The Case:
- Jessica is experiencing fatigue, weight gain, and persistent Hashimoto’s symptoms.
- She’s tried following an AIP (autoimmune protocol) diet and takes supplements and has worked with various coaches on her mindset but nothing seems to be helping.
- Her hormone levels aren’t responding and her doctor’s solution is to increase her medication.
When I met Jessica, she was surprised to hear that positive thinking could actually make her feel worse. But that’s exactly what I suspected was happening. And to truly solve her thyroid mystery, we had to look deeper at what was going on beneath the surface.
Can Positive Thinking Be Harmful for Hashimoto’s?
We’re often told to just “think positive,” especially when we’re dealing with health issues. And while mindset is important, this advice can sometimes backfire (especially if our body doesn’t truly believe the thoughts we’re telling it).
This seemed to be the issue for Jessica. She was repeating affirmations and focusing on being optimistic, but her symptoms weren’t improving. In fact, she was feeling worse.
To dig deeper into this, I invited Anat Peri, a transformational leader and inner child expert, back to the show.
How Overriding Emotions Can Stress the Nervous System
Anat explained that forcing ourselves to think positively can actually invalidate what we’re feeling. It’s kind of like we are gaslighting ourselves. We know our body’s emotional state, but we are actively trying to convince our mind that our body’s signals are wrong.
This creates a disconnect that puts pressure on the nervous system. And since the nervous system is already working hard to protect us, this added stress can have a real impact on health.
For those with autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto’s, this dissonance can drive symptoms even further.
The Nervous System Reacts Before the Mind
One powerful insight Anat shared is that the nervous system processes signals ten times faster than the mind. It responds within 0.2 seconds, while the conscious mind takes two full seconds to catch up.
That means even if we think we’re fine, our body might already be in a stress response (determining whether we should be in fight, flight, freeze, or please). Positive thinking won’t override that unless we address the root emotion first.
Inner Child Work and Reparenting to Heal Hashimoto’s
Anat introduced the idea of the inner child as the part of us that holds our emotions and past experiences. When we ignore our emotions, it’s like telling that inner child to stay quiet, which is something many of us learned in childhood.
By learning to “reparent” ourselves, we can begin to create emotional safety and heal long-standing patterns of stress and self-abandonment. We can do this first by addressing unmet emotional needs from our mother, and then from our father.
Why Emotional Safety Has to Come First
If we want to work with our nervous system (instead of against it), we have to start by creating safety in the body. Anat shared that this begins with gentle breathwork, movement, and naming physical sensations. This can be as simple as becoming aware of the temperature, naming the pain, or describing the texture of where we feel tightness or discomfort.
Once we build that foundation, we can begin to feel our emotions in a healthy way, without judgment or avoidance. And only after that, Anat says, is there space for true mindset work to land.
Happy Ending for the “Happy Thoughts Hashimoto’s Mystery”
In Jessica’s case, we had to shift how she approached her mindset entirely. Instead of trying to override how she felt with positive affirmations, we worked on regulating her nervous system and tuning into what was really going on.
We also adjusted her diet. She had been following a traditional AIP protocol but wasn’t seeing the results she wanted. The reason for this became clear when we identified her thyroid type as ‘unavailable type’. This means that despite her doctor increasing her medication dosage, she was not feeling any different because her cells weren’t receiving the thyroid hormones.
This is why knowing your thyroid type is so important. Her thyroid type was also the reason she was struggling to lose weight, even though she was following the AIP diet. Once we understood her thyroid type, we changed her macros to better support her body’s needs, especially for weight loss with Hashimoto’s.
Once we supported her in ways that allowed her body to use the hormones properly, and she started to work on her mindset from a place of safety (supercharging her positive thinking), things began to change.
Jessica started to feel more energized, shed weight, and most importantly, felt like herself again.
If Jessica’s story resonates with you, be sure to check out my free Hashimoto’s Thyroid Type Training and the 10-Day Hashimoto’s Weight Loss Transformation.
Eliminating Hashimoto’s Health Mysteries
For Jessica, we were able to find that missing piece of the health puzzle and help her regain her health. Could this be the missing clue for you or someone in your life?
Links:
Resources mentioned
Hashimoto’s Thyroid Type Training 10-Day Hashimoto’s Weight Loss TransformationThanks to my guest Anat Peri. You can connect with her through her website and on Instagram.
Suggested Products
Related Podcast Episodes:
Your Family History Goes Beyond Genetics: A Novel Way to Look at Hashimoto’s with Anat Peri Investigating Emotional Resiliency with Anat Peri The Super Simple Mindset Shift to Help Hashimoto’s How to Choose Between Keto, Paleo, AIP and other Popular Diets with Risa GrouxThanks for Listening
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PLEASE NOTE
All information, content, and material on this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.
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