago