Insulin and overdose..? Emergancy advice needed

[Silbernes]

Hello all, I'm sorry if I'm a bother as I know absolutely nothing about diabetes, but I know I could definetly find some answers here. My future mother in law has a severe drug addiction problem with pot and prescription drugs, she does not have diabetes, but she is an RN (Nurse I think) and has easy access to prescription drugs that she doesn't need. This evening she pulled a dissapearing act only for her son(my fiance) and myself to find out that she was sent to the emergancy room for an insulin overdose.

Would somebody kindly clear something up for me on this? my questions are:
Does insulin give a drug addict any kind of a high or buzz, or related feeling to be abused by someone addicted to the drug sensation, even when they don't have diabetes?

I'm trying to figure out if she did this out of a blatant suicide attempt, or if she was doing it to feel high.. As a nurse for many years, she should know what the effects of an overdose of this medicine could do I'd think, but she's never even hinted of any suicidal tendancies and I'm very scared and concerned and just trying my best to be there for my fiance right now through this as she is in critical condition in the hospital and it's uncertain if she'll even make it through the night. I'd just like to find out if it was more of an obvious suicide, or the effect of drug abuse so that I can help make some sense out of things for all involved that I love.

Can someone shed some light onto this situation for me? Thank you, so much for your time and God Bless you all and keep you.
~Yeliel

[MarkMunday]

...... Does insulin give a drug addict any kind of a high or buzz, or related feeling to be abused by someone addicted to the drug sensation, even when they don't have diabetes?

I'm trying to figure out if she did this out of a blatant suicide attempt, or if she was doing it to feel high..
All insulin does is make the blood sugar come down. And when it drops too low, the effects are very unpleasant. So, no, insulin doesn't produce a "high".

It could have been a suicide attempt. Insulin is potentially dangerous stuff. Having said that, suicide attempts using insulin are seldom successful. The liver usually produces enough glucose to keep the blood sugar above the critical threshold until help is organised. But, depending on how much insulin she injected, it could take days to stabilise the blood sugar level.

Sounds like your mother in law could be very unhappy, even if she isn't letting on. And she could need some counselling. Hope she comes through this OK. And good luck with dealing with the crisis.

Cheers,

Mark

[Cinnabon]

Does insulin give a drug addict any kind of a high or buzz, or related feeling to be abused by someone addicted to the drug sensation, even when they don't have diabetes?


Yeliel,

High or Buzz?? most probably when they are bagging their body. Insulin is nothing to play with, including non-diabetics. It can easily cause death. Dont see how they can be addicted to insulin.:stupid:

[koblenz]

Mark is absolutely right, to my knowledge, no "high" can be gained from taking insulin.

I guess the other possibility is a mistake. She may have "appropriated" the vial of insulin thinking it was some other "high" inducing substance and WHAMMO!

In either event, I am sorry to hear about this and in any case, I think some treatment and/or counseling maybe in order. I hope she makes it safely through the evening and gets the help she needs.

[lgvincent]

I'm sorry to hear this has happened and hope she'll recover quickly but I'm not aware of any highs one can get from it, either. I've found low blood sugar to be very unpleasant. As has already been said, she may have taken it in a suicide attempt or she may have taken it by accident. If she were already under the influence of another drug she may have thought she had gotten something else. I guess you really won't know until she recovers and can explain what happened but she didn't knowingly take it to get high because that doesn't happen.

[Silbernes]

Thanks so much to all who replied, I really hoped I didn't sound the slightest bit insulting when I used the word "high" I just don't know what other word to use in describing what she might've been looking for, but thank you guys, you've all been a great help. *hug* It appears she's responsive now at least and gonna be okay, at least physically, thank you for the suggestions as well, I agree there needs to be some counceling/therapy. She's a nurse, I'm sure she knew what would happen to her with this medication, either that or like some of you suggested could have been on something else at the time and taken it by mistake but.. well either way thank you again for all your input and the info(That now I should probably research and learn more about), it was highly appreciated, especially since I didn't know where to turn for it as I'm in a different state then she is right now and couldn't get ahold of anyone over there. You're all great people<3 Have a good night~!(or morning~)

Actually you know, before even stumbling upon this forum I never did know much or was that aware of diabetes and all aspects involved in it. It really should be more well known I think and this forum-- I mean look at you guys, you were so informative and welcoming to a complete stranger today who just popped in with a crisis and you were all so quick to offer help and good information, you're all amazing people. I own my own personal art gallery site, its fantasy and on the darker side 'gothic' and mostly 'horror' game genre(Silent Hill), but if theres anything I can do for you guys wether it's art or a link to ya or a section on the site, just let me know~ I owe you all one and really do appreciate this.
-Yeliel
Seraphic@mail2artist.com