Posted by katekite1 on November 1, 2005, at 22:05:36
In reply to HEY check it out, I FOUND SOME LITERATURE!, posted by linkadge on November 1, 2005, at 21:32:07
Linkadge that is so cool you found that reference!! I don't know how many hours I spent looking for something along those lines.
So I always felt like everyone else when I was sick (worse) -- until... 2001-2002 when every time I would be ill it was the only time I would sleep normally, the only time I would feel okay. Life got worse and worse where I felt sort of weak and anxious and depressed too, but with no exact symptoms and no good reasons, sleeping only a couple hours a night even with sleep aids. That spring my husband got stomach flu and was really very ill... I didn't get any symptoms at all except I felt normal for 3 days for once, I'd been sleeping a couple hours a night and totally anxious all the time, all of a sudden I slept like a normal person. I was so upset when I got "better". That had been the first time in a while I felt like myself.
For me it turned out to be hyperthyroidism. So here's the rub... my thyroid levels were never and have never since been out of the normal range! At least I started taking medication for it before they did go out of range, though by the end I had had a fever for 2 months so I don't know how "mild" it really was. My thyroid hormone levels were right at the edge of normal, however for me that was highly abnormal. My TSH was mid range the whole time. (Now it turns out I have a thyroid tumor... anyhow that is beside the point unless somehow that is why I didn't have typical lab results\.)
One other thing that made me feel better was starting the birth control pill, something about the estrogen was so great (within a couple hours) I ended up taking two a day for a while. Unfortunately my body adjusted after about a week and that no longer helped. For me what helped was Tapazole to suppress the overactive thyroid.
My own theories on why illness made me feel normal was: 1. when your body is ill you "use up" more thyroid hormone than usual and so a person with a mildly overactive thyroid would feel better. 2. When you are ill the immune balance shifts and immune attack on your "happy neurons", in reality something like high IL-6, this is overwhelmed by the body's immune response to the virus and the immune balance temporarily shifts to something more mood favorable. 3. When you are ill your cortisol is "used up" more (we know this because people who are Addisonian need extra cortisol supplementation when they are ill) so in someone with excessive cortisol, one's brain would be exposed to relatively less cortisol than usual, allowing it to feel less stressed.
It is easy enough to get a dexamethasone suppression test to check for overactive adrenals. And also very easy to get not thyroid function tests but the thing to do is get "thyroid antibody" tests to see if there is the possibility of a problem. IF there is the possibility then every couple months monitor the levels and see if they are jumping around (which feels terrible) or going up or going down, any of those make you feel nuts and is treatable.
I would love to hear back Pseudoname on what other things you find help, or what else you find out. Something like this, finding you feel better when you are supposed to feel sick, this is a major clue. Doesn't mean standard psychoactive medications wouldn't help, but its certainly something I would mention to a doctor and push them to look into it.
Katekite1
poster:katekite1
thread:574184
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051031/msgs/574350.html