just how I feel , anyone else feel like this🙁

[Prosecco1997]

Great letter sums it up!

Hi. My name is Hashimoto's. I'm an invisible autoimmune disease that attacks your thyroid gland causing you to become hypothyroid.

I am now velcroed to you for life. If you have hypothyroidism, you probably have me. I am the number one cause of it in the U.S. and many other places around the world.

I'm so sneaky--I don't always show up in your blood work.

Others around you can't see me or hear me, but YOUR body feels me.

I can attack you anywhere and any way I please.

I can cause severe pain or, if I'm in a good mood, I can just cause you to ache all over.

Remember when you and energy ran around together and had fun?

I took energy from you, and gave you exhaustion. Try to have fun now.

I can take good sleep from you and in its place, give you brain fog and lack of concentration.

I can make you want to sleep 24/7, and I can also cause insomnia.

I can make you tremble internally or make you feel cold or hot when everyone else feels normal.

I can also give you swollen hands and feet, swollen face and eyelids, swollen everything.

I can make you feel very anxious with panic attacks or very depressed. I can also cause other mental health problems. You know crazy mood swings? That's me. Crying for no reason? Angry for no reason? That's probably me too.

I can make your hair fall out, become dry and brittle, cause acne, cause dry skin, the sky is the limit with me.

I can make you gain weight and no matter what you eat or how much you exercise, I can keep that weight on you. I can also make you lose weight. I don't discriminate.

Some of my other autoimmune disease friends often join me, giving you even more to deal with.

If you have something planned, or are looking forward to a great day, I can take that away from you. You didn't ask for me. I chose you for various reasons:

That virus or viruses you had that you never really recovered from, or that car accident, or maybe it was the years of abuse and trauma (I thrive on stress.) You may have a family history of me. Whatever the cause, I'm here to stay.

I hear you're going to see a doctor to try and get rid of me. That makes me laugh. Just try. You will have to go to many, many doctors until you find one who can help you effectively.

You will be put on the wrong medication for you, pain pills, sleeping pills, energy pills, told you are suffering from anxiety or depression, given anti-anxiety pills and antidepressants.

There are so many other ways I can make you sick and miserable, the list is endless - that high cholesterol, gall bladder issue, blood pressure issue, blood sugar issue, heart issue among others? That's probably me.

Can't get pregnant, or have had a miscarriage?

That's probably me too.

Shortness of breath or "air hunger?" Yep, probably me.

Liver enzymes elevated? Yep, probably me.

Teeth and gum problems? TMJ?

Hives? Yep, probably me.

I told you the list was endless.

You may be given a TENs unit, get massaged, told if you just sleep and exercise properly I will go away.

You'll be told to think positively, you'll be poked, prodded, and MOST OF ALL, not taken seriously when you try to explain to the endless number of doctors you've seen, just how debilitating I am and how ill and exhausted you really feel. In all probability you will get a referral from these 'understanding' (clueless) doctors, to see a psychiatrist.

Your family, friends and co-workers will all listen to you until they just get tired of hearing about how I make you feel, and just how debilitating I can be.

Some of them will say things like "Oh, you are just having a bad day" or "Well, remember, you can't do the things you use to do 20 YEARS ago", not hearing that you said 20 DAYS ago.

They'll also say things like, "if you just get up and move, get outside and do things, you'll feel better." They won't understand that I take away the 'gas' that powers your body and mind to ENABLE you to do those things.

Some will start talking behind your back, they'll call you a hypochondriac, while you slowly feel that you are losing your dignity trying to make them understand, especially if you are in the middle of a conversation with a "normal" person, and can't remember what you were going to say next. You'll be told things like, "Oh, my grandmother had that, and she's fine on her medication" when you desperately want to explain that I don't impose myself upon everyone in the exact same way, and just because that grandmother is fine on the medication SHE'S taking, doesn't mean it will work for you.

They will not understand that having this disease impacts your body from the top of your head to the tip of your toes, and that every cell and every body system and organ requires the proper amount and the right kind of of thyroid hormone medication for YOU.

Not what works for someone else.

The only place you will get the kind of support and understanding in dealing with me is with other people that have me. They are really the only ones who can truly understand.

I am Hashimoto's Disease.

" Source of letter Thyroid Sexy "

[FallingInReverse]

Remarkably accurate and comprehensive. Hardly missed a thing.

What a situation we have all had to get used to, huh. Losing so much and still carrying on!

[TheRightSide in reply to FallingInReverse]

I lost so much indeed 😩 hope I'm getting through this.. I almost give up.. 😔

[Mostew]

You are so good at almost 'poetically' 'describing hashimoto s. Thank you.

I'm one of the lucky ones . So hard for others who try and try and nothing works well enough

[Rapunzel]

I prefer this, which covers most of those chronically unwell. I have come across a young woman who called herself a 'spoonie' and it all fell into place. My heart goes out to those in the supposed and expected vibrancy of youth who suffer from this sh*t condition. I was ~50 when diagnosed.

butyoudontlooksick.com/cate...

I'm forever telling my DH that sorry, I don't have the spoons for that 🫥

[Doris11]

😢I’m hypothyroid but haven’t got Hashis.. A day out exhausts me 😕 and the pain 😕 totally changed my life 😕

[trixiebella]

I have Hashi's. GPs refuse to acknowledge private tests so no medication.

[grumpyold]

I have saved this post. Brilliantly accurate.

[arTistapple]

Very good. Any chance you can get someone interested in publishing it?

[Melinda007]

Brilliantly written thank you 😍

[patzie]

This is an accurate description of me

[Sunflower535]

Thank you for sharing this - it is brilliantly written.

[Kowbie]

blimey that was a great read you’ve hit everything on the head , thankyou it was a very good read

[Prosecco1997]

Thankyou for all the comments, wish I could write something like that ,I found it on another thyroid forum , thought it was to good not to share on here , but it realy does hit the nail on the head xx

[TheRightSide in reply to Prosecco1997]

Thank you so much for sharing this, Prosecco. So accurate!! Hashi is with me, but according to doctors and routine bloodwork I'm not hypothyroid yet, but I've been suffering all these debilitating symptoms for years. 😭 I feel like my quality of life is almost zero now, I can't comfortably do things I enjoyed doing before. One doctor stated "hypochondriac" in my referral letter. I went to several doctors for answer, for finding reliefs, but they thought I needed psychologist so I could be prescribed anti-depressant. I'm so exhausted wity all journey to hospitals, ER, GP clinics, pharmacies,... My symptoms just keep adding up and still I'm not better. 😩

[Mugs19 in reply to Prosecco1997]

sure does. Bravo!

[Humphre]

Brilliant, brought it all together nicely 👍

[Ukie]

I’m saving this, thank you. I may need to squeeze in my two worst symptoms though; constipation and migraines, both of which make it very difficult to plan anything in case they strike on the day.

[Sunsetzzs]

So well put ~ thank you for sharing!

[Blu-cat11]

Thank you for this- a good explanation

[Mixteca]

Gecko22

[dayoff]

SO well written. I've had it since I was 25 I was 7.5 stone and athletic and over night I was over weight, exhausted, babbling like a pensioner with dementia and became that hypochondriac with certain friends. Had to leave my job before my boss fired me for sudden and unexplained mistakes. 33 before I was (under) medicated and only a few years ago (now nearly 48) stopped having swollen eyelids and insomnia thanks to the lovely people on here persuading me to go gluten free. My antibodies have dropped significantly too. I now have awful exhaustion and brain fog coming back and i'm guessing the gift of peri-menopause is joining my friend Hashimoto. Apparently similar to thyroid disease. Yey . I've only just began to understand Hashimoto and I hear he messes with HRT meds. My biggest learn in all these years is diet is everything and alcohol sadly doesn't help at all. My no alcohol in the house rule has helped too and I only have 1 or two on special occasions. It's all I can handle without looking and feeling like i'm having a mini stroke!

[Prosecco1997 in reply to dayoff]

Hello , I too have had to stop my hrt as my thyroid symptoms especially throat get worse when I use it ? I feel like a lead weight and so tired , I’m on 50 Levo , can I ask what you take , also find alcohol now does same to me

[dayoff in reply to Prosecco1997]

50?? No wonder you feel awful. That's a starter dose. They should also up the Levo when on HRT apparently. I'm now on 100mg but not on HRT yet