If you have read through my blog posts you know that I am interested in the comorbidity of depression and diabetes. Increasingly, I am seeing more and more on this topic in mainstream sources. The holiday season is a particular stress on diabetics. The reasons are not as obvious as they may seem.
Yes, it is harder to control blood sugars if all that temptation in the form of treats are always stuck in front of your face. But it goes beyond that. The real stress of the holidays (and yes, I know the holidays are stressful for everyone) comes more in the social interaction demands. The co-occurrence of mood swings and diabetes makes this season a particularly difficult one for many diabetics. I can't tell you the extent of my own difficulties in juggling the "merriness" of the season with my opposite affect syndrome. Indirect B always comes back with a vengence. Anyway, consider the article below.
This latest comes from RealAge.com
3 Reasons to Curb High Blood Sugar
No doubt you already know about diabetes' scary complications, from heart disease to blindness and nerve damage, but did you know that diabetes can take a huge toll on your personal life, too? According to data we analyzed from 1 million RealAgers, it can impact your life in 3 key ways:
1. Relationships. People with diabetes are far less likely than nondiabetics to spend time with friends or relatives. They're also more than twice as likely as those without diabetes to say they're unhappily married. That's not surprising. Diabetes can make you prone to depression and anxiety, both of which are hard on relationships. It can also put the brakes on your sex life by causing vaginal dryness in women, and low testosterone and erectile dysfunction in men.
2. Depression. People with diabetes were twice as likely as the general population to suffer from depression. Diabetes may cause changes in the brain that contribute to depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The stress and expense of managing an all-encompassing condition like diabetes also can make you more vulnerable to depression.
3. Finances. Diabetics are three times more likely than nondiabetics to report severe financial stress. This may be because type 2 diabetes hits low-income communities especially hard, but diabetes is expensive no matter where you live. According to the American Diabetes Association, people newly diagnosed with diabetes spend $4,174 a year more on medical costs than those who don't have diabetes. That figure goes up another $158 every year after that.
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