Thyroid, Anxiety & my story

[Mindfulness4]

Hi All,

Im 27 years old (just needed to say that so u can follow along with the story timeline). Im here to tell my story to figure out the mystery if what I feel is due to predominantly an anxiety problem or thyroid. Or both playing into each other? idk.

When I was 9 I suffered from 3-4 terrible panic attacks due to some major stressful events that went on in my life.

then a few sporadically between 9-15. When I was 16 I had an out of the blue very terrible and terrifying panic attack that turned into panic disorder. The disorder didn't last longer than a month but always felt anxiety and some symptoms but nothing very major.

Then at 19, working, going to college, having other more responsibilities etc. I started getting bad anxiety again. I wanted to work out and change m body - and for some reason while I was working out, I would get bad anxiety, sometimes to a panic attack or I would feel terrible after a work out. I would get really back headaches, eye aches and HAD to go to sleep. My body felt terrible and took me 2 sometimes 3 days to fully recover. I was also diagnosed with Hashimotos Thyroiditis at this time. My mom as it as well. I got on the synthroid pill at 75mcg.

Finally I got treated for my anxiety because my anxiety got really bad. At 22 finally my anxiety disappeared from therapy and a 4-week mindfulness program. It was amazing. I started working out again but not quite as comfortably as I knew I could. Sometimes I still had to go to sleep after a workout and didn't have energy afterward.

Things were great for 3 years. I had a lot of energy, I felt myself etc. Then, more stressful events happened at 24 - heartbreak, my grandfather died, I was moving out and my dog got hit by a car. My panic attacks and anxiety came back full blown. All the same symptoms as I had before came right back.

SO HERE IS MY DEAL:

I keep going back and forth. Sometimes I don't know if its my thyroid bothering me, or that the panic attacks and thyroid are separate. My anxiety makes me a different person and since I was 24 now 27, I also have tons of other symptoms that sound just like thyroid problems and adrenal fatigue problems.

- Terrible panic attacks and anxiety disorder (gives me breathlessness to the point it feels like I'm suffocation and I can't talk. Rushed to the hospital a few times for them to tell me I'm fine its just anxiety)

- I feel exhausted and tires all the time, like I can't handle anything

- I get stressed easily

- I cannot work out or be active - I crash and have to sleep or get so exhausted I panic and feel like I am dying.

- Everything little thing makes me anxious

- Heart palpitations

- night panic attacks that feel like sleep apnea

- I WAKE UP feeling UNRESTED almost every morning, get a Burt of energy at a random time of the day, then comes back down

- I feel depressed sometimes

- I just feel like I'm in a prison and can't live my full life!

- I have IBS, terrible gas pains and gas

- Anal fissures

- Moodiness

- Just no energy!!

I went back to therapy, tried 3 different therapists and for some odd reason I can't back to how I used to! An they all said I should bounce right back and I haven't.

I miss myself. I keep buying thyroid books and it scares me that everything says that thyroid isn't being treated properly. I have tried going on diets millions of times and I live alone and its hard. I don't have the energy to do it sometimes but I'm about to try again because I won't give up. My doctor says my levels are fine and I don't know if the anxiety mostly or the thyroid doing this to my anxiety, I don't know and its driving me crazy. I spend almost 2k on an integrative doctor too! I even spent money on that documentary called "The Thyroid Secret".

They say I have to test for gluten intolerance and treat my gut for bacterial overgrowth. Then they say its from the EBV virus. I am scared my doctor won't do the gluten intolerance test to see if I'm gluten intolerant but she thinks I'm a hypochondriac because of my anxiety.

UGH IM JUST SO FRUSTRATED!!!!

[Marz]

As you have Hashimotos I would give up the gluten anyway and see how you go. Please post your latest results with ranges - you sound undermedicated.

Also test B12 - Folate - Ferritin - VitD.

Sorry in a rush - others will be along soon !

[greygoose]

'for some reason while I was working out, I would get bad anxiety, sometimes to a panic attack or I would feel terrible after a work out. I would get really back headaches, eye aches and HAD to go to sleep. My body felt terrible and took me 2 sometimes 3 days to fully recover.'

There's no mystery there. You obviously had low T3, being hypo, and your work out was using it all up, leaving nothing for the rest of your living. It's T3 that we need for everything we do, it's the active hormone, and it's needed by every single cell in your body. The harder you work out, the more T3 you use up, so your brain starts to suffer from lack of T3, causing symptoms like anxiety. Anxiety is a symptom, not a disease, and it's low T3 that causes symptoms.

It sounds to me as if you are very under-medicated. Doctors world-wide have very limited understanding of thyroid, and little understanding of how to read blood tests - half the time, they don't even do the right blood tests! So, what you need to do is get hold of your results and ranges - if you don't already have them - and post them here. And tell us how much Synthroid you're now taking.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

You sound under medicated, probably have low vitamins stopping thyroid hormones working and like most with Hashimoto's need to be strictly gluten free

No point paying for Coeliac endoscopy, only 5% are coeliac, but over 80% are gluten intolerant

For full evaluation you ideally need TSH, FT4, FT3, TT4, TPO and TG antibodies, plus vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 tested

See if you can get full thyroid and vitamin testing from GP.

All thyroid tests should be done as early as possible in morning and fasting and don't take Levo in the 24 hours prior to test, delay and take straight after. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results

Link about antibodies

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

Link about thyroid blood tests

thyroiduk.org/tuk/testing/t...

Print this list of symptoms off, tick all that apply and take to GP

thyroiduk.org/tuk/about_the...

[Saya85]

Hi!

Just to add my quick thoughts- have you tried supplementing with magnesium?

Particularly your symptoms regarding exercise suggests it could even be as simple as an electrolyte imbalance since therapy not working now.

Low magnesium can cause blood pressure issues/anxiety/muscle and nerve cramps/dehydration etc

I’m amazed at the number of patients I’ve seen been treated with magnesium and I can personally attest to how much it’s helped me.

I use a magnesium salt spray that you can buy from health shops- so easy to absorb. It’s worth trying in meantime as it’s just a mineral and has no medication side effects etc

Also even a magnesium salt bath can help significantly (even Epsom)