I have been pretty quiet about this publically, but if you’ve spent any time with me in the past year, you’ve heard about my diagnosis and struggle with an incurable disease, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

The Diagnosis

About a year ago, my mom noticed that my throat was swollen at the base. I’ve always been pretty much the opposite of a hypochondriac, in part because I’ve been privileged to be largely healthy my whole life. Otherwise, I kind of felt like because I was a vegetarian and a yogi and meditated and ‘thought positive’ I would be all good in the health department (toxic positivity?). 

I asked my nurse friend Sam about it, expecting to hear that it was nothing.  Yet, she confirmed my mom’s suspicion that something was not right. Shortly after, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I’d had all the symptoms for the past six months—weight gain, depression, and tiredness, but tbh had just chalked it up to the fact that there was a global pandemic and at 30 I was living back at home in Idaho with my parents (I love mom and dad but…you know). Looking back, I really see how my beliefs about ‘positive thinking’ could/can be potentially harmful. Instead of being sensitive to what was going on in my body and dealing with reality, I just kinda figured I needed to think a little happier and ‘clear my energy field.’