thyroid problems triggered this in me

[beauty2010]

Hi everyone.
What a brilliant site - I was panicking over the holiday before I read this, and now I feel much calmer.
My problems began about 5 years ago, when I suddenly became really anxious about everything - I have a medical background and youngish children so my anxiety focused on things that could be wrong with the children. We had lost a child to stillbirth so I was primed to be worried about them. It became so very bad that not only was I an expert in many rare and dangerous diseases, I was embarrassed about my increasing visits to the GP with them, and the children had begun to notice my anxiety. Googling was the very worst thing - and I love and agree with everything in the 'Dr Google will see you now thread'. I was eventually diagnosed with Graves disease, a thyroid disorder that causes marked anxiety, and this was treated, but the health anxiety that I developed over those years has not ever left me although it is better. If I am stressed it easily rears its ugly head and recently I have been stressing about my oldest who is on ADHD medication and has fainted. He has seen the doc who checked him over and said fine, but due to reading research papers (haha) I have asked for further tests to be done. One problem I have is too much knowledge due to my background - I know too much detail about possible complications, however rare. The tests could not be done until Jan, and I was worried about worrying over the hols, but then I found this site and a name for my problems, which has helped enormously. I have told my kids that my health anxiety is due to my thyroid and they rib me about it - they are older teenagers now. I would love to get rid of it, and hope finding this site might be the first step.
Thanks to everyone who has posted here and best wishes for christmas and the new year.
B

[Mazzmate]

May I just say ditto to everything you have said about thyroid problems and health anxiety, and thank goodness there are others out there who have exactly the same anxiey issues as me. I am from a nursing background, I have had my thyroid diagnosed exactly 4 years ago and have had issues every since. The thing is my GP practice insists my health anxiety is a separate issue to my thyroid, even though all the evidence points to it have started since taking the thyroxine. My visits to the Gp have increased greatly since being diagnosed, but everything I say falls on deaf ears....I am frightened to go to the GP with complaints because everything is put down to being neurotic. I keep saying....I am anxious because I feel ill.....I am not ill because I feel anxious, which is what they believe. It is all so frustrating.

[countrygirl]

I really really hope I am not speaking out of turn here about your sons ADHD and please ignore me if you think I am but my son is now 30 yrs old and back then ADHD did not exist but he did at 6 months old on the introduction of food and drink other than baby milk turn into the baby from hell and this continued until he was 18 months old. A Dr told me he had never met such a violent baby/toddler. Thankfully for him and us he eventually also deveoped a rash on his face that was diagnosed as allergy rash by derm and even more thankfully this derm was doing alot of research into emerging reactions to food additives and with a medical nutritionist had come up with a diet that cut out all synthetic food colourings. Back then it was almost impossible to buy processed foods without added food colourings ( frozen peas from eggs had it in, hens fed tartrazine to colour yolks). Within 2 weeks of following the diet I had an angel child with no rash. I cannot tell you the change from literally being a wild violent out of cotrol toddler who never slept to this little angel who slept all night.

Over the years if he ever ate any food like jelly or ice lollies or lucozade for example he would by his own admission feel very violent and hyper for about 4 hrs until the effects passed. He is now over 6 ft and even to this day if he feels very tired and needs to keep going he eats a packet of doritos or drinks a bottle of lucozade that still contain the dreaded food colouring and he is hyperactive for a good 4 hrs but as an adult he can control this and rarely does it.

had he been born now he would without doubt have been diagnosed with ADHD or so a Dr told him and his violence would have got him into trouble. This Dr said no one is interested in the food additive connection with child behaviour now they have a "new" disease to diagnose.

You did say you were interested in futher research on your sons condition so that is why I have posted this as it may or may not be of some use to you.

[beauty2010]

May I just say ditto to everything you have said about thyroid problems and health anxiety, and thank goodness there are others out there who have exactly the same anxiey issues as me. I am from a nursing background, I have had my thyroid diagnosed exactly 4 years ago and have had issues every since. The thing is my GP practice insists my health anxiety is a separate issue to my thyroid, even though all the evidence points to it have started since taking the thyroxine. My visits to the Gp have increased greatly since being diagnosed, but everything I say falls on deaf ears....I am frightened to go to the GP with complaints because everything is put down to being neurotic. I keep saying....I am anxious because I feel ill.....I am not ill because I feel anxious, which is what they believe. It is all so frustrating.


Hi Mazzmate
Yes, thanks for replying. It is good to hear other people's stories. I agree that you don't always feel better just because your thyroid levels are back to normal. It is a funny thing, but I have not felt 'right' since my illness - I am much more easily stressed and I need rest and quiet much more than I used to. It is like my nervous system was so shook up that it is now unduly sensitive. Do you feel the same?
I actually feel a bit better for just resting over christmas. one day a friend had the children, and I was just quiet and hardly spoke to anyone all day, and that did me good.
I 'give' a lot emotionally to others in my work, and that drains me and I also do it at home. Since the thyroid I can't do it as much any more. When my system is stressed, I can't think clearly and then the health anxiety comes - everything is out of proportion. Also, once you have set those pathways (ie over-reacting about health issues) in motion in your brain, your brain automatically follows them all too easily. It is a gradual re-education programme that I need. I guess the first thing for me to do is admit there is a problem and that it may not be my children's health (because that it what I focus on), it may be my anxiety.
Working in the health field doesn't really help either, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!
Thanks again
B

---------- Post added at 00:39 ---------- Previous post was at 00:34 ----------


I really really hope I am not speaking out of turn here about your sons ADHD and please ignore me if you think I am but my son is now 30 yrs old and back then ADHD did not exist but he did at 6 months old on the introduction of food and drink other than baby milk turn into the baby from hell and this continued until he was 18 months old. A Dr told me he had never met such a violent baby/toddler. Thankfully for him and us he eventually also deveoped a rash on his face that was diagnosed as allergy rash by derm and even more thankfully this derm was doing alot of research into emerging reactions to food additives and with a medical nutritionist had come up with a diet that cut out all synthetic food colourings. Back then it was almost impossible to buy processed foods without added food colourings ( frozen peas from eggs had it in, hens fed tartrazine to colour yolks). Within 2 weeks of following the diet I had an angel child with no rash. I cannot tell you the change from literally being a wild violent out of cotrol toddler who never slept to this little angel who slept all night.

Over the years if he ever ate any food like jelly or ice lollies or lucozade for example he would by his own admission feel very violent and hyper for about 4 hrs until the effects passed. He is now over 6 ft and even to this day if he feels very tired and needs to keep going he eats a packet of doritos or drinks a bottle of lucozade that still contain the dreaded food colouring and he is hyperactive for a good 4 hrs but as an adult he can control this and rarely does it.

had he been born now he would without doubt have been diagnosed with ADHD or so a Dr told him and his violence would have got him into trouble. This Dr said no one is interested in the food additive connection with child behaviour now they have a "new" disease to diagnose.

You did say you were interested in futher research on your sons condition so that is why I have posted this as it may or may not be of some use to you.


Hi
Thanks for your comments - the link between food allergies and ADHD is really interesting. There is probably more to it with my son, as he also has other developmental problems such as dyslexia and dyspraxia. I've never noticed a problem with food particularly, although my husband has loads of allergies.
Maybe I could persuade him to try and cut down on additives and see what happens - but my chances of succeeding may be low as he is now nearly 18 years old!
Thanks again and best wishes for 2012
B