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[Penelope]

Please make this known to as many women and men as you know!🌹

Imagine having all the symptoms of a major mental illness such as manic depression, paranoid schizophrenia, psychotic depression, or even a bipolar disorder. One day you wake up with overflowing physical energy, even feeling severely anxious, with a rapid heartbeat, profuse sweating, trembling hands, and diarrhea, and you can't stop losing weight. Then soon enough, without warning, your energy plummets. You feel like a slug, are constipated, your hair starts falling out, you gain weight no matter how little you eat, and you are severely depressed. You may have difficulty swallowing, sound hoarse, and feel like you have swallowed something that wont go down. And then, suddenly, your old symptoms return, and you feel anxious, sweaty, trembling, and panicky. This cycle can repeat itself again and again.

While your symptoms resemble a mental health issue, they could be signs of Hashimoto's thyroiditis, one cause of hypothyroidism. Hashimoto's thyroiditis, also known as autoimmune thyroiditis or simply ?Hashimoto's, is caused by an autoimmune disorder. In this case, the body's immune system sees the thyroid gland as a foreign body and begins to attack, damaging and killing thyroid cells along the way. As the cells are damaged or destroyed, they release their stored thyroid hormone, causing classic hyperthyroid symptoms such as anxiety, panic attacks, shaking hands, sweating, and a racing heart.

Each autoimmune attack causes more and more damage to the thyroid gland until, ultimately, the gland is no longer able to produce adequate thyroid hormones. Every cell in the body needs thyroid hormones, so a deficiency can wreak havoc on the entire system, causing depression, weight gain, severe fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, and even overall body aches.

With such a dramatic swing in symptoms, it's easy to see how Hashimoto's disease could be misdiagnosed as a mental illness like manic depression or bipolar disorder. And it happens much too often. A 1987 study found that as many as 15% of patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital for depression actually were suffering from some level of hypothyroidism.

[Taz2]

I agree stellajane. Thanks for posting this Penelope but it doesn't sound quite right. Where is this info from?

Taz x 

[jaycee]

I have a few of those symptoms,even the hoarse voice. weight gain , sluggishnes tired one day loads of energy the next, but have had several thyroid tests all clear, no anxiety, or depression though

[Penelope]

Hi Ladies I had this all to a T This has been my life since I had my last baby.Remember you do not have to have all the symptoms and there are always verying degrees.

https://www.holtorfmed.com/mental-illness-hashimotos-disease/

[Penelope]

Hi Jaycee I had a normal TSH reading for 26 years yet I felt exactly like the article explains.
Your Blood tests need to be
Vit D
TSH
free T4
free T3
Thyroglobulin
Thyroid antibodies

[Taz2]

Thanks Penelope. I'm so sorry you've had to deal with such severe symptoms. Hope you are feeling better now. It must have been really frightening.

Taz x 

[Countrygirl]

Thank you Penelope, just seen the eyebrows bit on Stella's post, im losing mine and one is going pure white even though I don't have a grey hair on my head, my gps only do the basic thyroid blood test and don't do the vit D one x

[Penelope]

Thanks countrygirl it's the other tests that give the real answers!🌹
It is criminal that those with Palpitations- Anxiety - Panic attacks and so on are never ever given the correct tests and left to feel we are having breakdowns and it's all in our heads!

[Countrygirl]

Ah thank you Stellajane, I'm in my forties and still trying to work out what's going on with me Xx

[CLKD]

GPs deal with what the patient presents with.  It's often the "By the way Doctor" statement as the patient leaves the Surgery that alerts a Doctor to more issues.

I wanted to know why I suffer with depression - no tests done, no deep conversations - simply that I am pre-disposed 

[Kathleen]

Hello ladies

I have recently joined the Hashimoto's gang (yay me lol).  I was diagnosed after I had Glandular Fever which can be a trigger apparently. My symptoms at the time of diagnosis were generally feeling unwell, cold hands and feet and puffy, sore eyes.

I can see how moving from hyper to hypo can cause mood swings etc but the hormonal fluctuations of the menopause can cause similar problems.

I haven't lost any eyebrows but some are coming through white which at 63 I assume is an age thing.

I still don't understand how Hashimoto's can be treated with anything other than a thyroxine replacement drug like Levothyroxine, but as I said, I'm new to all this.

Take care ladies.

K.

[Tc]

Hiya.. very  Interesting. 
I've been losing my head  hair for roughly 4 years.   I wasnt in peri  at the time and it was put down to stress as I'd had a bereavement.  It's got no worse or no better. since surgical meno 18 months ago  but...my eyebrows have now lost their "tails. And stop in the middle.  And my eyelashes have become very short and sparse. It's happened pretty quickly. .My skin is also very dry despite getting my eastrogen  up to a good level.with HRT

Doc checked TSH last year  which was normal.

At my last yearly eye check he saw something wrong with the cornea.  I was told I have Fuchs dystrophy.. It wasnt present at my previous test.  So another new thing. . 

another incongrous symptom since my surgery  is shakiness,  hand tremor which is worse in the mornings and consequently . I've now had "functional neurological disorder" added to my list by a neurologist . No offense to anyone but  It seems like one of those labels for unexplained symptoms. A meaningless diagnosis.

By far my worst symptoms since meno have been its impact on my mental health. But next would be fatigue. I keep thinking it  feels like when I had ME which I had afterI had  Epstein Barr virus and shingles back in my 20s.  So it's interesting to see glandular fever  mentioned here. 

I have had a distinct feeling all along that no one is joining the dots.  You can have lots of tests but if they are not the right tests then you are left being told what it  isnt but not what it actually is. 
X

[CLKD]

What bothers me, reading reports from sufferers - is who GPs take a 'within normal result' as Gospel but rarely listen to the patient who continues to complain of symptoms.  Is this to save NHS money?

[Feather]

I totally agree with this! My mother was taking levothyroxine for 20 years then suddenly they halved the dose. She clearly has symptoms but her doctors simply won't have it that there's anything wrong. They just say, well at 85 you should expect to feel crap! ( in so many words!) I'm awaiting test results for thyroid function myself, so hoping it doesn't become a battle with the medical establishment!

[CLKD]

Is your Mum still showing symptoms, if so .........