Hello! I was diagnosed with T1 when I was 12, and am now 21. I’ve been feeling burnt out recently which has caused my blood sugars to be the most unsteady they have been since I was diagnosed. I’m wondering if anyone else struggles with the fear of going low?
There is not much logic to my fear as I wear a dexcom and have never passed out from a low, but I worry so much about it that I tend to run higher to prevent a low. Does anyone have advice for coping with this fear? I know it’s bad to have my blood sugars run higher, but I just need to change my mindset of worrying about lows.
Thank you!!
Hi @Laurenb789 welcome to Type One Nation. I have suffered from burnout, anxiety, and depression and it’s not like you ever get better from these, for me I just adapt and learn how to deal with them.
Fear. No amount of worry ever did any amount of good. That’s where I start. If I can’t do it on my own I get help. I have worked with therapists on and off for years. Helping others helps me, because I can say out loud the things I most need to hear and I get the feeling of doing something rather than the feeling of helplessness. Hope you find some peace with this. 
I’m always curious when someone says they run high/er - what numbers do they consider high?: someone aiming for tight control may say it’s 130 or 150 high (I’m picking random numbers here).
If you fear lows because you’re aiming for tight control, try raising the low end of your range a little higher at least until you’re confident you’re going to be fine. Then drop it down gradually. If you’re spontaneously active and can’t always plan in advance to set Activity mode or have a snack before engaging, it might make sense to aim a bit higher - but don’t get carried away.
Also, if you’re used to running high, a normal reading will feel low. Years ago I had been running in the mid 200s. My doctor and I made some changes and I started running in the 180s - but I thought something was wrong because I always felt low. My doctor told me I was not going to pass out - I just needed to learn to adjust to lower numbers - and he was right.
Dorie took a lot of the words out of my mouth.
I worry a lot about going low overnight (even with my CGM alarms), so I target to 150 after 4 pm. For over a decade I took my lantus in the evening and had a very reliable blood sugar drop around 4 in the morning. I coped with it by driving my blood sugar over 200 before I went to bed every night. That’s not really the case anymore. I take lantus twice daily, I don’t take the same dose as I did in college, and I’m often waking up at 4 am for work anyway. Now, as long as I manage to dose dinner correctly, my blood sugar’s actually really stable overnight. The problem is that I know I don’t always get dinner right and it’s hard to break a decade’s worth of worrying, so I have a hard time controlling my urge to snack before bed. I just keep working with my healthcare team, tweaking the numbers, and hoping I find the right doses soon.
I worry all the time and always over treat. I have had to incorporate DBT therapy to stop myself and use my behavioral techniques I just learned in grad school to stop myself. I check the pump. Look at the IOB. Get my meter. Check with a finger stick. Then treat if necessary. I used to see a low and panic and have orange juice then test and it always resulted in hours of rollercoaster readings. I have multiple meters in certain spots with Smart candies in a pouch. Ready to go and having the meter with the sugar reminds me to do a finger stick before treating.