Some Rights Reserved
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0
United States License.
Thyme For Literary Healing: How Do We Reinvent Ourselves?!
In today’s Thyme for a Literary Healing, we’re going to discuss reinventing ourselves. Post disease, post diagnosis, and now living with the physical, emotional and psychological changes our thyroids have bestowed us; how do we redefined ourselves?
We’ve got three simple questions that we’d love you to answer. Every time we share our stories with each other, we learn about each other’s conditions, discover something new about ourselves, and find our way together as a thyamily.
- What has your disease stolen from you?
- How did your disease redefine you?
- What are you doing to ensure that you define you, not your disease?
Ready? Set. Write!
Tags: chronic conditions, Dear Thyroid, forced life reinventions, hyperthyroid memory issues, hypothyroid weight gain, literary healings, post autoimmune diagnoses, post diagnosis physical and psychological changes, thyroid affecting mind, thyroid body changes, thyroid cancer weight loss
Follow Dear Thyroid on Twitter/@DearThyroid | See our Facebook Page | Become a Fan on Facebook | Join our Facebook Group
You Can Create a Dear Thyroid Profile and share with friends!
Reader Feedback
6 Responses to “Thyme For Literary Healing: How Do We Reinvent Ourselves?!”
Leave a Reply to Janel
Comments are moderated in an effort to control spam. If you have a previously approved Comment, this one should go right through. Thanks for your patience!
I don’t think I realized how much I took good health (even post cadiac surgery) for granted until I was diagnosed with hypoT. So this disease made me realize that health wasn’t something to be taken lightly. It redefined my perception of the length of my life and made me realize that every day wasn’t just ANOTHER day but a day I better figure out how to be thankful for. The sad thing is that during the first couple yrs. post thyroid diagnosis, there were days I just didn’t care if I made it thru! I don’t mean that in a suicidal way; I was just so numb to everything and felt like I was living in shades of gray with no color. I got fat. My hair fell out. Nothing fit. I was ashamed of my appearance and really avoided looking in the mirror. I certainly didn’t want to see old friends because I’d find myself trying to explain my appearance and truthfully that was so insignificant compared to the desire to actually want to live in color again. I knew I was pretty damn special on the inside and it really pissed me off to have my life defined by appearance-and then have the double whammy of not having any control over that appearance at all.
I am finally doing things to accept me for who I am and not what I look like. I actually bought tank tops for the first time in 4 yrs. This may sound petty but I really couldn’t stand the size of my upper arms or stand looking at the fabulous thyroid fat pads resting on the tops of each collar bone.It wasn’t until I realized i was torturing myself physically by going out in 100 degree heat covered up just because I was ashamed of a body part that finally made me say screw it . I’m hot and I can’t stand sweating one more second.Also, I have been trying to eat better. i always thought I ate well; but I was a consummate dieter-at times to the extreme. My dieting ideas shifted away from dieting for weight loss to watching what i put in my mouth for health. If the weight shifts because of this new approach, great. If it helps regulate my bloating, water retention, and insulin resistence that’s even better.
It’s still about me,me,me..but in a let me live,live,live way….thank you very much!
Bee, I love what you wrote! It sounds like you have reinvented yourself, which is just beautiful.
Cancer has changed everything about who I am. For awhile, cancer stole my identity. Figuring out who I was in the face of disease was no easy task. I still haven’t completely figured out who I am, but I have figured out that I like who I am becoming. Rather than fighting the changes that cancer brings to my life, I have started embracing them. Rather than focusing on the negatives (and yes, there are most certainly negative changes), I focus on the positives. The positive changes are not always right in my face; I have to look for them. In a nutshell, cancer has opened my eyes and helped me see the world in a better light. I’m more grateful for life, for people.
I let cancer change me, but I don’t let it control me.
Bee I love you just the way you are. and good for you sis.
1.What has your disease stolen from you? Years
2.How did your disease redefine you? It changed the way I looked acted and felt.
3.What are you doing to ensure that you define you, not your disease.
By hopefully changing the way I look at things, living one day at a time and not letting this diease beat me keeping positive that things will improve that the weight will go and I will look 20 fucking 1 again. reinventing a new-me a new-look a new-feel and a new sugar daddy on my arm that will pay for the top docs to ensure I get the care I need to become ME again.
Joanna-I am still in the re-inventing myself stage. I have no doubt that this transformation will take a long time and i’m sure i’ll back slide but at least i think i’ve turned the corner
thx, Lolly-back at you
1. What has your disease stolen from you? Best years of my life, experiences, quality time with family, living the way I want, stamina.
2. How did your disease redefine you? In every way possible from the inside out.
3. What are you doing to ensure that you define you, not your disease? I am becoming a better ME. It has caused me to redefine me but it is not me, it is just one part of me. I’ve learned to listen to my body and my instincts. I find positives everyday and try to focus on those. I have climbed out of what was a deep hole of despair and will continue to kick my thyroids ass. I do wonder if the reinventing me stage will always need to continue, though not so much in the forefront!
Hey Lolly, I thought you were 21♥
1. What has your disease stolen from you? Hashimoto’s has stolen from me: the belief that if I did all the right things (exercise, eat right, take vitamins), my body would reciprocate; several years’ worth of clear thinking; hours worrying about camouflaging my bloated face and body and thinning hair; energy and time I wanted to spend with my family as a stay-at-home mom; sexual confidence; the ability to look in the mirror and be happy with what I see.
2. How did your disease redefine you? Seemingly overnight, I went from being disgustingly healthy to chronically ill. Years of feeling badly and not knowing when I would finally feel better has made me more empathetic toward others. Having to go through several years and several doctors before I improved made me more assertive. Suffering from a little-known disease forced me to become an educated advocate for my own health. Dealing with a fair number of uninformed, underinformed, or just stupid doctors has made me a more discriminating consumer of medical services. Learning to work within my limits to be the best wife, mother, and friend I can be has been an ongoing process. On a positive note, ongoing issues with my internal thermostat has led me to amass an impressive twinset collection.
3. What are you doing to ensure that you define you, not your disease? I’ve learned that I’m happier when I can help others and not focus on my own situation. I’ve managed to get my hormome levels stable, which has allowed me to go back to work. I’m fortunate to be doing what I’ve always wanted to do: teach. Even though I’m still working on me, I can be a positive influence in the lives of children. I’m also proud that I’ve managed to raise a teenage daughter who is emotionally secure and devoid of body-image issues despite my ongoing struggles with my weight. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a size 8 again, but I’m happy with what I’ve been able to achieve.