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Diabetes and Depression

My post on my doctor's visit caused a commentator to ask a question concerning depression. Happy Gram stated in her comment that her husband was recently diagnosed with diabetes and he has had constant depression. She wondered why.

I can only speculate since I am not a doctor, I don't play one on TV, and I'm not going to pretend I'm one who writes a blog. But here are some basic facts. Diabetes is a condition where your body does not produce enough insulin. It could be caused by a number of things, heredity and obesity just being a couple of them.

I have been overweight for much of my life and heredity wasn't on my side either. Those were probably the biggest factors in my being diabetic. Mine is type 2 diabetes, the most common type. And if you want to consider diabetes a disease, it is probably reaching epidemic proportions today.

Now why is depression so common among diabetics? My thoughts are this. In order to manage your health, you have to change your lifestyle, sometimes drastically, depending on your blood glucose levels. You also have to be on the lookout for such things as sores on the feet. And the biggest problem is well meaning people who, without thinking, have this habit of telling you horror stories of folks they know who are diabetic. Cancer patients get the same well meaning stories. I do have to give a kudos to Brenda who did email me a story with a happy ending. Another reason she is such a good friend.

If unchecked, diabetics can lose their eyesight, have heart disease, kidney failure, or have limbs amputated. Diabetes can effect blood vessels and nerves. If you are looking at the negative aspects, then it would be natural to have depression.

You add the stresses of everyday life and you could walk around with the proverbial storm cloud over your head. All my regular readers know that my personal life hasn't been all that rosy since the first of the year. Within a 1-1/2 month period, my son was hospitalized, my wife totaled our car, and my brother passed away. So not only am I prone to depression, but my motivation has been disappearing. The other day, I was sent into a depression from something that was said during a conversation. Things like that scare me.

If one feels depressed, they should see their PCP, who could either give you a prescription for antidepressants or refer you for counselling.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It has been medically proved that depression is much more common among the people who are above the age of 40. The matter to worry is that there are several diseases that attack a person above the age of 40, as for example, heart ailments, diabetes, erectile dysfunction etc. These diseases sometimes make it unfit for the antidepressants like xanax to be prescribed to the patients above this age group. Most of the antidepressants have side effects that make them unfit to be prescribed to the patients who are multiple medications.
July 28, 2008 1:12 AM
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