ASK GINGER - Does diabetes ever make you depressed?

Hey Ginger,

Does diabetes ever make you depressed? A kid in my high school has diabetes and he told me he also goes to a doctor because his diabetes makes him depressed. I get really angry about my diabetes sometimes, and it’s been getting worse since I got into high school. I just wish I didn’t have it, and didn’t have to deal with it. It doesn’t seem like you’re depressed, how do you keep diabetes from doing that to you?

-Adam

Hey Adam,

You’re not the only person with diabetes who gets depressed or stressed out by dealing with this disease. It is SO MUCH work. I think sometimes the people I’m around every day don’t realize how much it takes for me to make it look easy to them. I’ve never had a bad low around them or revealed how nauseaus and awful I feel when my BG is really high at work. I just try to handle it on my own, and they really can’t see how often I’m thinking about my insulin doses or blood sugars or the carbs I just ate. I think about it all day long, literally, because all day long my diabetes is affecting my life.

It’s a big responsibility to basically keep yourself alive every day. And that burden can effect everyone in different ways. In me, I think it has made me sometimes controlling or keeps me from letting go and having fun or relaxing, because as soon as you “let go” of something like diabetes, it’s out of your control. It sounds like for you, it’s causing depression.

Personally, diabetes doesn’t make me depressed because shortly after I was diagnosed (after I’d finished crying and crying and crying for several hours by myself in the hospital), I realized something majorly important to me: everybody deals with a huge challenge (or several) in their lives. Yours and mine includes diabetes. Some people I know struggle with alcoholism, hemophelia, brain tumors, autism, down syndrome, anorexia…the list goes on. The point is, nobody is getting off easily in this life! We all must endure some really challenging things throughout our whole lives!

When I think about brain tumors or diabetes, I’d rather have diabetes.

Now, I’m not saying I never get annoyed with my diabetes, or that other parts of life never make me sad, but diabetes is part of my life that I see to be very simple: if I do the best I can, most of the time my blood sugars will be happy, too. Diabetes is here to stay in my life, for now, and wishing I didn’t have it isn’t going to make it disappear. So, it is part of my life just like brushing my teeth and eating my breakfast. I just do the best job I can. If I have an off day here and there, so be it.

What is it about your diabetes that depresses you?

Are there days when it feels worse than others?

Do you have support from friends & family?

It sounds like your classmate is going to see a psychologist or psychiatrist to talk about his depression, which is a great choice if you think you’d like to do that, too. It doesn’t mean you’ll need it forever, it doesn’t mean you’ll have to be medicated or that you’re crazy or weak or too emotional. There may even be a counselor at your school who is easily available to talk to. But it sounds like it’s worth a try. Many people struggle with depression because of diabetes or for other reasons and never take the next step to ask for help.