Dealing with his moods - Diabetes Message Board

MissJ1983 · 06-03-2002, 09:25 AM

Im 19 and my boyfriend is a Type 1 Diabetic. He has been since he was 11.Her is now almost 23. I have only been with him for a round 4 months, but I have pulled him out of a serious hypo,already.

But..

The hardest thing to deal with are his moods. I know that his moods are affected by his sugars, and I know not to take what he says personally.

Does anyone have any advice as to how they overcame this?

deedee2074 · 06-03-2002, 06:26 PM

My brother is type 1, and he's gone through some bad hypo. He once punched his girlfriend in the face and knocked her out. When he gets nasty he can really hit home with his comments and make you want to cry. This is not the person talking-its the hypo talking. My mother handles him best-she simply brings him something to get his blood sugar up, doesn't say a word to him and just helps him. For some reason, he doesn't react badly to her. Maybe its because she doesn't bug him. Also, when I get lows, I hate people talking around me and hovering. It drives me insane. Noises and touching really annoy me. Hope this helps.

poeticheretic · 06-05-2002, 10:52 AM

Hi. I'm a type I, so I know exactly how your boyfriend feels. The best thing to do is to try to talk to him when he's at a normal level. I've experienced severe mood swings from my diabetes too (not bad enough to attack someone, but bad enough to throw a few tantrums like a two year old boy) Tell him how he makes you feel when he's behaving that way. He cannot control the moodswings, but he can control his actions and words to a major extent (or at least I can) Be patient with him and don't patronize. He is old enough to take responsibility for his actions. He needs to learn to focus on what he is doing and saying, and try some anger management techniques. This doesn't always work--sometimes I still scream blue blazes-- but it helps a lot. Sometimes he's still going to be outrageous, but he has to learn some self control. Thinking and concentrating when having a hypo is hard, but we as diabetics have to try, simply just to live peacably in society. Hope this helped some.

MikelBear · 06-05-2002, 06:38 PM

Unfortunately, emotional self-control while hypo is sometimes actually NOT possible. I've been type 1 since 1965, and over those 37 years I really gave it to, first my mother, and later my wife, many a time. The best thing to do is NOT to talk much, because although you may think you are having a conversation, internally, it's often "Looney Toons" as far as logic and comprehension. It's like being on a whole bunch of drugs at the same time--nothing makes sense, things look and sound weird, you feel frightened, lightheaded, paranoid, speedy, tired, clumsy, dizzy, sweaty, surrounded my molassas and echoing bubbles of strangeness. The worst thing is, you may experience all that and barely be aware of it because your brain has blown most of its fuses. When your boyfriend goes Loony-Toons, just get sugar into him by whatever means necessary or possible, in a reassuring and calm way. When my sugars are in the below-50 range, sound just doesn't get any meaning into my scrambled mind. TELLING me to eat, that I'm low, just doesn't connect to a meaning. I may answer logically and emphatically, but I may not be home upstairs. My mother realized early on that, the more I insisted I wasn't low, the lower I probably was! A reassuring, "Here, honey, drink this now", with a palm on the back of his head while putting a glass of milk to his mouth might work best--a direct kind of thing. You cannot get into an arguement with a diabetic gone severely hypo--there's like no sense to be made in the poor guy's brain. And there shouldn't be any 'blame' here either--often, I wouldn't "DO" anything, they'd just happen. Everyone always wants to know what you DID to cause this episode. Usually, it just happens, no explaination, no logical reason. That's the nature of Insulin Dependence. It's like having an epilectic seizure--they sometimes just happen. It's not fun or easy for anyone. My wife of 28 years deserves a medal for sticking it out with me all these years. By the way, we've been together since we were 19... :-)
Michael, T-1 since '65

deedee2074 · 06-05-2002, 07:37 PM

mikelbear-well said. i think you summed it up perfectly.