Is your low mood, anxiety, or depression linked to thyroid disorders? Well, the answer is yes. Thyroid hormones play a key role in regulating many functions in the body that also affect your mental health. However, the good news is, it is manageable. Learn how thyroid disorders are connected with mental health and how you can improve your mental health with a thyroid condition in this article. At Doral Health & Wellness, we have all the answers you need.

Causes of thyroid-related psychological problems

Generally, the main cause of thyroid-related psychological problems is unstable thyroid hormone levels. Any rapid changes in thyroid hormone levels, in particular, can directly affect your emotions.

With hyperthyroidism especially, rapid, and effective control of the thyroid levels is important to maintain the mood, for that, you need to make sure that thyroid levels remain stable.

Sometimes psychological symptoms also occur as a side-effect of the treatment. Steroids like Prednisone are used to reduce inflammation of autoimmune thyroid disease or treat thyroid eye disease, which can lead to depression. Similarly, beta-blockers like Propranolol are prescribed along with carbimazole to slow down the heart to reduce anxiety and other hyperthyroid symptoms for hyperthyroid patients, which make them feel tired, depressed, and mentally less alert.

A thyroid disorder can also affect your appearance, for example, changes in your eyes due to thyroid eye disease also known as Graves’ ophthalmopathy, where one or both eyes pop out due to the build-up of fat tissue behind the eye giving a perpetual staring look, generally changing the facial appearance of the patient. They also notice weight loss or gain, loss of hair, etc. All these changes in the body can make them feel low and reduce their self-esteem. Stress can also aggravate symptoms caused by a thyroid condition and can make them much worse and take longer to settle.

For example, if a patient is just diagnosed with thyroid disease and has no information about how to manage thyroid disease and its effects, learning that he/she has thyroid cancer is a stressful event in itself. It will be no surprise that patients have stressful emotional responses before, during, and after treatment.

Besides these factors, forgetting to take your medication can be the reason. Thyroid disease is not an early curable disease. It can take a few months to a year to treat a type of thyroid disorder. This can include taking tablets daily for a while (hyperthyroidism) or taking medication for the long term (hypothyroidism) which is both emotionally and financially draining and makes the patient dependent on the medication. However, taking tablets irregularly can confuse your hormone balance and aggravate psychological symptoms.

Other factors like environmental toxins, nutrient deficiency, gut dysbiosis, and other underlying chronic conditions can be the reason for psychological symptoms. That’s why you should approach the health issue properly considering all holistic perspectives that may be affecting you.

Thyroid disorders and mental health are closely connected to each other as thyroid hormones regulate different functions in the body which directly and indirectly affect your brain function and cause stress, anxiety, and depression. The good thing is treating your thyroid disorders and making sure the lifestyle changes mentioned above can allow you to manage your mental health well even with a thyroid condition.

If you need help with your thyroid condition, visit our endocrinology clinic in Brooklyn to get the finest specialists who evaluate your condition and give you the best treatment. Call us to book your appointment now and give the attention that your body needs to get better. Call us on +13473845690 and get answers for all your queries. Log on to  www.doralhw.org or visit us at 1797 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11212 to book an appointment with our endocrinologist to get the best treatment. We have the best endocrinologists who treat these kinds of diseases and helpful staff to aid you during your treatment.