Re: Re: Some questions-Sue- Remission- ADD

[Guest guest]

Good Morning Sue,

Jody is absolutely correct.

But I will take it one step further.

The last 10 years or so of my life was pretty much hell. An accumulation of

many things gone wrong . Then I have a couple of final triggers that

resulted in Graves'. I now believe this has been a true blessing in a great

big disguise.

I chose anti thyroid drugs, as keeping a vital organ seemed the only logical

long term solution in my mind. It took educating myself on all this

autoimmune and thyroid, and learning the PROPER way to monitor and dose ATDs

Then I worked on low iodine foods, goitrogens, lower stress and at the end

herbs.

My last PTU was Jan. 28th of 2002. It did take me 3 1/2 years on the drugs

to reach that point.

So then I had to start to worry about staying in remission. The most logical

thing is to remain with my new diet choices and the stress reduction I had

learned at that point. But I still felt, that for me, there was more going

on that needed to be delt with. I did not know what it was right then, but I

knew, for remission to last the rest of my life, I needed to now do the

really hard work.

Stress comes in many forms. I kept going to the doctor and chipping away at

it. My thyroid numbers hit the perfect point for ME, and I knew there was

still something not perfect.

For another person, this might not happen. If when you hit remission, you go

skipping off into the sunrise, then the rest of my post is irrelevant.

I believe it was some of the reading I did back in the archives, and ideas

there, concerning Chakras and long hidden secrets that had me thinking.

Plus my body did not 'feel' perfect.

I now admitted not everything was thyroid.

I gave in and submitted to treating my horrid anxiety . And perhaps a bit of

depression, hard to know about that. Months went by, and though better, I

still was just not right. On one of my regular doctor visits, still looking

for the cause of my physical pain, as I was chattering away, my wonderful

doctor had a sudden thought, and I saw the look of some kind of recognition

in his eye. He said " have you ever considered ADD ? " ..

I have a huge look of shock on my face too ! " Yes...I was treated for that

as a child, but they said you grow out of it "

Thus began my long journey of discovery.

I have spent a lifetime of being ADHD in a non ADD world. I have had to work

harder to try to keep up , fit in, and understand.

Now , with medication, I can glimpse into the other world, and start to

understand how other people think. It is so interesting, and I feel like the

world has changed from black and white, to full color.

I also realize, that for ME to stay in remission, this is what I must do. I

am finally clearing up childhood issues, young adult actions and their

consequences, and letting go of long held secrets.

This is the key for ME. Once again, I am depending on my wonderful gut

instinct, to continue to show me the way. And we know this has worked well

in the past.

For each of us, once remission comes, I am sure the path will differ, but I

am also sure that Graves' is a multifaceted situation, and for remission to

last a life time, MORE work must be done.

Will this effect how long I live ? You betcha !

If I had not had Graves' , I would continued on the path to worse health

problems, and possibly something not as easily treated as Graves'.

Now, I belive not only is my entire life changed for the better, but I will

also live much longer due to the changes I was forced to make.

-Pam L - still with much to learn