A story of someone and (in part) how they now see the effects of Hashimoto's.
As always, he is simply human.
Worth a read:
Michael Rosen and his son Joe look back: ‘I am gooning about, but this photo is tinged with sadness’
The poet and children’s author and his film-maker son on homework, holidays and health scares
Rest of article available here:
"One of the effects is a kind of indifference to the world and to danger or any extreme emotion. Your feelings are flattened out and you sit there nodding like a wise buddha. But you’re not wise, you just have something wrong with you that renders you slightly idiotic."
The perfect description of thyroid disease. The words I'd use but never could.
I thought about this a lot when I saw Michael Rosen interviewed on YouTube. However I also think the other side of the coin is there too in hypothyroidism - sometimes interchangeable. Extreme sensitivity to what is going on around you. Hyper anxiety etc. It seems there are lots of presentations of hypothyroidism. I loved how brave he is about his whole picture and how clearly he describes his sense of being. Well he is a very successful writer isn’t he?
I am interested in the effect of hypothyroidism on the personality, behaviour etc. are there any studies?
Personally I know that I can be indifferent to other peoples’ pain at times. I say the right words to them because I am conditioned to do so, but I struggle to feel anything. It’s a worry to me. Is this part of the condition of hypothyroidism/ hashi? I also suffer from extreme anxiousness and that means I can be very self absorbed about my own health.
My 3 sisters - all have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism and my eldest sister now has rapid onset dementia! She is 74. That worries me a lot. Does hashimoto thyroid condition have an effect on the brain and the likelihood of suffering from dementia? What studies have been done if any?
You obviously have some specific thoughts here. I suggest having a look here:
europepmc.org/search?query=...
That is set up to look for "hypothyroidism AND personality" - you can (of course) change the search to anything else. Unfortunately a lot of papers which look at hypothyroidism use TSH alone to define hypothyroidism. Which is not satisfactory - lots of papers come to conclusions many here would question.
That was interesting to read, I think many of us will recognise that feeling of having let a period of our lives prior to diagnosis (and of course as we know, sometimes afterwards too).
Michael Rosen spoke this week in Belfast at the annual conference of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland. My husband went to his talk and said he was wonderful, and spoke with humour and immense positivity. He didn’t mention the Hashimotos although he did talk about losing his teenage son; he was there to talk about his experience with Covid. He was one of the first people in this country to suffer from long Covid and was in a coma for 40 days in ICU. The nurses kept a diary of everything that happened while he was unconscious, every little move he made, which he found incredibly touching.
I was suprised to read this article in the Guardian. I love Michael Rosen's programmes on Radio 4 and admire him enormously, but I couldn't identify with his comments about Hashimoto's at all. My experience is exactly the opposite. Tired yes, but anxious and extremely sensitive and very responsive to what is going on in the world. My experience could not be more different. If anything, I cared more about the world and about people and the planet. It just goes to show that Hashimoto's can affect us in very different ways.
I know I'm adding to an old thread, but I just came across this, and thought it was worth posting. It might be in the wrong thread...
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