PsychologicalLuck343 t1_jaon7rn wrote on March 2, 2023 at 10:59 PM

Hyperthyroidism often means over-the-top anxiety. Anxiety is caused by too much cortisol. Every disease that impacts the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis causes anxiety.

timespentwell t1_japno9c wrote on March 3, 2023 at 3:35 AM

I have anxiety even though my body can't make its own cortisol. I have to take hydrocortisone every day. (Addison's Disease)

So it must have other causes than too much cortisol.

Interesting to think about.

PsychologicalLuck343 t1_jasi1mi wrote on March 3, 2023 at 7:13 PM

I'm sure there are other causes. Sorry to hear about the Addisons. I know it can be a challenging way to live.

TBH, I'd be tempted to ask my doc to tweak my dosage.

If you still have your adrenal gland, could you be still firing off small amounts of cortisone at inappropriate times of the day? I had the thing where I wasn't making enough cortisol in the early afternoon but making too much at night so had anxiety and insomnia (this was along with Graves' disease before I had my thyroid out.) I'm much better now.

Carbon140 t1_jap0zpz wrote on March 3, 2023 at 12:39 AM

My father and grandmother both had hyperthyroidism, and I suspect I am on the path as I am thin and my tsh is on the low end of normal and slowly going down while my thyroxin is on the high end. Definitely feel the Anxiety, wish there was a reliable way to treat this that wasn't removing my thyroid.

PsychologicalLuck343 t1_jap2avc wrote on March 3, 2023 at 12:49 AM

There are doctors who will treat you before you're out of the normal range. If you could get in to see a young-ish internist with a good teaching hospital, they are less likely to dismiss you just because you're in the normal range. Most people feel their best with a TSH range between 1 and 2.

Please stay in touch. I used to be a thyroid advocate with ThyroidChange and can help you navigate some roadblocks. You don't have to live like this.

Disclaimer- I had to fight to get my Graves' disease tested for and properly treated.

Carbon140 t1_japisyi wrote on March 3, 2023 at 2:55 AM

That's very kind. I don't really know if it's over the top to be concerned and it's obviously hard to tell the impact because it's so slow, but I definitely feel like it may be having an impact on me mentally from anxiety etc and also physically in the form of my body burning itself out faster than it needs to. I guess the easy weight control is convenient though. It's definitely frustrating to see something that looks like a problem in the future and have doctors seemingly take the attitude that they will do something about it once I have already fallen apart.

What sort of treatments are there? I know in my father's case his Thyriod overgrow in a nodular fation and when he got cancer the situation became much worse as he also had a wildly out of control heart. I remember him saying that he permanently had that feeling like someone had just popped a paper bag behind his head. If mine is overgrowing it would need surgery to remove part of it or some form of radiation iodine treatment to hamper it's function?