ADHD, Diabetes and becoming Borg

Recently I've been thinking about the ways my ADHD impacts different areas of my life.

One thing that I may have already written about is the interactions between ADHD and Diabetes. (Sorry if I am repeating myself - but I don't think I am.)

Insulin pen

I was diagnosed with type one diabetes when I was 18. I had just moved back to the UK from a few years in Texas and lived with my grandparents while I started A-Levels. It is safe to say that right from the start my diabetes was not well controlled. I had (and still have) a tendency to snack a lot. Because of the types of insulin available at the time (late 1990s), I was supposed to be very disciplined with when I injected, when and what I ate, and even how much I exercised. These were things I struggled with and my blood sugar was all over the place. I now know that some of the snacking was/is dopamine-based. The sugar rush from snacks temporarily feeds the lack of dopamine received from other activities and also requires a lot less effort than those activities.

Omnipod dash (not modeled by me)

The types of insulin and the way I test my blood sugar today have changed. Continuous glucose monitoring and an insulin pump have dramatically improved my overall control. I still need to manually input the approximate number of carbohydrates every time I eat, which I something I often forget. Or (and this is more common) I simply forget to eat altogether. Overestimating carbs, or forgetting to eat normally results in a severe hypo, where my blood sugar goes very low.

I've often heard a hypo described as unpleasantly like being drunk. To paraphrase Douglas Adams if you want to know what is so unpleasant about being drunk, ask a glass of water! In this case, it is like being drunk but without the enjoyment of having a drink in the first place.

Now as most people are aware, one of the problems with being drunk is that it lowers your inhibitions and makes control of emotions quite a lot harder. My ability to deal with emotional dysregulation, one of the biggest issues I have with ADHD, goes almost completely out the window while having a hypo. Having a hypo also leaves me completely exhausted and likely to go to sleep and miss a meal. It can be a vicious cycle and one that can take me a day or so to break out of.

I'm looking forward to the next phase of diabetes treatment, which is supposed to react to my blood sugar and reduce the need for me to remember to take insulin when I eat.

I'm hoping that the more cyborg I become the less my diabetes will impact my ADHD and vice versa.