RAVENOUS: DEVOURING OR CRAVING FOOD IN GREAT QUANTITIES.

Low-blood sugar is the worst feeling.  And it's a weird thing.  You're sweating profusely.  You can't think straight.  All your muscles get very weak.  You can't make decisions.  You have black spots in your vision.  You can't remember the words you want to say.  You're conscious but see pictures in your head instead of what's in front of you. And you get ravenous.

At its worst I hallucinate.  One of the recent worst episodes I've had was when I awoke from a nap and realized I was really low.  Made it down the stairs but by that time the hallucinations had kicked in. There were people in my living room at the bottom of the stairs guiding me into the kitchen because I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do.  It took me a few seconds to know they were hallucinations, at least having enough conscious awareness left to figure it out after I tried to ask them who they were.  They just told me "Go that way" and pointed to the kitchen.  Then I told myself, "Oh yeah, I need to eat something.  And they're not real."  It's a little weird.  My low-blood sugar hallucinations are always about people around me helping me, getting me up, getting me to eat something.  Maybe they are real.  Spirit helpers?  Maybe.  It's a nice thought.

Time gets really slowed down too.  One time I "came to" while standing in the kitchen staring at a jar of peanut butter.  I don't know how long I was standing there.  I had forgotten that I had to actually open the jar first.  Was just waiting for the peanut butter.

It can be funny when I wake up in the middle of the night with low blood sugar.  I only have vague memories of being in the kitchen eating when this happens but the real evidence of what went on comes the next morning.

One morning I was doing my usual thing, getting ready for work, when I noticed my lunch bag was already packed.  It had all kinds of stuff in it and I wondered how that happened.  Then I remembered I had a low blood-sugar episode during the night.  It explained what I'd found in my lunch bag!

Smarties, gummy bears, a cookie, caramel corn, marshmallows, Wheat Thins, Pop-Tarts, an orange, oatmeal, and a jar of peanut butter.

I don't remember doing that, but apparently while I was rummaging through the kitchen in one of my hallucinatory low blood-sugar ravenous states I must have thought it a good idea to pack my lunch for the next day.  Gee, how thoughtful of me!