Frustration with the lack of understanding of how thyroid causes mental illness

[Guest guest]

Is it just me or do others find it frustrating and upsetting when watching a

program on TV that talks about mental illness or eating disorders etc (for

example, very technical and medically educated person says in a patronising tone

'we have found a gene that causes it but we don't know what it controls' - 'we

know it's a chemical imbalance in the brain, we just don't know which chemical'

etc) and then you see the 'mentally ill' people that are interviewed as examples

and they all have visible signs of undiagnosed or under-treated hypothyrodism as

well as the mental symptoms they speak about? For example - extremely thin or no

outer eyebrows.

I'm just sitting here in Denmark watching this British program on identical

twins on the TV - it's talking about how two twins are often subject to the same

types of medical conditions. In one of the sets of Australian twins one has

ended up with major depression and suicidal tendancies and the other with

anorexia that almost resulted in death. The first had almost no eyebrows at all,

she seemed to be drawing them on (I see that a lot these days!) and hated they

way she looked and therefore hid behind her makeup and the other had obviously

thinning outer eyebrows (made even more obvious by their darkness). At least one

of them was still struggling with her mental illness and talked of not wanting

to get out of bed in the morning and not being able to look in the mirror before

taking control of the way she looked (with makeup, I guess).

Now that I know what to look for, thyroid symptoms wise, I see this all the time

in such shows about mental illness. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in

2001 (the diagnosis has recently been scraped by my thyroid doctor - I am yet to

find out exactly what tests were run on my thyroid function at the time of my

diagnosis - I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism less than a year later) and have

recently joined a bipolar health group called 'bipolar world' out of

curiosity - I am yet to write in it (I don't know where to start) but of course

- nearly every person in that group also has a thyroid condition. Almost every

person I know with a mentall illness is also struggling with a thyroid condition

- one with an elevated TSH that is being 'monitored' by her specialist who also

diagnosed her with ADHD and Aspergers and put her on one of those hard drugs

like ritalin or what not. This is no surprise, as I am sure lack of T3 to the

brain and other related vitamin and mineral deficiencies are the causes mental

illness but it just so upsetting and frustrating to see.

I just find it frustrating and upsetting - so many people are suffering

unnecessarily - how do you (as in any one in this group) cope with the

frustration? I find it so upsetting seeing these poor people or hearing about

them and not being able to do anything knowing that they are unlikely to ever

get the correct help at least at this point in time.

Alana