How does it feel to live with thyroid issues?

Hi,

My husband suffers from graves disease. After experimenting with the methimazole levels for sometime his doctor decided that he is not responding well to changes in medication levels and he needs a stable dose. Past few years he has been having a stable dose of medication and he seems to be normal. I have a few questions. I would like to get the perspective of somebody who is suffering from thyroid issues.

I know hyperthyrodism causes lot of emotional problems making the sufferer easily upset and irritatable. My husband has physically and verbally abused me during those periods and behaved extremely erratically. He is normally a very mature and calm person. I saw a dramatic turnaround in his behavior after he was put back on the right medication level. Though he is stable for the past 2 years there have been periods when he has abused me despite his thyroxine levels being under control.

I feel depressed, angry, helpless, humiliated and sometimes just plain unlucky whenever I think of those periods. So I am not able to sign off all of his abuse because of his thyroid condition. However I might be just acting out of ignorace and his thyroid issue might still be causing issues for him. But bottom line having seen him suffer I feel compassionate towards him and I still love him a lot. So I want to help him out.

The medication does not cure his condition and might just be supressing the problem. Can somebody who is suffering from the problem give me more perspective. How does it feel like to live through this disorder. I know you have heat intolerance, palpitations, fast heart rate and mood swings. I don't get much information from my husband. So I really don't know what he is going through. How do we support somebody who is going through this condition? Both me and my husband are very much into yoga and meditation and this has tremendrously helped us. We have also changed into vegetarians.

Any information is very much appreciated. I would like to extend a helping hand to my husband and do the best I can support him as a wife. Please share your input.

Regards,
Kavya.

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Kavya.

Originally Posted by kavya007

Hi,

My husband suffers from graves disease. After experimenting with the methimazole levels for sometime his doctor decided that he is not responding well to changes in medication levels and he needs a stable dose. Past few years he has been having a stable dose of medication and he seems to be normal. I have a few questions. I would like to get the perspective of somebody who is suffering from thyroid issues.

I know hyperthyrodism causes lot of emotional problems making the sufferer easily upset and irritatable. My husband has physically and verbally abused me during those periods and behaved extremely erratically. He is normally a very mature and calm person. I saw a dramatic turnaround in his behavior after he was put back on the right medication level. Though he is stable for the past 2 years there have been periods when he has abused me despite his thyroxine levels being under control.

I feel depressed, angry, helpless, humiliated and sometimes just plain unlucky whenever I think of those periods. So I am not able to sign off all of his abuse because of his thyroid condition. However I might be just acting out of ignorace and his thyroid issue might still be causing issues for him. But bottom line having seen him suffer I feel compassionate towards him and I still love him a lot. So I want to help him out.

The medication does not cure his condition and might just be supressing the problem. Can somebody who is suffering from the problem give me more perspective. How does it feel like to live through this disorder. I know you have heat intolerance, palpitations, fast heart rate and mood swings. I don't get much information from my husband. So I really don't know what he is going through. How do we support somebody who is going through this condition? Both me and my husband are very much into yoga and meditation and this has tremendrously helped us. We have also changed into vegetarians.

Any information is very much appreciated. I would like to extend a helping hand to my husband and do the best I can support him as a wife. Please share your input.

Regards,
Kavya.

I have the opposite one, hypothyroid. It has been a challenge to live with. The medication I was given barely worked. So I stopped taking it and joined a yoga group and a health club. The energy level has been up.

I think in your case probably the irritabilty is the worst thing, any little thing or issue makes the person edgy. Yoga really calms down the nerves. Taking walks in a scerene surrounding also helps.

I have hypo thyroidism too and it is most important to take the medication even you exercise and eat well. I had so many complications before it was diagonsed. I used to feel depressed all the time, gained lot of weight (mainly water retention problem) but the pill did wonders for me. I lost all my gained weight and I feel much energized. But just taking the pill wont work, it is a constant practice to eat right, work right and try to be more positive in thinking. Even if there is a change in my levels I start experiencing depression again and the urge to eat more than normal. We have to keep an eye all the time on our condition.

It has to be the person that is suffering from the problem that has to take care of his own well being. It is a constant practice. I really feel bad for you. Because it is your husband who has to understand his illness and try to deal with it instead of abusing you physically and emotionally. There is a lot of self growing up involved with cases like this. If you notice depression being cropped up then take a small break from regular issues (not job of course) and go to temples to fill your mind with peace, listen to good music, go for walks, do some yoga, meditate, restrict your diet, you can also take a small vacation where you can attain your peace back(driving the depression away), think about all the loved ones and the things that you have which other people are lacking in their lives in this world and NEVER EVER skip the medication. You can just support him but he is the one that has to step up and take the responsibility. Talk to him and collect some material on how to deal with hyper throidism and give it to him too to read. Good luck girl.