Catching an Illness When You Already Have Hypothyroidism

This can be especially true for those of us with a not-so-good immune system, such as those with an autoimmune health condition, like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, autoimmune thyroid disease.

With Hashimoto’s, your immune system has already mistaken an organ, the thyroid gland, for an invader and is obsessed with trying to destroy it, so I guess you could say it’s preoccupied. Therefore, when we come down with a cold, bug or virus, which we often seem to catch fairly easily, we tend to come down with it worse than healthier friends or work colleagues and take much longer to recover from it. Our body is already struggling and somewhat fragile, and catching an illness is just too much for it.

Whereas a regular person may need just a day or two at home to recover, I tend to need at least double the time and I can still be reeling from the effects of it weeks later. My body doesn’t “bounce back.” It’s another issue my already not-so-great body and immune system have to deal with.

If you hired someone to fit you a new kitchen and they were doing a rubbish job, instead getting confused and flustered and deciding to knock your bathroom down instead, would you give them another job? Would you book them to also fit you a fireplace? That’s the best analogy I can give about my immune system.

The cold, virus or bug I catch is just like the fireplace. It’s another job my immune system, which is already doing a bad job, is given to do. And so what do you expect to happen? My body responds in a poor way.

I just want others to be aware that for those of us who live with a health condition, when we get ill, it’s on top of the other health stuff we already have and it’s different to a healthy person’s experience. It’s more intense, it’s more draining, it’s frustrating and we can’t help it.

Do you experience this too? Let me know in the comments below. 

Please remember that if you’re a thyroid patient living with poor mental health or lingering physical symptoms, that you don’t have to live this way. To address why you may still be feeling unwell (often despite being on thyroid medication too), please see this article and go through each suggestion, putting your thyroid jigsaw back together.

You can click on the hyperlinks in the above post to learn more and see references to information given.

See also:

The online thyroid course ‘Freedom From Thyroid Fatigue‘, which walks you through how to overcome thyroid fatigue and flare up days with a personalised approach.