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.

The Depression and Diabetes – A Cycle?

This discussion is not to include the major depressions, but realize they can happen. Mild and short-term depression is the most common for people with diabetes – about double the risk, with approximately two-thirds of people with diabetes at risk for depression. For people with depression, the risk for diabetes is about 20 percent.

Several items came to light in my continuing research on the depression affecting people with diabetes. One person says people may have chronic sorrow rather than clinical depression. Chronic sorrow according this person says it means that people new to diabetes are now coping with new long-term lifestyle changes that they may find stressful.

This condition as it is termed comes from simple things like not being able to join a group for a piece of birthday cake, which can leave the person feeling apart from the group and resentful. For a person to feel sad is a normal reaction about a chronic disease that has taken so much away from you. This make the illness a burden to bear alone and we need to have empathy and support from those around us.

Another piece of advice given is always worth checking out is the thyroid, as it is in the same gland family as the pancreas. Hypothyroidism is a major cause of depression and weight gain. In all cases of diabetes, this should be checked on a regular basis. Another thought is checking for a vitamin deficiency because low levels of vitamins B1 and B12 can cause depression.

Depression – diabetes and the reverse can be a vicious circle for some. As depression gets worse, the complications of diabetes may become worse because the depression causes people to stop or slow their diabetes management. This may cause the people to develop long-term complications like retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy.

It is unfortunate that a large share of the people suffering from depression and diabetes never receive help for the depression. Sometimes it is not recognized by healthcare professionals, and sometimes people with diabetes who are depressed do not communicate to their doctors about their feelings or do not even realize they are depressed.

If you are a person with diabetes, learn the symptoms of depression or chronic sorrow to be able to communicate with your doctor about these. Learn also that people with diabetes can become burned out managing their diabetes. They can often become upset, gloomy, and have the helpless feeling because they cannot control their blood glucose levels.

There are reasons that cause people with diabetes to develop depression or chronic sorrow, and this can vary from one individual to another. Learn as much as you can about what affects you and learn the best way to deal with sorrow or depression.

The following articles are sources for this blog: article 1, article 2, article 3, and article 4.