Teen anxiety - possible hyperthyroidism?

[Megaloo]

hi there,

Does anyone have any experience of teenage hyperthyroidism? Our 14 year old daughter has been suffering with acute anxiety since the beginning of the year. She's generally a confident, happy child with good self-esteem. And while she has had the odd wobble over the years, this has hit like a ton of bricks

It's taken 3 months for us to get her back in to full time schooling (though I'm far from sure how going back after half term will be...) and most of her time there is spent in the support block rather than in lessons.

She's basically terrified whenever she has to go anywhere (not just school). However I have noticed that her symptoms appear to be fairly constant (not just when she's having a panic attack/scared). Sitting very happily with us watching telly the other night I reached out and held her hand and it was soaking. She said that was normal. She said her heart also races all the time, and that her hands shake all the time. She also comments regularly on "funny vision" tho isn't clear quite what that means.

I suspect that this is probably "just" yet another horrible case of teenage anxiety that now seems to be so normal, but it did cross my mind that there might be a physical cause.

Anyone got any experience with teen hyper?

Thanks X

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Get GP to run full thyroid and vitamin testing

For full Thyroid evaluation she needs TSH, FT4 and FT3 tested

Also both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested at least once to see if autoimmune hypothyroidism, also called Hashimoto’s. This frequently starts with transient hyperthyroid results and symptoms

TSI or Trab antibodies to test for autoimmune hyperthyroidism, called Graves’ disease. Often these tests can only be done via endocrinologist

Very important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 for any thyroid disease

Low iron/ferritin can cause palpitations

Low B12 sweating

Book early morning test for thyroid

[birkie]

Finally got my diagnosis of overactive thyroid (graves) in 2018 after to many trips to see a gp in my surgery (only one I ever got to see between 2016/18😡) my symptoms started with sweating not to bad at first (gp said its menupausal, no chance a gp will say that to your daughter)These sweats were then accompanied by what I called very fast heartbeats, I felt jittery on edge, then came the tremors again not to bad at first.

What you have to know about thyroid conditions is auto immune) , graves is also an auto immune condition in which the immune system attack the thyroid making it go over active, releasing T3, T4 thyroid hormone into the blood stream giving these symptoms, you can also have certain periods where no attacks occur and the symptoms will ease or go, this happened to me, and when I had them I refered to them as my flare ups.

Another note, I found when I was trying to do daily tasks I had bad shaking and were utterly exhausted, like I'd ran a marathon when I fact I'd just got up to fill the washing machine, my heart also raced, also I had a raging appetite but were loosing weight.

As slowdragon as mentioned she needs a FULL thyroid blood panel done, but by the guidelines, slowdragon as covered that... But I will say with my experience I found my gp to be very unknowable about thyroid bloods, your daughters may look OK on her first set but don't be fooled she may not have been in a flare up, by that I mean her thyroid may not have dumped enough thyroid hormone into her blood stream to show, but the next test it just might catch the dump of thyroid hormone in her system 👍 I hope you get some answers ❤️ teenagers have a bad enough time with hormones, let alone thyroid ones to😔

[bantam12]

I was diagnosed with Graves in my early teens, I couldn’t deal with school and missed a huge amount of my secondary education due to being to poorly and anxious to go in.

The only way of knowing if your daughter has it is to get tests done. If she does have Graves it could take a long time for her to get back on track.

[Megaloo]

thanks all, really helpful. I'll definitely pursue then if only to rule it out 🤞

[Forestgarden]

Before I was diagnosed with graves the anxiety was extreme. I had a million things constantly zipping through my brain, absolutely impossible to focus on a single task and complete anything. My sight definitely altered, and is still affected by changing levels of thyroid hormones. The shaking/tremors became so bad I had to use two hands to get a key in the lock. And of course, the racing heart and weight loss. Also, the days of complete exhaustion when I could put my head on the dining table during dinner and fall asleep (I had 3 young children). Do you have thyroid issues in the family? Definitely get the tests done and get the results from the doctor even if they say its all 'normal' and post the results here.

[Megaloo in reply to Forestgarden]

its not a straightforward answer - I’ve got hashimotos and coeliac, but our daughter is (egg) donor conceived so my genes shouldn’t have any bearing. Not on her dad’s side, and not know about by the donor 14 years ago. Thankfully we’ve always been honest with her so don’t need to pussyfoot about at GPs etc. I will definitely persist with getting her tested - your symptoms sound very familiar :(. I hope things are better for you now.

[Forestgarden in reply to Megaloo]

Its been a long journey! Good luck, and make sure to get a copy of results x

[Megaloo]

hi again.

I asked for full thyroid panel for daughter and have just got the results, which are a full blood count but only the TSH (grrr). Her TSH 0.87 (0.51-4.3). I'm aware without T4 and T3 (ideally) this doesn't mean much - but would you say I am safe to assume her anxiety symptoms AREN'T therefore hyper (or early hypo) thyroidism do you think?

I'm keen not to medicalise this if it's a mental health issue for her (and her counselling does seem to be helping her cope with it all a bit better, though I'm not sure her physical symptoms are any better). I know she would love it to be what she thinks of as a simple medical answer (though those of us with thyroid issues know better) so don't want to keep battling away at this if it seems unlikely.

Hope i'm making sense ...

Thanks