Hashimoto's thyroiditis: spiritual meaning and emotional causes
What Hashimoto's thyroiditis is
Thyroiditis means inflammation of the thyroid, the gland at the base of the neck that sets the body's pace. The most common form is Hashimoto's thyroiditis, also called Hashimoto's disease. It is an autoimmune condition: the immune system makes antibodies against the thyroid and slowly damages it, so that over months or years the gland makes less hormone. The result is hypothyroidism, an underactive thyroid, with tiredness, feeling cold, weight gain, constipation, dry skin, slowed thinking and low mood. The thyroid may swell into a painless goitre.
Hashimoto's is far more common in women, often appears in middle age, and runs in families. It sometimes comes with other autoimmune conditions, such as type 1 diabetes, vitiligo or coeliac disease. Blood tests for TSH, thyroid hormone and thyroid antibodies make the diagnosis. When hormone levels fall, treatment is a daily levothyroxine tablet, which replaces what the gland no longer makes. For most people it is lifelong, and it is adjusted with regular blood tests. No diet or supplement has been shown to stop the condition, and too much iodine can make it worse.
Other forms of thyroiditis exist: a painful one that follows a virus, one that appears in the year after giving birth, and some caused by medicines. They can make the thyroid briefly overactive before it slows, and they need a doctor's follow-up.
The emotional meaning of Hashimoto's thyroiditis
Spiritually, the thyroid is the centre of the word, where what you feel becomes something you say. Thyroiditis is read as words that stayed inside and burned there.
Stuck in a family situation
The situation is often one that involves the family. You feel cornered because you cannot express your frustration and your anger. Saying them seems impossible, so they stay where they are, and you stay stuck with them.
Living in slow motion
Spiritually, the slowing of the body is read as a life lived in slow motion, while negative feelings gnaw at you from within. Energy that could move you forward is spent holding back what you feel.
Wanting to breathe fire, choosing silence
You may want to breathe fire, to let it all out, and yet you hold back because certain secrets might come out with it. You fear that speaking could blow the family apart. So you prefer to keep quiet and feel stuck, rather than open the door of your heart and dare to express yourself. The question is not whether every secret must be told, but what the silence is costing you, and who could safely hear what you feel.
If the secret concerns harm done to you or to a child, it is not a family matter to keep. Speaking to a doctor, a helpline or the police is a way to get safe.
A gentler way to hold it
The invitation is to recognise and welcome the feelings that live in you, and to put them into words so you can free yourself from them. The love and light you carry form a shield that protects you at every moment. Your daily tablet, if you have one, sits beside that protection. It is not in competition with it.
- Name what is stuck. Write down the family situation in which you feel cornered.
- Welcome the anger. Frustration and anger are allowed to exist before they are allowed to be spoken.
- Find words before you find an audience. A journal, a counsellor or one trusted person can hear first.
- Look at the secret gently. Ask what it protects, and what it costs you to carry it alone.
- Open the door a little. One honest sentence to someone safe is a beginning.
- Keep your treatment and your blood tests. They are part of the care, not a sign that the inner work failed.
Questions to ask yourself
Take your time with these. There are no right answers; simply notice what comes up.
- In which situation, often in my family, do I feel stuck and unable to say what I feel?
- Which frustration or anger am I swallowing to keep the peace?
- Is there a secret I carry because I fear it would break the family apart?
- Where have I slowed down because something is eating at me from inside?
- What would I say if I opened the door of my heart?
- Which feeling can I name today, even if only to myself?
“I recognise and welcome the feelings in me, and I put them into words. The love I carry surrounds me like a shield.”
Your free hashimoto's thyroiditis journal
Take this page off the screen. Four printable pages to explore what your body may be saying, at your own pace.
- The 6 questions above, with space to write
- A 7-day log to notice when it flares up, and what came just before
- Your affirmation with a 21-day tracker
Go further, gently
If this reading resonates with you, THE BODY DECODER gathers this page and every other symptom and feeling into one book you can keep, with a 30-day programme to work with them.
Our products are designed for relaxation and self-reflection. They are not a medical treatment and do not replace the care you receive.
When to see a doctor
- Tiredness, feeling cold, weight gain, constipation, dry skin, low mood, heavier periods or a swelling at the front of the neck. A blood test checks thyroid hormone levels and thyroid antibodies.
- Many people with Hashimoto's take levothyroxine for life. Do not stop it or change the dose because of anything you read here.
- You are already treated and the symptoms return, or you feel shaky, anxious or have a racing heart. The dose may need adjusting. Do not adjust it yourself.
- A neck swelling that grows quickly, a firm lump, difficulty swallowing or breathing, or a hoarse voice that lasts.
- You are pregnant or planning a pregnancy. Tell your doctor early, as the dose often needs to change.
- A painful, tender thyroid with fever, or confusion, extreme drowsiness and a very low temperature. Seek urgent care.
Related conditions
Sources and inspiration
Medical information
Emotional and spiritual interpretation
- Jacques Martel, Le Grand Dictionnaire des Malaises et des Maladies , pp. 207–208.
This page is an original interpretation written by the Body Hemi-Sync editorial team. It is inspired by these sources and does not reproduce them. How we write and check our pages.