Living with a mostly invisible illness like Hashimoto’s means having to prove to the world that you’re actually ill. That includes proving to medical professionals that it’s not all in our heads. We’re told it’s just depression (whatever that means) or that we’re lazy or gluttonous or faking it – often by the people who are supposed to care about us the most!
Just because we might look fine – or even great – on the outside doesn’t means we’re not really suffering. Hashimoto’s attacks from the inside and throws every system in the body out of whack. Please trust us that we are actually ill, even though we don’t “look sick”.
Depression is actually a real symptom of this disease. It’s not that we don’t want to pull it together or fake it until we make it… it’s that we sometimes literally CAN’T because Hashimoto’s is messing with our brain chemistry. What we’re experiencing is more than just feeling sad.
Hashimoto’s is more than just a disease of the thyroid. Because of how everything in the body relies in some way on the thyroid, this form of autoimmune disease impacts us physically and mentally. And the strain of having a chronic illness affect us emotionally, and it impacts our families, loved ones, and career relationships.
But even with Hashimoto’s, we’re still the same people. We may have less energy or be less cheerful than we once were but we don’t want to be seen as our illness!
There is no one-size-fits-all magical cure for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Because Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune condition, it’s always a part of us even when we achieve remission. And just because an herb or supplement or oil or food or eating plan worked for someone else with the disease doesn’t mean it will work for everyone.
People with Hashimoto’s aren’t lazy. Many of us have little to no energy because we’re living in a hypothyroid state. The body’s energy production requires certain amounts of thyroid hormones and when not enough of these hormones are produced, energy levels drop. So we’re anything but lazy considering that we manage to do so much through awful fatigue!
When we can’t work, we’re not taking a vacation. There’s nothing most of us would like more than to be able to get up, go to work, have some fun, and care for our kids like everyone else! Having to rest all the time stinks!
While there are lots of healing strategies we can try, Hashimoto’s autoimmunity is ultimately beyond our control. As noted above, even when it’s in remission, this disease is always there waiting to be triggered by stress, food, environmental toxins, etc. Some days we kick Hashimoto’s butt and some days it wins the battle. The war is never-ending.
We are sufferers and we are survivors. If the people around us realized how much we cope with on a daily basis, they’d realize that people with Hashimoto’s are strong!
What do YOU want people to know about living with Hashimoto’s?
Join us for the 2017 Healing Hashimoto’s Summit, screening for FREE beginning on November 6 with a replay day on November 13. Let’s all learn together!
HA Meetup Group
