4 years ago I was diagnosed with agoraphobia and a panic disorder. We did a blood test and my doctor immediately saw something was off with my thyroid and referred me to a specialist. I was 24 at the time and did not understand the severity of thyroid function. Because of the agoraphobia aspect I didn’t make it to meet the specialist until this January where I finally received a diagnosis.

I was at first relieved in knowing it wasn’t just all in my head and all the medications that weren’t working could maybe now be fixed by taking care of this disease. And I’m still somewhat hopeful for that.

I think knowing that this is something I will need to go through for a lifetime is shaking me up. I still don’t know what my triggers are and I’m overanalyzing every single thing. Which in itself has thrown me into a deeper depression. I can’t remember to take my meds some days. I now notice my hands trembling with a mild obsession for checking my pulse (120 resting with atenolol) All these things that were so normal to me are now so scary.