Non DB Person Taking Insulin

One of my co-workers has a 14 year old son who was diagnosed with Type 1 about a year ago. I try to talk with the dad about it, but he is pretty closed up.
On Friday I did get him to chat a bit and he said that the son and his friends give each other shots so the friends can see what it feels like. I thought that was great, but I thought he meant just putting the needle in and then taking it out.
He then said “they only give each other 2 or 3 units”.
Is this safe? At first I thought , “OMG, they’re gonna kill each other”, but then I concluded that being in good health, one’s liver would just take care of it, right?

Years ago, my pediatric CDE told me that this is perfectly fine. A normally functioning body would detect the insulin and compensate. The only concern would be if they were sharing needles. One injection of insulin isn’t going to cause beta cell atrophy or anything harmful. As a parent, you might be concerned about paying for insulin to go in somebody else’s child though. laughs

Even though only a couple of units might not effect much, it could be dangerous. It is true that people have commited murder with insulin. I’d be scared to death to let anyone inject insulin into a non-diabetic.

That is a scary game which may end in tragedy.The only support friends can give is to be there for a diabetic person watching in case he miss his meals and recognise symptoms of hypo

I wonder what they mean by “What it feels like.” As you said, you could feel the needle without injecting. Why do they need to inject a few units? What does your body getting insulin feel like? For me, it keeps it (hopefully,) in normal range. I wonder if they are trying to feel what it is like to have low blood sugars…potentialy dangerous, I’d think. As you point out, it might take more than that to do harm.

I’ve heard of bodybuilders and athletes using insulin as a performance enhancer. Definitely not recommended.

I don’t get it. I read the linked article, but still don’t see how it works. If I have too much insulin in my system when I work out, I go low, and have to stop. I don’t see low BS building muscle.

I would not be comfortable with that. You never know how the body will react.

I wonder if the kids on this site have heard of this.

Everyone is much more worried about this than I was. I will admit that I may have been totally off base, but it sounds to me like it’s something that the kid probably let his friends do once each out of curiosity and it was no big deal. I would certainly discourage it and have a talk with my son about it if I were the dad, but I don’t think it’s anything to freak out over. A couple of units in a normally functioning adolescent? I don’t think it’s going to cause any harm. I’m a high school teacher and I see and hear about much worse than this everyday.

It just reminds me of the poor junior high kid who got suspended for passing out glucose tabs a year or two ago. A type 1 diabetic is never using “drugs,” per se. It’s something that normally functioning bodies should be able to handle. But hey, I’m not a doctor.

A big thanks to everybody for their input.
I don’t exactly know how to approach the subject to the dad, as I can tell he is still in a lot of pain over the diagnosis, and if I offered any suggestions he might lash out or something.
It never occurred to me that the kids might want to feel the effects of the insulin - I just thought they wanted to see what self-administering an injection was like - who knows what was going through their minds?
I think tomorrow I’m going to say something like, “You know, Dave, I was just thinking about L’s friends injecting insulin - are you sure it’s such a good idea?” Maybe I’ll tell him I was researching it on the web. I would certainly not tell him we were have a discussion on TD about it.
I have tried, by example, to show this guy that I live a full life, even after 34 years with db - I have worked with him for over 20 years. I even offered to come over to their house and chat with them and he replied, “nope - not necessary, we’re doing just fine” and then later was talking to someone else about how to handle the son’s basketball coach. I think I am too much of a reminder - he cannot even escape it at work.

There was a CSI (Las Vegas) episode back a few years ago that dealt with just this topic. I believe that was probably season 3 or so. I know it was the one with the first appearance of the Lady Heather character (a diabetic) who had one of her “assistants” take one of her needleless pen units and “inject” a person who died from an insulin shock reaction.