Diabetes Type 1 Support Group

I believe I have an eating disorder I think it is binge eating. I ate a LOT in my teens, I was unhappy and was bullied, and I was never low since I only took a small amount of insulin. Not deliberately but because I had no idea how to adjust my insulin, I was never told now to match it to what I ate or anything. But anyway I ate and ate. Now I eat less but still eat probably too much especially since I don't exercise. I also eat 'bad' foods such as chocolate and crisps. I am trying to break my carb addiction but it is proving tricky. Throughout all this I have had virtually no support from my healthcare team beyond common sense advice such as do more exercise or eat more healthily. They have not bothered asking whether I need support or counselling even tho my dr has tried to get me on antidepressants twice in the last couple of years. I believe that the way young and especially teenage diabetics are treated is wrong and encourages eating disorders well it does from my experience and I went to a few different drs due to moving about. I was consistently told off for high BGs but nobody bothered to explain anything beyond 'your BGs have to be in this range', not how or why. I think it is easy to develop some kind of ED with diabetes due to the obsessive counting and measuring of food and everything else, either something like anorexia or going the opposite way like I did and rebelling, eating what you want. Even after my education course I still struggle to write honestly in my BG diary. I consistently wrote fake BG results as a teenager and nobody said anything. I lived outside a city where there was no public transport and my parents both worked so I couldnt always get to my appointments. I was kicked off the doctors list without question at 16 in the midst of my overeating. My parents didnt seem that interested in my diabetes. I only found help at 25 when I got myself onto an education course. I am still struggling with food and exercise especially since I am unhappy in my job. I am also now fat and insulin resistant as a result of my teen behaviour. But I am now taking responsibility since I know you cant blame your childhood for everything for the rest of your life. I do wish, though, that someone had bothered to help me when I needed it rather than waiting til I was old and mature enough to find help myself.

In temrs of the hypo thing, I used to have a problem with that too. I think it is partly subconscious, the body trying desperately to make itself better. I find it helps to have a clear idea of what 15-20g carbs looks like - thats why I could use lucozade since measuring it out was too hard when in a hypo state. I now use jelly babies since I know I need 3 or 4 of them to make up 15-20g. I still have a problem on the occasions when a hypo wakes me up at night. If I am hypo as well as half asleep that is a dangerous thing and I often overcompensate and end up high.

I'm also in Overeaters Anonymous. Its hard not to binge when you are experiencing low blood sugars. When my blood sugar goes low my body wants me to eat everything to bring my blood sugar back up, and as you could tell by all the responses we all experience it. I use to give myself too much insulin so I could eat all the sweets that I'm not suppose to be eating! NOW when I have low blood sugars I eat 3 glucose tablets and wait 15 minutes to check my sugar to see if it is going up if not I take 3 more. If I don't have tablets on me I tried to have some kind of hard candy, (only a few pieces), milk is good too because it brings up your sugar slowly and you don't get too high. It's not good to go sky high from being real low. I just feel horrible when that happens.
Also you are suppose to have some kind of protein with that low not just the sugar.

Phillie, yes protein is awesome when your low.
I like to have graham crackers with peanut butter when im low because of the carbs and protein. It makes you full faster so you avoid a binge. But yes just fix something healthy like that. Its hard not to binge when low, but you can do it.

Ya for a while I used to get stuck in the vicious cycle of low blood sugar, binge, then high blood sugar. I guess I have to be really controling about only taking a set amount of carbs and then checking where I am at within 10min. sometimes I just binge on sugar free jello or vegtibals to help prevent me from eating the whole box of cerial and going high. But I think it's more of a wired in survival tactic we just let the drive to eat to correct the low take us over. trust me I think if you go low enough it's nomral for a diabetic to binge.

I have definitely binged when I have been low but that was because I felt RAVENOUS and eating just felt so good! Then of course I would end up going too high. What I do now is drink a juice box because you can't really binge on those! I even go to sleep with one next to my bed sometimes :)

I am a type one diabetic too, and I suffered first with anorexia, and now with binge eating.. I know its binge eating. It's a mental disorder.
Going low, however, is always ALWAYS a trigger for me, because I think... I just wasted XXX calories on sugar. Then feel guilty, and since I've started eating, I can't stop. It's a nasty cycle.

And does anyone have binge eating disorder and find its really dangerous? I've nearly passed out two or three times from injecting too much insulin to compensate for a binge because I can't even remember how much I've eaten... It sounds silly, I know.

And yeah, my dietician and endocrinologist said lots of type 1 diabetics develop ED's- because we have to count what we eat and monitor exercise, they say its easy to fall into the disorders.

I hate having both, so I know how you all feel!

I think it's important to remember that hunger -often intense hunger - is the body's natural, instinctive response to having a low blood sugar. Your body isn't getting the fuel it needs to maintain itself, and it's telling you, "EAT SOMETHING!!!!" And we do. Sometimes it's hard to stop because it takes time for the body to register what we're putting in to it (especially if we're not doing it in a smart way, and eating carbs that aren't absorbed very quickly).

I wouldn't refer to the overeating response as an ED, but I would suggest that it's something many T1's need to be aware of and combat. Sometimes it's so bad that I have to tell my husband to help keep me from eating. It's about finding a strategy that works for you.

I think EDs come into play with diabetics who intentionally live with hyperglycemia to lose weight. THAT, I think, is more of an eating disorder than overcompensating for a low.