Weird Reaction To Thyroid? (And Other Questions)

[Catecholamine]

A couple months ago, I decided to try desiccated thyroid (in addition to a Peat style diet). I used a combination of Thiroyd from Pimpom Products, and small nibbles of Cynomel throughout the day. I started at 1 grain of Thiroyd, and ramped up over the course of a month to 1.75 grains.

There was about a week and a half in the later part of that when I felt great in a "euthyroid" kind of way; sustained energy, high sex drive, and a feeling that everything was going to be ok. However, after that week and a half, problems arose pretty abruptly. I got horrible anxiety attacks (I've never been an anxious person before), my breathing was short and shallow, and I couldn't sleep. I stopped taking Thiroyd and Cynomel, and it slowly got better over 3 weeks, but the anxiety spiked at exactly the 3 week mark and has been slowly getting better.

I'm currently depressed, still anxious, I feel like my body just doesn't work right, and I hate my body and all the weight I've gained (I started peating 1 year ago at 5'9.5" 195lb and am the same height but weigh approximately 214lb, now with a big protrudey gut), I can't recover from workouts (when I do work out) and I have barely any energy to start off with. The lack of energy and the depression were the reasons I tried taking thyroid in the first place.

I probably have a history of metabolic damage. From 2011-early 2016, I took Adderall (I have had diagnosed ADHD ever since I was a little kid, but only started treating it when I was 20 [I'm 26 now]), and I lost a lot of weight (went from 210-150 over the course of a year, then gained it back and leveled off at about 195). I also used to do IF pretty religiously ever since I was about 18-19, with a short foray into ketogenic diets when I was 21. I tried Peating to fix it, but after a year, I just seem to have gotten fatter and have even less energy.

I guess if I had to distill this post into a few bullet points of questions, they would be:
1. Can an overdose of thyroid hormone cause horrific, long-lasting anxiety and shortness of breath? It's been over a month and I'm still having anxious symptoms.
2. Would it possibly be worth it to try thyroid hormone again?
3. Is it possible to repair metabolic damage while also losing fat? I want that healthy youthful Peat-approved metabolism, but I'm pretty sure this massive gut isn't doing me any favors.
4. Would it be possible to restart taking an ADHD stimulant while also regaining my metabolic health?

 

[sele]

1. Can an overdose of thyroid hormone cause horrific, long-lasting anxiety and shortness of breath? It's been over a month and I'm still having anxious symptoms.

Depends on multiple factors.
First off just throwing thyroid or other hormones is not the solution to good health.
Was your cholesterol high enough before starting thyroid?
Some progesterone will calm your anxiety.

2. Would it possibly be worth it to try thyroid hormone again?

Maybe not till you find what's missing.
Many people with sluggish liver (including myself) have not got much benefit from using thyroid at high doses.

3. Is it possible to repair metabolic damage while also losing fat? I want that healthy youthful Peat-approved metabolism, but I'm pretty sure this massive gut isn't doing me any favors.

Absolutely. With time and detective work and experiment.
You will have some degree of insulin resistance when transitioning from a lower carb and higher fat diet.
To fix the damaged metabolism you have to bear with some weight gain initially. Watch your fat and do not be quick to increase sugar. Get your B vitamins.
Acute high doses of caffeine will summon stress hormones and lactic acid, and cause fat gain.

4. Would it be possible to restart taking an ADHD stimulant while also regaining my metabolic health?

I wouldn't recommend any ADHD stimulant.
ADHD is a symptom of very high anxiety.
Search for dopamine agonists or serotonin antagonists.
Progesterone, along with 2g of calcium and vitamin d, has helped me with anxiety.

 

[tara]

I guess if I had to distill this post into a few bullet points of questions, they would be:
1. Can an overdose of thyroid hormone cause horrific, long-lasting anxiety and shortness of breath? It's been over a month and I'm still having anxious symptoms.
2. Would it possibly be worth it to try thyroid hormone again?

I can't definitively answer your questions, but here's my take.
I suspect if one overdoses on thyroid hormones that the body can sometimes do various things to down-regulate, and they may sometimes be tricky to get back into equilibrium. Peat has said endogenous thyroid production will be suppressed if you take more than you need but should come back to normal quickly as soon as over-supplementing is stopped. T3 can go up, and I'm not sure how long it takes to come back down. Not sure if there are other mechanisms.
I've read that T4 generally takes at least 2 weeks to come up to a stable blood level on a steady daily dose. If the NDT product you had was fully active (I don't know the different brands), then you started out quite high and fast.
AIUI, Broda Barnes used temps and other signs and symptoms to assess thyroid function, and if they indicated a need for supplementation, he generally recommended starting with 1/4 grain daily, and incrementing by 1/4 grain monthly till waking temps came up to 97.8 - 98.2 range.
I think this conservative approach seems like a pretty safe way to reduce the risk of overshooting.

Have you been monitoring your temps to guide your approach? Or by what means have you assessed your need for thyroid supplement?