If stress doesn't go away, it can keep your blood sugar levels high and put you at higher risk of diabetes complications. It can also affect your mood and how you look after yourself, which can start to affect your emotional health.
And if you're depressed, you may have a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes. The good news is that diabetes and depression can be treated together. And effectively managing one can help with the other.
Anyone with stress faces an increased risk of getting type 2 diabetes or seeing changes in your diabetes if you've already been diagnosed. Both physical and emotional stress can cause changes in your blood sugar levels, which can cause or worsen your diabetes.
Stress hormones have a big role to play. When you're experiencing physical or emotional stress, hormones are released that increase your blood sugar. Cortisol and adrenaline are other primary hormones involved.
Losing sleep—even just one night of too little sleep can make your body use insulin less well. Skipping breakfast—going without that morning meal can increase blood sugar after both lunch and dinner. Time of day—blood sugar can be harder to control the later it gets.
However, it is suspected that a high level of stress can also exacerbate diabetes. High anxiety can result in the release of sympathetic hormones that can elevate both cortisol and glucose levels, decrease insulin release, or affect the sensitivity and resistant of the insulin hormone.
Diabetes can be really tough to live with. Sometimes people feel distressed, which can include feeling frustrated, guilty, sad or worried. It's understandable if you feel this way from time to time – you're not alone. There are lots of things you can do to help you cope with feeling diabetes distress.
Since your body doesn't respond to insulin the same as most, your fasting blood sugar reading can go up, even if you follow a strict diet. The boost in sugar is your body's way of making sure you have enough energy to get up and start the day.
Balancing school, work, physical activity, and your family may cause you to go to bed later than you'd like. One in three US adults isn't getting enough sleep, and over time, this can increase the risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and depression.
If you are struggling to get up in the morning; feeling a total lack of energy or 'fogginess' or not able to perform the tasks you normally do as simply too exhausted it may be that you actually are suffering from fatigue... and it could be a side effect of your diabetes.
Diabetes burnout is the term given to the state of disillusion, frustration and somewhat submission to the condition of diabetes. Burnout can be characterised by a person's complete disregard for their blood sugar levels.
This condition encompasses the struggles of self-management, unsupportive social structures, emotional reaction to diagnosis and threat of complications. Diabetes distress can present with symptoms of anger, denial, frustration and loneliness.
Diabetes is a chronic condition that can affect both physical and mental health. Fluctuations in blood sugar may lead to rapid changes in mood, for example. Additionally, a person may find managing diabetes every day overwhelming, and this stress can have various effects on mental health.
Since 2009, amendments and regulations for these laws make clear that diabetes is a disability since it substantially limits the function of the endocrine system. This internal limitation is enough—no outside limitation is necessary. This means diabetes can be an "invisible" disability.
In the same way that diabetes can cause nerve damage to your eyes, feet, and hands, it can also affect your brain by damaging nerves and blood vessels. This can lead to problems with memory and learning, mood shifts, weight gain, hormonal changes, and over time, other serious problems like Alzheimer's disease.
In general: Less than 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L ) is normal. 100 to 125 mg/dL (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L ) is diagnosed as prediabetes. 126 mg/dL (7.0 mmol/L ) or higher on two separate tests is diagnosed as diabetes.
Target blood sugar levels differ for everyone, but generally speaking: if you monitor yourself at home – a normal target is 4-7mmol/l before eating and under 8.5-9mmol/l two hours after a meal. if you're tested every few months – a normal target is below 48mmol/mol (or 6.5% on the older measurement scale)
Try to go 10–12 hours each night without eating, Sheth said. For instance, if you eat breakfast at 8:30 a.m. every morning, that means capping your nighttime meals and snacks between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. each night.
Talk with your family and friends.
Be honest about the problems you're having in dealing with diabetes. Just telling others how you feel helps to relieve some of the stress. However, sometimes the people around you may add to your stress. Let them know how and when you need them to help you.
Cooperation and Communication. Committed relationships take teamwork, and those where one of the partners has type 1 diabetes are no different. Sometimes, managing the disease will be a team effort between you and your partner. Other times you will need space to manage your diabetes alone.
The fear of blood sugar fluctuations can be very stressful. Changes in blood sugar can cause rapid changes in mood and other mental symptoms such as fatigue, trouble thinking clearly, and anxiety. Having diabetes can cause a condition called diabetes distress which shares some traits of stress, depression and anxiety.
Diabetes and anxiety are two serious yet common conditions, which can share some of the same symptoms. People with diabetes are at increased risk of developing anxiety because they may experience excessive fear and worry about the management and possible progression of diabetes.
A diagnosis of diabetes may induce anxiety because individuals perceive that the disease will necessitate undesirable lifestyle changes, cause them to lose control over their health, and lead to diabetes-related complications, such as diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, sexual dysfunction, and macrovascular complications ...