Chicken and egg….
<< What you are saying is that all diabetics are clinically depressed. I
don’t believe that.
An association (read: correlation) does not mean that all diabetics are
depressed. It means there’s a higher incidence of depression among people
with diabetes, and/or a higher incidence of diabetes among people who are
depressed. It also says absolutely nothing and one causing the other or vice
versa, though it can have an influence.
It makes perfect sense that people with diabetes might have a higher
incidence of depression than the general population. Most people don’t have
to worry about the possibility of passing out due to a severe low, think of
every morsel of food they put in their mouth and every bit of exercise they
do, constantly adjust medication (for those of us with type 1, at least, I
don’t know as much about type 2), or the looming threat of complications
that even those of us who have no signs of still worry about. Even the cost
of medication for those who can’t afford it can be a contributor to causing
depression.
It makes sense as well that, for type 2 diabetes at least, depression could
lead to diabetes. When you’re depressed your top priority isn’t usually
losing weight or eating right, so it could certainly hasten the onset of
diabetes if someone was depressed as opposed to someone who is motivated to
prevent it at all costs. I do not think depression *alone* could cause it,
just hasten something that would inevitably happen eventually either way.
Jen