You have touched on an essential understanding that resonates with me. Depression often does accompany diabetes and I am sure that the scientific reasons have been recorded somewhere. I like the idea that by using exercise we can begin to reverse the experience of depression. My endocrinologist often includes meds for depression as part of his approach to the treatment of diabetes. I am sure help some too. But walking, hiking and exercise seem to be an good response to depression. Thanks for the insight and suggestion. I think the wisdom in your group is a value to all of us. And if you can do it you have added gains.

I think the other hard part to tease out is physical vs. psychological- it would be absurd to reduce depression to a physical symptom- imagine an alien race that, instead of saying "I'm depressed" or "I'm sad", they say "My cortisol levels are high"- it seems to me that depression is a natural reaction to a traumatic event (cortisol levels and all)- we then mourn and the depression passes- the problem with chronic depression is that it lingers- I think that in this way depression is psychological- we relive the trauma's effects in our minds- so this is different than the physical trauma- noone can relive getting hit by a bus- and this has treatment ramifications- drugs treat the physical symptoms and psychotherapy treats the psychological- if diabetes amplifies depression, then the physical treatment is used to control the diabetes, but surely the mind must also come to embrace the diabetes and overcome it with positive lifestyle changes- this way, there is no 'negative' to dwell on- in the end, I always liked Nietzsche's quip: great men have short memories