In addition to my mental health problems and epilepsy, I was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism in 2019. Your thyroid is the butterfly shaped gland in your neck and it regulates pretty much everything. The autoimmune disorder is caused when antibodies in the immune system start to attack the thyroid cells thinking the antibodies are attacking a virus. So there’s a little war being raged on my neck in the little butterfly shaped gland.
Just like epilepsy, Hashimoto’s is treated with medication. I think Hashimoto’s has been the hardest diagnosis, perhaps not emotionally, but due to the regulations. I can’t have gluten or dairy because I get bad reactions due to my thyroid. I randomly get rashes and bloating from certain foods. I feel faint or have a headache a lot (and sometimes actually faint)! And with the medication I take in the mornings I can’t have food or drinks for an hour, soy for two hours, and I can’t have grapefruit. My hormone levels get out of wack so I pretty much wake up hoping I can eat food and that I don’t have a pounding headache or other symptoms.
But despite all that you have read about me, (and if you haven’t checked out the “My Testimony” posts before this one, check it out!) what’s most important is what these diagnoses have taught me.
Even though I haven’t had a near death experience or faced anything life threatening, I have truly learned to take in every day. I want to grow myself to become better each day and I want to go after my passions and my purpose. I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect because I don’t want Jesus’ sacrifice for me to go to waste. Therefore, I give everything that I can. I also don’t want to be in the bondage of fear so I work on putting myself out there not for my gain, but for what I can do through God to help others. Writing is my passion and purpose and although I’m only eighteen-years-old, I truly want to write this blog to help you wherever you are at in hopes that I can make a difference. My testimony is far from over, but looking back at what God has done in my life is absolutely amazing. I am blessed with so much and I hope to never take that for granted.
EMILY DICKINSON 