# will he ever be the same



## FaithNALrecovery (Dec 31, 2012)

my boyfriend and i have been together for 10 years and have a beautiful 4 year old daughter. He has lived with graves disease longer than he should have. he was always a very fit guy and as his muscle mass was fading he tried everything from eating more, to buying weight gaining medicine he saw advertized on the internet for guys who couldnt put on fat or muscle. It didnt work. After finally seeing a doctor he was told his thyroid was fine but continued to see his weight fall off him and chest pain was a concern. After another year of worsening sumptoms he went in again to a different doctor and told them he thought for sure his thyroid was the problem for him struggling. He felt like his body was deteriating. This doctor found him to have severe imbalances and put him on drugs to slow his heart and set him up with an endocrinologist. He is only 25 and on the verge of having a heart failure. His resting heart beat was in the 120s. His doctor was shocked he had gone this long with the illness and said it was one of the worst cases of graves disease he has ever seen were the patient was still untreated. He described my boyfriend's body as a person that ran a marathon everyday. That his heart was never made to beat that fast for that long and would eventually shut down. 
At first the side effects i saw in his behavior were mild and didnt bother me very much. Before the radioactive iodine he started to be more emotional than before. Little things bothered his feelings a lot. At the time, I described it as a girl during her time of the month. Now I see someone who is Paranoid, thinks he is being talked about, angry at the smallest of things, overly self-conscience, pushes away people close to him, secludes himself, suicidal, doesn't use common sense when faced with simple tasks, and most importantly alone cause no matter how much people try to understand him, they never will. 
His paranoia has gone as far as him lying to people to get them to admitt they had said something about him, like he had heard it from another source. He has taken our old baby monitor and secretly set it up in other rooms thinkin he will catch me or company of our say something about him when he is out of the room. And most recently started actually having hearing hillucinations tellin me to stop whispering about him and says he hears specific comments that are never being said about him. 
My sister had schzitsophrenia and killed herself after 3 years with it. Many of the things I am now seeing from my boyfriend are identical to some of her behaviors. It was the worst thing to deal with for our family and now im scared im reliving the nightmares of trying to tell someone reality when there's is the only one they can see.


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## FaithNALrecovery (Dec 31, 2012)

Has anyone had such severe psycological issues that they have had to be treaded for bi-polar, manic depression, or schzitsophrenia? What are some ideas to treat this behavior?


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

Is your boyfriend taking any anti thyroid medication? If so, how long has he been taking it and how often does he get tested? The Free t-4 and Free T-3 tests will give an accurate idea of where his hormones are. Please post these along with ranges if you have them.

Thyroid disorders can affect mental states. Your boyfriend may be experiencing some mental issues due to thyroid hormone movements.

It is so important for you or he to discuss the symptoms he is experiencing with a medical professional to rule out other mental disorders.


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## FaithNALrecovery (Dec 31, 2012)

He takes 125mcg Levothyroxin. Not sure what his levels have been butplan to go with on monday to an appointment that he will have levels checked and has agreed to tell doctor of his anger and paranoia. He didnt think he had a problem till recently but that was in part to paranoia in the first place. He said i was the one with the problems. He tewnds to get so deressed he gives up hope to flush his meds down the toilet. Then its a rush to refill them. sometimes i wont know he has disposed of them till days after. i need to lock them up and admister them i feel at this point. I will post his numbers on monday.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

FaithNALrecovery said:


> my boyfriend and i have been together for 10 years and have a beautiful 4 year old daughter. He has lived with graves disease longer than he should have. he was always a very fit guy and as his muscle mass was fading he tried everything from eating more, to buying weight gaining medicine he saw advertized on the internet for guys who couldnt put on fat or muscle. It didnt work. After finally seeing a doctor he was told his thyroid was fine but continued to see his weight fall off him and chest pain was a concern. After another year of worsening sumptoms he went in again to a different doctor and told them he thought for sure his thyroid was the problem for him struggling. He felt like his body was deteriating. This doctor found him to have severe imbalances and put him on drugs to slow his heart and set him up with an endocrinologist. He is only 25 and on the verge of having a heart failure. His resting heart beat was in the 120s. His doctor was shocked he had gone this long with the illness and said it was one of the worst cases of graves disease he has ever seen were the patient was still untreated. He described my boyfriend's body as a person that ran a marathon everyday. That his heart was never made to beat that fast for that long and would eventually shut down.
> At first the side effects i saw in his behavior were mild and didnt bother me very much. Before the radioactive iodine he started to be more emotional than before. Little things bothered his feelings a lot. At the time, I described it as a girl during her time of the month. Now I see someone who is Paranoid, thinks he is being talked about, angry at the smallest of things, overly self-conscience, pushes away people close to him, secludes himself, suicidal, doesn't use common sense when faced with simple tasks, and most importantly alone cause no matter how much people try to understand him, they never will.
> His paranoia has gone as far as him lying to people to get them to admitt they had said something about him, like he had heard it from another source. He has taken our old baby monitor and secretly set it up in other rooms thinkin he will catch me or company of our say something about him when he is out of the room. And most recently started actually having hearing hillucinations tellin me to stop whispering about him and says he hears specific comments that are never being said about him.
> My sister had schzitsophrenia and killed herself after 3 years with it. Many of the things I am now seeing from my boyfriend are identical to some of her behaviors. It was the worst thing to deal with for our family and now im scared im reliving the nightmares of trying to tell someone reality when there's is the only one they can see.


You have a very full plate and I am sorry to read this.

First and foremost; what has been done to treat your boyfriend's Graves' Disease besides a beta-blocker? Is he on anti-thyroid meds or has he had RAI or ablation (surgical removal) of the thyroid?

No matter what, your boyfriend should be under the care of a Board Certified Psychiatrist.

He could be experiencing psychosis from Graves'; yes! But,he needs the "correct" assessment and guess what? More than one thing could be going on with mental issues.

You have a conundrum and I advise you to enlist all the support you can get for yourself and your child because you will need it. A decision is going to have to be made one way or the other as my perspective indicates to me that you and your child could be in danger.

Here is some info which may or may not help.

Psychiatric Manifestations of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis
http://www.drrichardhall.com/Articles/hashimoto.pdf

Grave's psychotic
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1324966/

bipolar/thyroid disease
http://www.psycheducation.org/thyroid/introduction.htm

Graves', neuropsychiatric
http://gravesdiseasetimbennie.com/ghdsection3of4part2.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1324966/

hypo, psychiatric
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/hypothyroidism.htm

Thyroid Storm
http://www.clivir.com/lessons/show/thyroid-storm-symptoms-causes-and-treatment.html
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/850924-clinical#a0217

Please read all the links; I know your boyfriend has Graves' but symptoms can and do cross over.

And by the way; does your boyfriend have a goiter, exophthalmos, pre-tibial myxedema and thyrotoxicosis? It would seem he has the latter (thyrotoxicosis.)

Glad you are here; we have some great help and input on this board.

Keeping all of you in my thoughts and prayers.


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

I'm sorry you're having to go through this, Faith.

So he had his thyroid killed off with radioactive iodine and is now on the 125 mcg of Levo? When did he have his thyroid destroyed? How long has he been on the Levo? When were the last time his labs were done?


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

FaithNALrecovery said:


> He takes 125mcg Levothyroxin. Not sure what his levels have been butplan to go with on monday to an appointment that he will have levels checked and has agreed to tell doctor of his anger and paranoia. He didnt think he had a problem till recently but that was in part to paranoia in the first place. He said i was the one with the problems. He tewnds to get so deressed he gives up hope to flush his meds down the toilet. Then its a rush to refill them. sometimes i wont know he has disposed of them till days after. i need to lock them up and admister them i feel at this point. I will post his numbers on monday.


 I am thinking RAI might not have been complete. It would be a good idea for your boyfriend to get another RAIU (radioactive uptake scan) to see. Some of us, myself included had to have RAI more than once.

If that should be the case, taking the Levothyroxine would make him worse.

Please clarify this situation.


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## StormFinch (Nov 16, 2012)

Welcome Faith, so sorry to hear you, your boyfriend and your daughter are having to go through this. I pray that you continue to receive the strength you need to travel this road.

I found this article by Elaine Moore that I thought would interest you; http://suite101.com/article/thyroid-disease-a39212

From her perspective, it may be that your boyfriend went from being very hyper to hypo due to the RAI and isn't properly adjusted on his replacement meds. You might see improvement if he is titered correctly, but at this point you are going to have to be in charge of making sure that happens. With him flushing his meds at times, you know as well as I do that he can't be trusted to take them correctly. I would suggest that you look into the rules for a health care proxy in your state and discuss it with him in one of his more lucid periods, carefully however as this could really cause a problem during a paranoid phase. You need to be able to talk about this with his doctor and access his labs for reference when he cannot however, and with HIPAA plus your marital status you may be severely limited otherwise.

I'm glad that you will be accompanying him to his appointment as these problems really do need to be brought to the doctor's attention. Here's hoping that the one he has is experienced with thyroid issues and actually listens. I believe there are at least a few medical studies on this and you may want to go to the appointment armed with them.

As others have mentioned, labs will be invaluable in finding out exactly where he stands right now. If his thyroid was completely killed off during the RAI, 125 mcgs of replacement seems kind of low to me for a man's average weight. Typically the dosage is approximately 1.7 mcgs per kg. Depending on the Free T4 and Free T3 results (both should be in the upper 2/3s of range) he may need more Levo (T4) and possibly an addition of T3 in the form of Cytomel or compounded T3. Products such as Armour and Naturthroid provide both T4 and T3.

Please post labs as you get them and keep us updated. We'll try to help out in any way we can.


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## webster2 (May 19, 2011)

Hello, I am so sorry to hear what your family is experiencing. Graves can really do a number on a person's mental state. I cringe when I think of what my family endured. I know it was the illness, but still....

I am glad your BF will talk to the doctor about the mental issues and that you are going to his appointment with him.


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## Endlessness (Oct 5, 2011)

I'm so sorry for what you guys have been through 

I was diagnosed when I was 8 years old, and at the time, I was little monster. I would throw fits for no reason, throwing stuff, breaking toys, screaming, crying for the smallest reasons. I was so angry all the time. When they treated me and adjusted the meds correctly, I became who I really was: polite, calm and collected. The difference was quite shocking.

Again today, when I'm not in the correct range, I become very irritable (but nowhere near what is used to be).

I'm not sure if this is exactly what is going on with your boyfriend, but I thought I would share my story with you in case it gives you hope. And I do hope that your boyfriend's personality reverts back, as mine did.

Take care!


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## Sandbar (Nov 6, 2012)

Faith, how are things going now? I just posted about my frustration of the mental effects of Graves for me. Even being in the wrong spot within a normal range for test results can still cause problems. After radiation I've read many people have trouble with sudden big shifts that can come a few months after but they aren't tested often enough for the endo to adjust the meds in a timely manner so unnecessary suffering occurs. I hope that your boyfriend can get the right care soon for his sake and yours and your child's. I have had some of the paranoia - very mild compared to your bf, but it is definitely a part of this.


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