Is there a link between the thyroid and depression? Should antidepressants be given automatically for depression? What about a link between the thyroid and other mental health disorders? Do GPs really know what they are doing by dishing out antidepressant drugs by the billion?
When the thyroid hormone is deficient, we experience a host of symptoms such as depression, fatigue, foggy thinking, muscles aches, digestive disorders, low metabolism, low core temperature, palpitations, insomnia, amongst others. There can be a puffiness especially about the face, indicating a weight problem.
Obviously, this means the thyroid hormone is essential to healthy living.
Will you gain anything from having a thyroid test? What can they really tell you?
The problem with any medical test is that they don’t look at the whole person. A suffering human may not look like the test results in front of your GP. Does it really tell your GP anything important? I suggest not, unless they look at the real thyroid disruptors or culprits.
So the problem is thrown back at the patient for ‘imagining’ their state, or worse, sent to a psychiatrist.
Real things which contribute or cause thyroid imbalance include:
- Medical drugs typically interfere with the delicate natural balance of health. They also block the path of nutrients. Lithium, a common drug for mental health patients, interferes with the secretion of the thyroid hormone. The birth control pills are synthetic hormones which lower the availability of the thyroid hormone. Other hormonal treatments are likely to have the same effect.
- Fluoride is used to suppress thyroid function. But fluoride is in all our tap water. And it can’t be filtered out. What is it doing to our thyroid?
- Industrial and agricultural chemicals are everywhere. They create a highly toxic body and this can lead to upsetting the way our hormones work.
- Most western diets are poor, with insufficient nutrition and abundant toxins.
The fact is that health is far more complicated than your average GP knows from their training. Their training is focused on drug treatment for a set of symptoms, not on causes, such as a deficient diet, over medication or toxins. So, it’s up to you to join the dots. Of course, if you use a natural therapist, then they are likely to join the dots for you.
Natural thyroid treatment will not dismiss your feeling of depression, but will also not directly treat that in isolation. Instead, the treatment will look at the whole picture (holistic) to get to the root cause. Hypothyroidism may not be the cause of the lack of the thyroid hormone. Hypothyroidism suggests a structural inability of the body to produce what is natural. Instead, it is more likely to be a deficient diet coupled with a high level of toxins.
Sort these two problems out and the problem may be solved. That doesn’t mean you should go looking for the natural remedies for thyroid, to treat yourself. Certainly, they will not do the harm the medical drugs do, but they may not help either, as you may not fully appreciate what you are dealing with.
In addition, no supplement will solve a problem when the core issue isn’t being addressed.
There is a definite link between the thyroid and depression, as there is with the thyroid and anxiety. But it is much less likely to be the fault of the thyroid than the fault of a nutrient poor diet plus a high level of toxins.
The best and most meaningful actions to take is to start by:
- addressing your diet – at the very least eliminate all processed foods (sugar, packets, white flour, soft drinks, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, colours, etc), all dairy and GMOs. In addition limit or eliminate all animal protein and increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegies
- address your exposure to toxins – use natural personal care products, house cleaners, garden products, air your house as much as possible
- learn to meditate, take up yoga or Qigong
- and for your health concerns, find a professional homeopath you can rely on and work with
Good homeopathic treatment supports a healthy immune system by eliminating cravings and addressing any shortfall. It treats the whole of you, not just your thyroid and depression.