Thyroid Function and Mental Health: Understanding the Connection

Here’s something you might not have known: Many who struggle with mental health symptoms have thyroid disease that is solely or largely affecting their symptoms. This guide is designed to help you determine if a sluggish thyroid or your thyroid health may be the true cause.

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Table of Contents

Thyroid Function & The Body
A Sluggish Thyroid & The Brain
Thyroid Symptoms & Mental Health Symptoms
Screening Thyroid Function for Mental Health
Thyroid Function & Mental Health: Ways To Help
Combining Your Mental Health and Your Thyroid Health

Thyroid Function & The Body

To get us started, I want to give you an idea of how the thyroid operates in our body and how that leads to effects on our mental well-being. The thyroid makes two key hormones, these are known as T3 and T4.

Both of these control metabolic rate. T4 is also made into something called reverse T3 – this is made outside of the thyroid in the circulation, but also within the brain. It turns out that reverse T3 is critical for brain health and brain cell repair.

A balance between all of these important thyroid hormones is absolutely necessary for nerve conduction, which is especially relevant to how the brain works. But what happens when things are going wrong with our thyroid? Let’s talk about it.

Dealing with a Sluggish Thyroid

How do we go about defining a sluggish thyroid? Why is it such an issue? I want to start by understanding the terms ‘hypothyroidism’ and ‘subclinical hypothyroidism.’

Hypothyroidism is a case where there is simply too little thyroid hormone. We don’t have enough for the body or the brain’s needs.

On the other hand, subclinical hypothyroidism is a specific level to which the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels have elevated, but there is still T4. There is also another level called ‘overt hypothyroidism’ where our TSH is elevated and T4 and T3 are very low.

When each of these things happens, we see certain symptoms of a sluggish thyroid. These symptoms most often include:

• Fatigue
• Brain fog
• Weight gain
• Unexplained depression
• Anxiety

The most common cause for the thyroid being sluggish are autoimmune diseases. Most commonly, these would be Hashimoto’s or Graves disease. These affect every part of the body, but they have an especially detrimental effect on the brain.

A Sluggish Thyroid & The Brain

Here’s what happens: When thyroid hormones are not in the exact right window, the brain can’t work correctly. Our brain is understimulated in hypothyroidism and overstimulated in hyperthyroidism – both can completely change both mood and cognitive function.

Things like depression, anxiety, or irritability. There have been many examples of people who were misdiagnosed with unresolved depression when their thyroid health was the root cause.

The primary connection we see is inflammation. When there’s not the right amount of thyroid hormone, we can perceive a chronic low level of inflammation in the brain.

The brain doesn’t repair itself properly and it can’t have the right level of communication between itself and the nerve cells. Simply, the brain is tired.

We can then see an even more vicious cycle when sleep starts to become affected. Many with abnormal thyroid levels struggle with getting any amount of restful, deep sleep. This means the brain has even less chance to repair itself.

Thyroid Symptoms & Mental Health Symptoms

There is a large overlap between thyroid disease symptoms and symptoms most often associated with mental health issues. Many with thyroid disease struggle with depression, but the fatigue from thyroid disease can also lead to these same issues.

People with thyroid disease may find themselves doing less, engaging socially less, going outdoors less, or becoming less physically active. These things, in turn, can cause depression or worsen depression when it is already there.

The other side of this has to do with anxiety. The important thing to keep in mind here is that too much or too little thyroid hormone can often look a lot alike when it comes to symptoms.

A classic relationship would be low thyroid causing depression and excess thyroid causing anxiety. But, one could have low thyroid and anxiety or high thyroid with depression. In any way that it might be off, it can be a big driver of either condition.

Screening Thyroid Function for Mental Health

The screening process often involves blood tests and lab tests, which allow us to get an idea of how well your thyroid is working and how well these hormones are being circulated in your body.

The important things to check include:

• TSH
• T4
• T3
• Thyroid antibodies

There’s one important point to make here: If you have high thyroid antibodies, they can cause all of these problems even if your thyroid levels are otherwise normal. This is called euthyroid or stable thyroid autoimmune disease.

It can cause depression, anxiety, and weight gain, alongside various other health risks. In many cases, doctors don’t check for antibodies or they don’t think they matter – neither of those statements align with what we know from research.

What we do know is that when antibodies are high, no matter your other scores, we can still see symptoms and health risks.

Thyroid Function & Mental Health: Ways To Help

Now that we know a bit better about the connection between the thyroid and our mental health, and the first steps we can take with testing, let’s talk about more ways to help.

The first step is specialized care. This involves getting second opinions if your current team hasn’t been able to find something that works for you.

From there, diet and lifestyle are huge. There are certain nutrients that people absolutely need for their thyroid to work its best. They’re often low in these nutrients.

The big three include:

1. Selenium
2. Iron
3. Zinc

There’s also iodine. Iodine is unique because our thyroid needs it in exact amounts – the biggest risk here is simply getting too much, which can cause a lot of issues.

Many other facets of self-care are also incredibly important. There’s good data about stress management:

• Reducing thyroid symptoms
• Cutting the risk of developing thyroid disease
• Helping people respond better to existing treatments

This can include things like breathing exercises, regular meditation, more social connections, and a sense of self-purpose. These things can be powerful.

Combining Your Mental Health and Your Thyroid Health

If you’re on a mental health journey of any kind, and if it’s been hard to really see progress or benefit as much as you want, you may want to start examining your thyroid.

Sometimes it’s the root cause, but it can also be the thing that – once you get it in order – really helps turn these around and can be a powerful inflection point in your health.

If you’ve struggled with symptoms of anxiety, depression, or anything else, you may want to try looking at your thyroid and getting a more detailed evaluation.

As a starting point, I’d love to help you find some solutions. Or, if you’re in need of a second opinion, you can find time to consult with me today. Either way, I hope this article inspired you and gave you a bit of hope as you take the next step in your journey.