I was wondering what experiences people have, mentally, when their blood sugar is low.
I feel really bad about everything I have done in my life (even things I shouldn’t feel guilty about).
Also, my mind gets stuck in infinite loops, kind of going over the same thought(s) over and over again. Like its a problem I can’t solve and it is slowly killing me.
Anyone else have any experiences like this or different ones.
Thanks!
Roger
Almost no need to analyze it, as it is flawed thought (meaning neurons are not firing correctly in brain) during time of low BG. 
You should have thoughts clearing up as your BG rises, do they?
Oh yes, they go away as my sugar rises! I just wonder what other sorts of mental experiences people have when their blood sugar is low, and how they describe them. It’s a really interesting phenomenon to me (I am a cognitive neuroscientist by trade 
).
Best,
Roger
Good, if they did not go away I would have been worried about you! Welcome to the forum.
My thinking process ( kind of logical, straight line analysis) goes out the window when BG drops below 70. Mind wanders in a way that I recognize as foreign and leads me to test BG pronto.
Hey Roger,
Bad hypos leave me with a feeling of hopelessness; usually happens upon waking. Then part of my barely-functioning brain screams at me to get some form of glucose into me stat.
When full cognition returns I say a silent ‘thanks’ to God, and realize I’m not helpless.
When I’m out and about, and feel a hypo coming on, I’ll first suspend insulin and immediately grab a glucose tablet, which I usually have on me. If not, and in a store, I’ll grab a pack of cookies or candy.
I wear a medic alert bracelet stating that I’m a type 1 D, prone to hypoglycemia.
I have a new Endo and my low BG’s have, thankfully minimized due to his constantly adjusting insulin delivery via my PDM.
Hypos suck because they can seem to come on so suddenly.
So here’s to maintaining good BG levels!!!
Thanks for bringing up this topic. As a mom of 2 girls with Type 1, I can only imagine what they go through.
Your sharing helps me understand a little more.
Yes! I do that as well. I’ve gotten better about telling my brain to just put all of the negative thoughts aside until the BG comes back up, but that’s not always easy to do. I’ve found the worst situation is when I’m trying to deal with email communications while my BG is tanking. It suddenly feels absolutely imperative that I respond to an email message right this minute and my brain can’t properly form coherent thoughts. I’ve definitely learned to step away from the computer at those times!
For dramatization, see The Sweet Lowdown Hyper/Hypoglycemia on YouTube.
Some of mine are the really scary, my worst nightmare kind. I think my vision problems are complications setting in and I’m finally losing my eye sight. Or the tingling numb feeling is the nerve damage they talk about. I go to that scary place that is drilled into my head 45 years ago when we were all told those things would happen. Well they haven’t but when I go low, really low that is where my brain takes me.
If I’m a little low I get very easily over-whelmed. I have been known to stare at a stack of clean clothes and cry because I felt like folding them/putting them away was an incredibly difficult task. When I get very low, I am very over-dramatic and catastrophic. A few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of night with a BG of 35. I sat in my bed balling my eyes out because I was sure I was going to die. As my numbers come back up, I feel an intense relief and usually have a good laugh about how crazy I can be.
Hi MissMargie,
I can totally relate to this. I often can’t choose what cup to put juice in when trying to correct my low blood sugar, how funny is that.
But what you suggest sounds good. I have also heard that trying to focus on nothing at all may work. A very philosophical approach. I hate that catastrophic feeling!
Roger
Yeah, this sounds bad. People don’t understand how bad you can really feel. Sometimes it really feels like death coming on. I like to think I have died multiple times, or at least felt what it will be like to slip away, that is a truly scary and creepy thought i know, sorry!
Roger
Interesting, the part near the end captures the confusion pretty well!
Thanks for this post!
Roger
My experience with hypos has really been more anxiety than anything. I will usually notice that I am sweaty/shaking when my BG is in the 40/50 range, and then once I check with my glucometer, my main concern is really just making sure I obtain sufficient carbs immediately.
Every time that I confirm that it is low, my heart begins to race and I sweat more. This is probably because I associate it with all of the complications that happen if it doesn’t get raised fast enough 
I do notice that I am way more easily irritable when my sugars are high, however, and I will begin to stress/get frustrated about things that I would not otherwise when it is >~250 for longer than half an hour or so. Does anyone else experience anything like this? I’m still trying to get my insulin doses figured out, so my numbers tend to be all over the place on certain days!
I’ve never been aware of any mood or emotional changes that were recurring. One time though, I came home and just felt REALLY angry as I was walking into the house. A lot of the neighborhood kids were out playing near our house, and I vamoosed before yelled at them like a crazy person. I went and tested and I was in the 20s.
During a low, I chase thoughts unsuccessfully. I know a specific thought or idea was just in my mind but it disintegrated to a blank placeholder in my head and I want it back but can’t get it. I also have great difficulty with speech, not being able to put together full sentences. This is a either funny or embarrassing because I am a teacher by trade.
Speaking of dying, I was shopping the other day and get a little low (I think I was 57), but for some reason I was feeling it really hard. I went into the fitting room and decided I was just going to sit there and die. Like, I had completely accepted it and decided that that was my best course of action. I would just sit down in the fitting room and close my eyes and die. Of course, I only had this feeling for a few seconds before I started eating and was better.
I have varying emotional and mental experiences when my glucose levels are low or high.
For a low that I haven’t recognized that is in the 30s-mid 50s, I just get confused. I might understand that I am low, but have trouble explaining things to people. I get a bit paranoid and sad too. Last time this happened, my boss noticed I was speaking slower than normal and told me to go sit and eat. I thought he would fire me. I was truly frightened and crying because I thought he would fire me. I get really emotional and make no sense and sort of pick fights with my husband when I’m in this range too.
I’ve also had experiences where I look mad, but my body is just clenching up and I can’t figure out what I should actually do to fix it, even knowing I must be low. Once I sat in a meeting with my fists balled up and my jaw clenched together. I knew I needed to get up, but just couldn’t make myself do it.
If it gets lower than 30, whew, that has only happened a few times in 26 years. But in that case I just cease to remember what happened. I’ve had people tell me that I missed my mouth, walked backwards etc. Sometimes I’ll actually have flashes of cognition to get sugar, but it’s panicked and my vision is very blurry and I can’t focus at all. Then I also feel like I’m on a moon bounce or like my every movement is through bouncing jello. I feel seasick just taking a could of steps to get glucose tablets at that point. Worst feeling in the entire world, like being in a horror film and you are the jerky ghost until it comes back up.
I get grumpy and depressed feeling if my glucose levels are high for longer than 2 hours too. I can’t control it. I have to test if my husband and I plan to discuss anything serious, because it will devolve into a knock down drag out if I have a high sugar level.
Mentally, when I’m only mildly low, around 70 or so, I can be a bit grumpy and short.
As it goes lower, it is harder for me to concentrate. I get more and more impatient. I don’t want anyone talking to me while I’m trying to say, finish cooking dinner and measuring portions so I can actually GET FOOD INTO ME NOW. GO AWAY!
When I’m below 50, I’m surprisingly clear headed -in my head- as to what’s going on, what I need to do, where my supplies are, etc… but communicating to another person? Haha, no.
If I’m asleep, I usually start having really, really weird, freaky dreams that border on nightmares and wake up about to break into a sweat.
I think what’s more disturbing than the short-term, immediate effects of lows, though, are the longer term, ingrained responses we develop due to having to dealing with lows. One of my symptoms of lows, for example, is that my vision will dim or go spotty. I was in the living room alone, and reading. Suddenly it became more difficult. The room was dim. I thought “Oh, I’m starting to go low!” I looked at my CGM - no, it said 81. Huh. Well, don’t just trust that, so I did a fingerstick. 88. What in the world? Now I was very confused! Clearly I was having symptoms of a low, but I wasn’t low!
I looked up in exasperation - diabetes can never be simple. And then I found the culprit.
One of the 4 lightbulbs in the ceiling fan above me had gone out. But mentally, I’m so conditioned to “this is a symptom of a low” that the first response to realizing the room is dim is to check my bloodsugar. Twice. 
When I have a low, especially in public, I sometimes go into a panic attack. The fear is so extreme and won’t go away until my sugars come up. “What if I made an insulin mistake today and its caught up with me?” “What if there is suddenly some kind of emergency that I need to move fast for to help myself or someone else, at the same time as I am having a low?” “What if I don’t have enough sugar with me?” “What if this low doesn’t stop and I can’t get on top of it?” Then, depending on how severe or scarey the low was, its not just about that one low anymore. It becomes about all the future lows, and whats going to happen, and am I going to be okay, and how to prevent these things from happening, etc.
And yes, the constant guilt thing I can relate to as well. Not sure where it came from…