I find myself having to build myself up emotionally more then others most of the time because of the my blood levels going up and down - mostly lows, I feel weak emotionally when its low. Example when things seem bad, something upsets me etc. and I'm low - I feel I freak out (way more) then some one with out diabetes. Really hard to explain but realizing I've always been this way since I was first diagnosed. Lets face it diabetes puts stress on EVERYTHING you do. Relationships, walking somewhere, even thinking. I feel like diabetes has shaped me in a fragile way - I know boo hoo but I'm a big dude and sometimes ..... just bam, something happens like every couple of years or months and I just can't handle. And to tell you truth I'm a calm cool and collect guy. Kind of worries me. What about you? Your thoughts community?
Can relate. Lows make me feel vulnerable & like an emotional jellyfish. I'm not someone who cries easily, but hypos make me feel weepy & instantly depressed. Throw in irritable, irrational & foggy to the fun mix. I've also had what I only describe as panic. Never felt panicked before diagnosis. I've learned to talk myself down.
Know you have been at it a lot longer than us, but would getting out of a low quicker help? I notice the emotionally parts of the lows and highs with our son, he feels physical as well, for lows his cgms helps us correct earlier than we may have otherwise and the time he spends low the stimulus is pretty low too. I won't even let his younger brother pester him. As for highs, sometimes I don't know how he can do so well in his honor classes when he is so influenced by his elevated blood sugar, the breakfast spike is still our nemesis, but working on it. Not fragile, strong, non-Ds are just that, they don't know what it feels like to sometimes be on a BS rollercoaster, educate, apologize, with explaination if you said something out of order, then move on, you can't will your emotions to behave, if your'e feeling symtoms, just try to get to the best place you can until its over. Best Wishes. Emily
Oh, I can totally relate! When I'm low, just the tiniest little thing can set me off. What's annoying is that sometimes I can be just a "little" low and that's enough to make me (as Gerri so eloquently put it) an "emotional jellyfish." Sometimes I get angry, sometimes just nasty/moody, and sometimes I start crying. It always sucks and I hate that I have to apologize to people afterwards.
With highs I can feel pretty crummy too. Oh, and I can feel crummy when I come down from a high.
The best thing I've done is to have hobbies and interests, music (and partying...heh heh heh...) when I was younger and then, a few years later, Tae Kwon Do and now running. In between, I always like reading. But not just reading, I like to set myself up with music that goes along with the book. I used to do booze that went with the books too, vodka+ Dostoyevsky, cognac w/ Patrick O'Brien, etc. but have kind of slacked off on that.
Even though not all the hobbies were exactly healthy, I will ***really*** work hard to avoid having D get in the way of diabetes too much. Once, in the last band I was in, I had figured "I can work, play 9 holes of golf and then go to band practice" and ended up squirting the drummer's Hershey's Chocolate Syrup down my throat but I kept at it. Tuning a guitar when my BG is low is impossible.
Live... you are a diabetic too, not only one! You are aware of things which many are not, have no need to perceive, or be aware on any level. You are fragile if you allow yourself to be. Others would never have endured your trials. They would not have survived them.
Are you waiting for the "next time"? Is that the real concern?
I am newly diagnosed and have been crying for the past three days. I tend to agree with you on this. Just knowing that I have this thing that could severely damage my body, the thing that I have to live with, scares the daylights out of me. But I am still in the adjustment phase. I want to develop a healthier attitude but it is difficult right now.
Thank you Stuart for your kind strong words. Tell you truth a little concerned, something happened recently and i didn't handed it to well. but guess we all have moments.
Sounds like a spooky new thread topic to me... "Something happened..."(brief grim look). Sorry to hear that brother...
It is possible to make no mistakes, and still fail anyway...
We all do the very best we are able. Everybody does what they can, what their mind, spirit will permit. And in spite of our endless vigilance... sometimes you get handed your head anyway...
