Diabetes is a chronic disease with many dangerous complications that can kill people silently. According to experts, if people with diabetes have additional symptoms of depression, the risk of death will increase 2 times compared to normal. So how can we recognize and prevent depression in diabetics?
Relationship between depression and diabetes
The relationship between depression and diabetes has always been a matter of interest to many scientists. In fact, there have been many specialized studies on this topic and found that there is a lot of interaction and influence between them.
According to the share, when people encounter any mental health problems that make them stressed, tired, exhausted, the risk of diabetes will increase. On the contrary, people with diabetes will also be more likely to experience symptoms of depression because this is a disease that requires a long time to treat, making patients easily fall into a state of sadness, despair, and pessimism.
The symptoms of depression and diabetes are somewhat similar, patients all feel tired, bored, sleep more, lose concentration. Therefore, sometimes we can get confused between these two diseases. It is possible that you are suffering from depression or diabetes, but it could also be both.
While diabetes is not a direct cause of depression, it can be intrinsically one of the risk factors that promote the development of depressive symptoms. In the case of depression before the onset of diabetes symptoms, diabetes has the potential to increase the severity of depression.
In fact, people with diabetes have a higher risk of depression than normal, and vice versa. Depression in diabetics doubles mortality. Also because, the characteristic of depression is a state of indifference, not interested in life and even your health.
Therefore, when having both these diseases at the same time, it will make the patient unable to take good care of himself, the blood sugar level in the body is not guaranteed well. At the same time, they will also become depressed, do not want to eat, often skip meals. This will make diabetes worse, high blood sugar and create many conditions for dangerous complications.
Causes of depression in diabetics
As shared above, diabetics will have a higher risk of depression than people with normal health. The specific reasons are as follows:
Depression in diabetics, if not treated early, increases the risk of death.
- According to research, the process of oxidative stress that occurs in diabetics will increase blood sugar levels and damage brain nerve cells. This condition will cause atherosclerosis in the brain’s blood vessels, causing nutritional deficiencies and reduced oxygen supply to brain cells. In addition, the process of controlling blood sugar is considered a must, so it is also considered one of the great pressures that make diabetics at increased risk of depression. In contrast, depression in diabetics causes many obstacles and difficulties in blood sugar management.
- Scientists have also found a relationship between depression and insulin resistance in people with diabetes. They found that altering insulin’s biological activity can cause insulin levels to cross the blood-brain barrier, transfer to the center, causing insulin resistance.
- People with diabetes can experience problems such as chronic stress. This condition will increase activity and disrupt the regulation of the HPA system. These problems will alter the epigenetics of the glucocorticoid eceptor – this is considered one of the common reasons why diabetics become depressed.
- Due to the prolonged course of treatment for depression and improved methods of application. According to the results of several studies, diabetes patients who are prescribed drug treatment have a lower rate of depression than patients treated with insulin.
- Some other risk factors such as family history of having relatives who have suffered from depression, patients being obese, sedentary, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, etc. All cases of diabetes are accompanied by problems with weight, blood pressure, cardiovascular, neurological problems.
Signs of depression in diabetics
Depression in patients with diabetes often presents with symptoms such as persistent insomnia, feeling tired, lack of energy, loss of appetite, loss of appetite, or skipping meals, mood swings, and mood swings. , irritability, memory impairment, negative thoughts, more dangerous than committing suicide.
Fatigue and weakness are the first symptoms that often appear when people with diabetes are depressed
Specifically, some of the symptoms that help identify depression in diabetics include:
1. The body is often tired
Fatigue, lack of vitality is one of the first symptoms that appear in people with depression. The patient will always be in a state of lack of energy, no longer flexible, limited in emotional expression. They will tend to want to be alone, especially in diabetics with unstable blood sugar levels.
2. Irritability, abnormal mood swings
This is considered a typical symptom of people suffering from depression. Due to psychological instability, the patient will be very irritable, angry, agitated for unknown reasons. Or some people become sensitive, easily bored, cry because of a small problem. In addition, some cases also appear unusual behaviors such as suddenly doing something that has never been done before or even disgusted. In general, they will have certain changes in terms of psychology and behavior.
3. Sleep disturbance
Patients with diabetes inherently fall into a state of insomnia, lack of sleep due to symptoms of frequent urination, nocturia. Patients will have a lot of difficulty in falling asleep and often tossing and turning, staying awake for many hours in bed to be able to sleep.
On average, people with diabetes can only sleep about 3 to 4 hours a night, and it is difficult for them to fall back to sleep if they wake up in the middle of the night. Insomnia is made worse when a diabetic suffers from depression. Many cases of continuous sleep loss make depression and diabetes more intense.
4. Change of taste, loss of appetite
In most cases of depression in diabetics there is a rapid change in appetite. The patient becomes anorexic, does not eat well, constantly skips meals, leading to emaciation and weakness. However, there are also a few cases of binge eating, unhealthy diet leading to obesity, overweight.
5. Memory decline
Memory loss is a hallmark of both depression and diabetes. Patients often do not focus and pay attention to any issues that happen around life. Many cases become confused, remember to forget. In addition, due to poor memory, patients often have the condition of speaking first and forgetting later. They are easily confused between events and events with each other. At the same time, the patient will easily forget or misplace things, unable to remember the things that they need to do.
6. Negative thoughts, want to commit suicide
Suicidal thoughts frequently occur in patients with both depression and diabetes. According to the study, the risk of death in these cases is twice as high as in those with only one disease. Also because of depression, pessimism, despair and thinking that he is useless, a burden for the family, the patient constantly thinks about death and wants to free himself.
How to treat and prevent depression when you have diabetes
Depression and diabetes are two dangerous diseases and have a great impact on the health of patients. Having these two diseases at the same time will make the patient’s body vulnerable to exhaustion and increase the risk of facing other health problems such as heart disease and blood pressure. At the same time, the quality of life will also be strongly affected, many people even want to commit suicide to free themselves from unpleasant symptoms.
For cases of depression in diabetics, medication alone is not enough, but it is necessary to combine psychotherapy and support from loved ones. The combination of many specialized methods will help patients control both diseases at the same time and gradually become more stable both physically and mentally.
1. Psychotherapy
Psychology is an important and decisive factor in the risk of depression in diabetics. Therefore, experts always give priority to applying appropriate psychological therapies to help patients change their perception and behavior. Depending on the condition of each person, the experts will consider to apply appropriate therapies, of which the most used is individual therapy.
Psychotherapy is the preferred method for treating depression
Currently, there are many outpatient support programs that patients can easily participate in. After therapy sessions and direct conversations with experts, patients will gradually better understand their own health status, know the causes of the disease, and thereby solve the problems in their hearts.
At the same time, psychologists also support patients to improve the necessary skills. Teach them how to control their emotions, balance their moods, cope and handle difficult situations well, reduce stress, think more optimistically so they can easily control their blood sugar, thanks That prevents the risk of recurrence and makes the disease more serious.
2. Use of therapeutic drugs
After knowing each person’s medical condition, the specialist will prescribe the appropriate dose of medication. The use of medication will help control and reduce the symptoms of the disease well. Currently, for cases of depression in patients with diabetes will be prioritized to use some antidepressant drugs.
However, these drugs have the potential to cause some unwanted side effects. Therefore, during use, patients need to strictly follow the instructions of the doctor, absolutely do not change the dosage without the consent of the specialist.
3. Change to a more active lifestyle
In addition to applying good measures to improve depression in diabetics, patients also need to quickly change their lifestyle. Diet and quality of sleep also play a very important role in the process of health recovery and prevention of the risk of disease recurrence. If people have diabetes and have a good lifestyle plan, it will help limit the risk of developing symptoms of depression.
Practicing yoga for 30 minutes a day will help you prevent the risk of depression.
To have a healthy and scientific lifestyle, you need to do a few things:
- Exercise regularly to improve physical and mental health. Depending on the current health status of each patient, you can consider choosing appropriate sports, such as walking, jogging, yoga, tai chi, swimming,… Exercise will help produce many hormones that create a feeling of happiness, stimulate brain cells, aid in weight loss, and lower blood sugar.
- Build a nutritious diet, pay attention to add lots of green vegetables and foods that are good for the brain. If you feel anorexia, give priority to liquid foods, divide your portions, and diversify your daily dishes to feel more excited about eating.
- Pay attention to the quality of sleep, need to make sure you get enough sleep from 7 to 8 hours a day. If you find it difficult to fall asleep, you can try relaxing therapies such as soaking your feet in warm water, using aromatic oils, listening to music, meditating, etc. It is best to maintain the habit of sleeping and waking at the same time. during the day (including holidays) to be able to adjust the biological clock very well.
- Learn how to control your emotions and balance your mood well. Also because the diabetes treatment process takes a long time and sometimes does not achieve the expected success. Therefore, you need to know how to adjust and balance your mind to prevent the risk of depression.
- Share and confide more with those around. Talking about the problems and worries in your heart will help you feel more comfortable and relieved. Therefore, when feeling stressed and tired, you should find someone to confide in. Sometimes people around you will also give you words of encouragement and useful advice.
Depression in patients with diabetes can increase the risk of death and have a very serious impact on the health and life of the patient. Hopefully, through the information of this article, it will help readers have effective prevention and treatment methods to be able to recover health quickly.
