January 25, 2012

Some Blogger Suggestions for Handling Depression


Bloggers do tackle the topic of depression and help educate all of us. Sometimes we write from our personal experiences about depression, but we also read a lot as well.  The first blog I want to bring to your attention is one by Will Ryan at the Joyful Diabetic. Will covers some of the facts about depression and gives several good suggestions to aid in combating and managing depression.

As people with diabetes, we need all the help we can obtain and I always appreciate blogs like Will Ryan's. While I agree with his suggestions, not everyone may. To this I say, find what works for you and discard the rest. I seldom discard things, but bookmark it for later reference in case something changes for me. I also have the habit of having different topic word processor pages, which I copy the URL to and often make notes to the URL to refresh my mind later.

I will point out that Will Ryan and David Mendosa work hard for us and do it in a positive fashion, which makes the information more valuable. With this, here are two previous blogs by David Mendosa that can help you with minor depression and chronic sorrow. This first blog from November 2, 2008 discusses diabetes, depression, and the use of exercise as a possible step in managing both.

In his second blog of January 4, 2010, he lists some of the potential aids he uses to help him manage depression. These can help break out of depression for me and I blogged about using them here and how they have or have not helped me. I do need to make one change about Omega 3. It has given me some help and then I did add vitamin B12 to my supplements about six months later and the two of them seemed to really help in leveling my mood swings and I avoided having depression for the rest of 2010 and well into 2011. I did have a mild bout of sadness or mild depression last September, but it only lasted for a couple of days.

One thing that keeps me going is working for the positive attitude and I really think the power of positive thinking keeps depression out of most of my life, even when I have periods of wondering what I have done wrong in my diabetes management. My blood glucose levels in the first six hours after I wake are right on target. Then in the late PM, they seem to rise more than they should. I have used the same vials of insulin and even rotate the injection locations, but they still rise.

Sometimes they level out in the upper 100's, but I am having some readings over 200 in the late PM. I know the insulin is good and still the readings are climbing. I have been reducing my carbohydrates and still they climb in the late PM. I think I have stopped this for now. Maybe not the best of solutions, but high fat and the rest protein with zero carbs other than what is in fresh lettuce and spinach. Blood glucose has remained under 130 mg/dl for three evenings now.

Dr. R. Centor has something to say that we all need to know. He has two questions for his patients that he uses to see how patients are actually doing. He uses them to detect depression and for some of the underlying issues such as sleep apnea, systolic dysfunction, and other diseases. There are some comments, but nothing as definitive as his two questions. More doctors should use these questions, but many just enter the exam room, check the lab reports and discuss any changes to be made and leave.  They have no interest in checking for anything else and are thinking about the time they will save.

No comments: