Cant get up in the mornings....

I really struggle to wake up in the mornings for work i need to work for 8 so have to get up at 7 i have the alarm on and i get my bf to wake me up but everyday i feel like theres a ton of bricks on my chest and i can get my self up out of bed. Its started to put strain on my relationship as i am becoming angry and snappy because i feel so tired.when i eventually get out of bed i stagger around and it takes me a while to come round and feel a total lack of energy until at least mid afternoon. I havent been to see my gp yet but ths has been goin on for years i cant understand why i am so tired as when it comes to night time i am usually only feeling sleepy after midnight. I have tried to go to bed early but i am tossing and turning never getting to sleep until late. It has started to get me down and i often feel in a low mood never really feeling happy just tired and grouchy. I wondered if light therpy would work for me and has it changed how you feel??

Kelly, have you had your thyroid tested? These are classic hypothyroid symptoms. Don't let your doctor do TSH only; get T4 and T3 levels measured as well. After being ill for 4 years, I am working with a doctor now who has specialised in metabolic medicine for decades and who doesn't even believe that SAD is a condition in itself. He says that it is a symptom of a thyroid which is weak -- and it has to work twice as hard when it's cold and dark. I'll write more about this in "nutrition info" when I'm further along in my own treatment, but I've met quite a few other people with hypothyroidism who also have SAD symptoms. Unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation out there about hypothyroidism, and it is a massively underdiagnosed condition.

BTW before considering thyroid treatment, get your adrenals checked too -- adrenal exhaustion is often present with hypothyroidism and it can become worse when thyroid treatment is started if left unaddressed. A 24-hour saliva cortisol test is good for this. Just let me know if you'd like more info.

Best wishes,
Linda.

The problem is that there is a huge number of people out there who are hypothyroid and whose tests keep coming back "normal." There are a lot of reasons for this. Doctors are over-reliant on these blood tests and ignore the symptoms of their patients. One of the best diagnostic "tests" is taking your basal temperature (lowest tempterature of the day) when you wake up in the morning (for women, this needs to be done during day 2-5 or 6 of your period); and if it is consistently low, you should be very suspicious of hypothyroidism. There isn't much else that would cause that particular symptom -- yet GPs either are unaware of this or wave it away and put their faith in blood tests only, which are useless when they come back "normal" and the patient is suffering.

My own GP is hopeless. The private GP I'm working with is an expert in thyroid and metabolic medicine but he is considered a "quack" by the mainstream because of his criticisms of the methodologies of mainstream diagnosis and treatment -- which are not working for many people.

For anyone reading here, I suggest you look into the symptoms and causes of adrenal fatigue and hypothyroidism. If you think they match you then there is no harm in looking for a sympathetic doctor or even self-treating. This is a good site:

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/

Best wishes,
Linda.