Diabetes and Depression: How to Manage Mental Health Conditions

For people with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, or gestational diabetes, keeping up with the symptoms and complications of this disease can be exhausting. However, the impact diabetes can have on people’s lives often goes beyond its physical effects. If you’ve been asking yourself “can diabetes affect mental health?” the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Whether you haven’t noticed any mental health issues related to your diabetes diagnosis or you’ve been dealing with these problems for years, it’s crucial to take your mental health seriously. In this article, you’ll learn about the connection between diabetes and mental health – and how to take care of your mental well-being in the future.

What are the links between diabetes and mental health?

It’s no understatement to say that a diabetes diagnosis can change your life. To successfully manage diabetes, you’ll need to make lifestyle changes, take whatever medications your healthcare team prescribes, and pay close attention to your blood glucose levels. Since controlling diabetes involves a lot of time and effort, it’s not surprising that it can affect your state of mind.

The diabetes-mental health connection is easy to see, but there’s hard evidence backing it up. Here are a few statistics about mental health and diabetes:

• People with type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes have a heightened risk of anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.
• As a person who has diabetes, your lifetime risk of depression is twice as high as the general population’s risk.
• People living with type 1 diabetes are twice as likely to experience disordered eating.

Mental health conditions that affect diabetes care

While there’s no shortage of mental health conditions that can affect people with diabetes, three of the most prominent conditions in this population include:

Diabetes and depression

Right now, we don’t know precisely how diabetes and depression are linked. However, we can safely say that stress from diabetes management, symptoms, and complications can contribute to symptoms of depression. In turn, the unhealthy eating habits, reduced physical activity, and “brain fog” associated with depression can make it more difficult for people to manage diabetes.

Look out for these depression symptoms 

If you think you might have depression, keep an eye out for symptoms such as: 

• Reduced or excessive sleep 
• Overeating or a loss of appetite 
• Difficulty concentrating 
• Feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, guilt, or irritability 
• Unexplained aches/pains, headaches, digestive issues, or cramps 
• Thoughts of death or suicide

Do any of these symptoms sound familiar? If so, reach out to your healthcare team as soon as possible. 

Diabetes and anxiety

Depression isn’t the only mental health condition people with diabetes need to look out for. There’s also a connection between diabetes and anxiety – the diabetes-related factors listed above can also cause anxiety to develop or worsen in people with this disease. Along with that, there isn’t a single form of anxiety people with diabetes should be aware of. Diabetes can be connected to anything from generalized anxiety disorder to more “specialized” conditions like agoraphobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

No matter what form of anxiety you think you might have, be aware of anxiety symptoms such as:

• A sense of tension, restlessness, or nervousness
• An elevated heart rate
• Hyperventilation (unusually rapid breathing)
• Trouble thinking about anything other than the source of worry
• Gastrointestinal or digestive issues
• Sleeping problems
• Muscle twitches or trembling

Like depression symptoms, tell your healthcare team once you spot any signs of anxiety.

Diabetes distress

Depression and anxiety often affect people with diabetes and the general population. However, people in the former category should also be wary of a diabetes-specific mental health condition known as “diabetes distress.” This condition, seen in 33 to 50 percent of people with diabetes, can arise when you feel like your efforts to manage diabetes are going nowhere. If left unmanaged, diabetes distress can lead you to avoid checking your blood glucose or even avoid doctor’s appointments.

Unlike anxiety and depression, you can’t manage diabetes distress with medication. Instead, your best bet to get this condition under control is to focus on smaller, more attainable goals related to diabetes management. Also, consider talking to a mental health counselor or diabetes educator about diabetes distress, joining a diabetes support group, and seeing an endocrinologist.

Managing mental health conditions and diabetes 

Like diabetes itself, you can successfully treat these mental health problems. If you take your depression, anxiety, or diabetes distress as seriously as your other diabetes symptoms, you can manage these conditions and live your best life. Some of the most effective mental health management strategies are:

Therapy

Anyone can benefit from therapy, whether they have mental health issues or not. Professional therapists can make it easier to identify and manage sources of stress in your life, including stressors tied to diabetes. You may benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy, family therapy, dialectical-behavioral therapy, or another therapy method.

Medication

Along with therapy, you may find medication useful in your efforts to manage mental health issues. Make a point of working closely with your healthcare team to ensure your new medicines won’t cause problems related to diabetes management. (On the other hand, research suggests that certain antidepressants can make it easier to control your blood sugar.)

Stress management

Finally, learning stress management techniques is a highly effective way to deal with the worries associated with life as a person with diabetes. Take some time to ask yourself “how does emotional stress affect blood glucose levels?” and look for patterns in your daily stress level. From there, you’ll be able to look for warning signs of stress and take steps to reduce your stress level.

Mental health and diabetes support

No one can eliminate stressors from their everyday life, and that certainly includes people with diabetes. But with the support provided by your diabetes healthcare team and mental health professionals, you can create a mental health management plan that’s right for you.

Another way to cut down on diabetes-related stress is by simplifying the process of ordering diabetes supplies. US MED has 20-plus years of experience and accreditations from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission, and the Accreditation Commission for Healthcare. Choose us for quick, reliable delivery of continuous glucose monitors, diabetes testing supplies, insulin pumps, and many other products!

Written by: US MED Staff

 Clinically Reviewed by: Shirley DeLeon, RD, CDCES