How to deal with Diabetes and Depression

It is tough to deal with diabetes and depression at the same time. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to lethargy, which can make dealing with depression even more difficult. It's best to treat the diabetes aggressively, so that the effects of depression are not great than they have to be.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Lower your blood sugar. The main factor in blood sugar control is to lower the amount of carbohydrates in the diet. Test with your meter after meals. If necessary, lower carbohydrates to extreme levels. If you let high blood sugars occur after meals, you will feel lethargic which will impair your mental health even more. Diabetes and depression do not mix.

2. Some psychiatric drugs such as Zyprexa can raise blood sugars. Check all of your anti-depression drugs to make sure they don't raise blood sugar. The lethargy from a psychiatric drugs will make it very hard to overcome depression.

3. Many psychiatric drugs cause rapid and significant weight gain, which will greatly impair blood sugar control as well. If possible, try to replace with drugs that don't cause weight gain.

4. Exercise. It will make your mind better due to hormones activated by exercise. Exercise also lowers blood sugar and can lead to weight loss, which helps lower blood sugar in the long run. Both diabetes and depression greatly benefit from exercise. Kill two birds with one stone.

Tips & Warnings

• In general, it's easier to mitigate the complications of diabetes than it is to mitigate depression. When you have both diabetes and depression, concentrate on diabetes first.