The reason why I am so passionate about making sure you get a proper thyroid assessment is because it was my thyroid healing journey that put me on the path to where I am now. I will touch on this story, but mostly I want to offer an insight into some of the underlying emotional aspects of autoimmune disease.
We often forget about the emotions at the root of our health challenges but a holistic approach calls us to address all of the layers. Even the ones it may feel easier to ignore. What you resist persists.
The pic above depicts what thyroid disease looked like on me. The lines on my neck are indicative of an enlarged thyroid or goiter. When I lied on my back my thyroid would compress my trachea making it hard to breathe and it always felt like I had something stuck in my throat.
I had an A4 page of symptoms, yet my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone as measured on a standard blood test) was normal. The GP’s I saw would look me in the eye and tell me the symptoms I had were 100% normal for busy mum’s and my thyroid was perfect – based on that one test. Meanwhile my immune system continued attacking my thyroid and it progressively got worse and so did the way I felt.
I actually had post-partum thyroiditis that would transition into Hashimoto’s disease. Even when a doctor (an ENT specialist I went to for another reason) noticed the goiter and sent me for an ultrasound which showed an enlarged multi nodular thyroid, I left with a diagnosis of asymptomatic thyroiditis and a prescription for steroids and antidepressants. All because my thyroid had not yet sustained enough damage for hormone replacement.
Honestly that A word made me want to kick that so called specialists ass! I could barely function by that point.
So, this was 12 years ago, 31 years of age. I had a 7-year-old stepdaughter a 6-year-old daughter, a not even 2-year-old son plus my baby. I was also a wife and working as an ECE teacher. As you can imagine my life was 100% focused on prioritising every single person in my life’s needs above my own. My self-care and boundaries at this time were zero. No lie.
This pattern of self-neglect and overextending is prevalent among those suffering with autoimmune conditions. The feelings that manifest emotionally when you feel unsupported and overextended are often underlying in cases when the body starts to attack itself. Basically, the body interprets this emotional strain as a threat, triggering the stress response. Over time, this chronic stress wears down the immune system, making it hyper-reactive. In the case of autoimmune disease, the immune system, meant to protect the body, begins attacking healthy tissue—as if the body is mirroring the emotional conflict of always giving but never receiving.
So when it comes to thyroid healing, sure, I can guide you on how to heal the gut to stop food particles from leaking out and setting off the immune system. I can give you the right nutrition and tools to lower antibodies, increase conversion of the non-active thyroid hormone – T4 to T3 the active form (or decrease in hyper) and many more tools to heal your thyroid, but you must address the other ‘conditions’ in your life that allowed ‘all of this’ to manifest.
I would not be giving you the complete story if I did not tell you that my healing journey included reclaiming self-love, setting boundaries and learning to put myself first at times. With the thyroid, finding your voice is key too and even just retelling these personal stories is healing to me so thanks for reading. From an energetic perspective your thyroid is associated with the throat chakra.
I am crystal clear that my life path involves serving others. I just now know that I do this better from a state of overflow.