Are you stuck in a functional freeze? You might be surprised to learn how many symptoms typically associated with thyroid issues are actually linked to trauma and nervous system dysregulation. It’s even more surprising how many of our so-called ‘personality traits’ are a result of past experiences.
Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn Responses
Fight / flight is what we hear about all the time. We either face a threat or run from it, and there’s a cascade of biological reactions that happen in the body to facilitate that. We run on cortisol and adrenaline, which is perfectly fine and needed in the acute situation.
Not so much when it becomes chronic.
Physical & Emotional Symptoms of Nervous System Dysregulation
Physical Symptoms
In terms of the physical symptoms, we will see the more typical dysregulation symptoms like feeling anxious, awareness of heart beat, tight chest, tense shoulders and jaw, palpitations, sweating, feeling wired but tired, temperature changes, loose stools, etc.
Emotional Symptoms
Our emotional state and entire personality is also affected.
In flight we feel angry, defensive and demanding.
In flight we tend to lean towards overthinking and avoidance, escaping into food/ alcohol and super common perfectionism.
Now, when the stressor is chronic or in the event of ‘big T’ trauma, we experience a sense of overwhelm and hopelessness without any support system (thyroid reality right here). We can then move to the two more withdrawn states:
Functional freeze or fawn state
These two are the most common responses I see when working with women with thyroid conditions.
These are more withdrawn states and often present as brain fog, debilitating fatigue, headaches, bloating and constipation, pins and needles, feeling cold all the time, hip pain and tension, difficulty losing weight, mood changes and depression.
It gets even more interesting when we look at the personality traits…
In fawn we see people pleasing,
weak boundaries,
losing your identity,
not advocating your own needs
disconnect from the body.
Functional freeze shows up as
a hard time making decisions,
giving up quickly,
feeling numb and detached,
procrastinating, fatigue,
lack of motivation.
Is It Thyroid or Trauma?
How many of these resemble thyroid symptoms?!
With everything we have learnt about the link between thyroid and trauma and nervous system dysregulation, is it possible that some of your symptoms have nothing to do with the thyroid itself, but more with the emotions and stress that lives in your body? And, if that’s the case, no wonder levothyroxine (or even the food changes and supplements) don’t produce the desired improvement in symptoms.
How much of what you see as your personality,
‘I’m just like this’,
is an adaptive trauma response?
Something you have more control over than you think?
The Way Out
If you’ve read this and some of my other posts nodding along…
If you’ve always know that there’s more to thyroid healing than diets and supplements…
If you want to learn more about the nervous system focus approach to thyroid healing…
If you learn tools and exercises to self regulate and release trauma and emotions…
Come join us in THYROID CALM, my upcoming LIVE mini course.
We kick off Wednesday 28th August at 7pm with with a training session, and then meet again on Thursday (7pm) and Saturday (9am) for some interactive, experiential workshops, where you get to practice these life-changing tools.
Everything will be recorded, but I would love to see your beautiful face, so come join us live!
And if you’re reading this after the live course has ended, never fear! Outside of the live runs, I continue to offer this as a self-study course. So, click the link and sign up now! And don’t forget to follow me on IG too!