Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 112 // Snake in the House! Managing Panic and Stress Responses with Hashimoto’s

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112 // Snake in the House! Managing Panic and Stress Responses with Hashimoto’s · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

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  Hey mom, mom, mom, he called up the stairs. Come see, you have to come right this second.
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  And I was immediately skeptical because usually when something is that time
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  sensitive and he has that tone of voice, it's a spider.
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  And so I was like, is it a spider? He says, no, but he has a grin.
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  I'm going to tell you that story, my complete huge stress response and how I
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  dealt with it in just a second.
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  But first, welcome to the Health
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  with Hashimoto's podcast. My name is Esther. I am a registered nurse.
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  I have Hashimoto's. I love to help women find simple and sustainable ways that
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  they can pursue better health.
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  I have a three-step path for you on your health to Hashimoto's.
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  Those three steps are number one, you're going to figure out what questions
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  to ask your doctor because your doctor is on your team.
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  Your doctor wants the best for you and you asking the right questions can help
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  you both get there. So that is free.
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  You can go to the Health with Hashimoto's website, healthwithhashimotos.com.
• 1:02
  You can get that. It's also on the app, the Health with Hashimoto's app.
• 1:05
  And I did make like a little mini course with it so that you can listen to like
• 1:11
  almost like a private podcast to get the reasons why you should ask the questions and what they mean.
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  The second step of your path is Hashimoto's Decoded Root Causes.
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  And that one helps you be the detective.
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  Your doctor can only do so much, but you have been in with you for your whole
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  life and you can really dig down into what you think is your history and what are the triggers,
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  what are the root causes, and I will go through all of the most common root
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  causes with you and the triggers so that you can figure them out for yourself.
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  And then you can do what you need to in order to mitigate those root causes
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  so that you can start to find better health.
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  And then step three is I can take you by the hand and lead you through exactly
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  what to do to deal with each of your root causes.
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  And that is the Holistic Hashimoto's Course. I love to help people,
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  like I said earlier, find simple and sustainable things that they can do.
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  And the Holistic Hashimoto's Course is all simple things that you can do.
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  And over the course of about four weeks, I walk you through each thing in a
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  way that you can actually manage.
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  I don't ever want you to feel overwhelmed because when we're overwhelmed we
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  usually just kind of shut down and we don't do it.
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  So the goal of the Holistic Hashimoto's course is to take you by the hand and
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  help you figure out exactly what to do for your own health.
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  And in the first week of the course we talk about stress and I'm going to help
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  you figure out how to lower stress.
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  And it's kind of ironic because last week I talked to you about my introvert
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  retreat and how to do that for yourself and the benefits.
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  When it comes to stress. I had just finished up that podcast last week.
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  So over the weekend, I sent my email, I sent an email to everybody on my list
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  every Saturday morning.
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  I had literally just hit send.
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  And I was I shut down the email. And then I was staring at my computer like,
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  okay, what else do I have to do when I heard that call up the stairs?
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  Mom, mom, mom, you have to come quick right now.
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  Is it a spider? He said no. But he had, you know, that grin,
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  that grin that if you have kids, like, you know it, like something's not quite right.
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  They're gonna punk you or something. And so I was like, okay, whatever.
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  Because I wasn't busy on my computer. I wasn't busy for work.
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  I could go down, see what he wanted.
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  I went downstairs, and I walked around the corner to our den.
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  And I see all four of my boys hovering around a window. Now my house is built into a hill.
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  A couple of our windows are at ground level.
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  And coming in from the ground in the window was a snake.
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  I freaked out. Oh my goodness. I hate snakes.
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  Like spiders, I don't like them. And when a spider will like drop down and scare
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  me, I'll scream or something.
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  But I don't like most of my reaction of spiders,
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  at least in the house, it's for the sake of my
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  kids the kids just you know they think it's hilarious
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  that I'm scared of spiders and I truly like I don't want
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  to be around spiders but I can kill them myself I can vacuum them up I don't
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  want to be around them but you know I have boys and there is a thing about boys
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  they want to be heroes they want to be the rescuers and so I let them do that
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  and I let them and get a kick out of it.
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  So I hate spiders, but snakes, they literally freak me out.
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  And so seeing a snake come into my house, all I did, I glanced at it.
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  I saw it coming in the window and they were all like super excited.
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  They were like cheering it on, talking to each other.
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  I gasped. I thought I gasped. They said I screamed, whatever.
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  And I turned around and ran back upstairs. stairs.
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  My anxiety, I don't get anxious very much.
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  But my anxiety like shot up my stress level shot up so high.
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  I had such a release of adrenaline, you know, that stress hormone.
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  Such a release by seeing that snake come into my house that I was like,
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  I had all of the symptoms.
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  Now, adrenaline is what your body releases when you're in fight and flight,
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  right? Well, I obviously, I flew from that situation.
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  I was not going to stand fight it. I was going to flee and I did.
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  And so then I had to figure out how can I calm down my nervous system because
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  I don't want all of this adrenaline just flooding through me.
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  And that's something that I did not cover on the last episode.
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  I talked about getting out into nature and breathing deeply and slowing down
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  and resting and just sitting and being.
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  And all of those things are so good.
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  They are so healthy. They're so good to put into your life, in a routine,
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  to put them in like on a regular practice, this, right? Sitting down and just being.
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  I read a book a couple of years ago by Michelle Darusha, it's called True You.
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  And it chronicles like her experience of just sitting on a park bench every
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  day for, I think it was five to 10 minutes and how she started to change in
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  response to her body just being.
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  It's just once a day, she was walking the dog and she said, eventually her dog
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  figured out that they were going to stay at that bench.
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  And when life got busy, and every once in a while, Michelle would not want to
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  stop, the dog would remember, and the dog would have her stop at that bench.
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  And just the benefits of just sitting and being.
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  She wasn't looking at her phone. She wasn't listening to an audiobook or podcast,
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  which I typically am doing when I'm walking.
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  I forget to just be. How about you? Do you forget to just be?
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  Just being is one of those things that we can incorporate into our days and
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  it is healthy. It is good for us.
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  And there's a lot of things that we can do to get our bodies into,
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  you know, our parasympathetic nervous system, our rest and digest nervous system.
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  But what about when you have an acute scare like that, like that I did with a snake?
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  What if your body is suddenly flooding you full of adrenaline?
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  What if your cortisol, your stress hormone is way up? What then? What do you do then?
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  This is what I did and what I encourage you to do, how you can get out of that
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  immediate, like the short term acute stress.
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  Number one is breathe. I came upstairs and I was already telling myself to breathe.
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  Well, my stress was so high that I wanted to breathe.
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  My My body wanted to breathe with my chest and my shoulders,
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  those short, shallow breaths way up high. And that is your stress breathing.
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  I had to figure out how to get back into my belly, use diaphragmatic breathing.
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  And I remembered that I have the Call Me Go. It is in my bedroom.
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  My husband had worked night shift, so he was sound asleep. So I snuck into the
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  bedroom and grabbed my Call Me Go.
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  I did talk about the Call Me Go on an episode a little while back.
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  It was episode 109, and I talk about what the Call Me Go is and how it can help and the statistics.
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  It has really been shown to help people with anxiety and help to lower symptoms within three minutes.
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  So the Call Me Go is a little device. It's about the size of an inhaler,
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  and it helps you focus on your breathing.
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  It uses a whole bunch of senses. You're using your sense of smell.
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  There's scented plates that you put on it so that you've got some aromatherapy
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  to help calm you down. It's got tactile sensations.
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  It's got little lights. So you're using your sight. It's got a vibration that
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  you're both feeling and hearing.
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  It's incorporating a lot of your senses so that you can move from your stress
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  mode, from that sympathetic or the
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  fight and flight mode to your parasympathetic, to your rest and digest.
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  And it works really quickly and it helps a lot.
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  So I ran Ran into the bedroom. I got the calming go to help me move into my belly breathing.
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  I already know how to do it. But having all of my senses, except for the sense
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  of taste, having all of them engaged and, you know, helping me focus.
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  That was helpful to shift into that rest and digest.
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  So that was the first thing I did. And I noticed that it wasn't helping as much as normal.
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  But then I thought, well, of course not, because I just had a huge flood of
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  adrenaline coursing through my body.
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  I'm primed for fight or flight.
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  My body is ready to use my big muscles. It's ready to fight something or it's ready to run quickly.
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  So what is another thing that you can do when you are in that acute stress is to use your muscles.
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  Get up and do some squats, do some burpees. I hate burpees, but I was talking
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  to one of the guys, I think he was Army National Guard at the state fair.
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  We went to all of the booths and I asked one of the guys, what's the best workout
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  that you could recommend for some teenage boys who want to use bodyweight exercises.
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  And he said burpees are the best.
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  So I mean, take it from a guy who is incredibly fit, which is why I asked him,
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  it was very clear that he knows how to work out and how to build muscle. So he said burpees.
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  So if you want a huge, you know, muscle workout, super fast,
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  do some burpees, if you're able.
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  Other quick, powerful movements also can help like jumping jacks or even squats.
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  You want something that is quick, like the quick muscle fibers,
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  but that is also moving a lot of your muscles.
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  I mean, your body is ready to fight or flee.
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  So you want to give your body an outlet to fight or flee, but not actually fight and not actually flee.
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  Although I did consider going on a quick three mile walk.
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  I did not do a three mile walk, but that's what your body wants to do.
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  It's ready to do. It's ready.
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  To use your muscles. So use your muscles if you can, if you're in acute stress.
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  And then you can also, of course, get into your diaphragmatic breathing,
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  into that belly breathing to calm yourself down.
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  And then there's one other thing that I did, and that was reach out to a friend.
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  I actually texted my sister right away.
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  And then two of my friends, I just copied the, or took a screenshot of my conversation with my sister.
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  So I didn't have to type out the story two more times.
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  But you know, telling a friend of what's going on, it can help you process.
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  And it helped me see the humor in it. I mean, I don't think it's humorous at
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  all. There was a snake in my house.
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  But was my action a little overblown? Probably.
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  Did my kids get a huge kick out of it? Definitely.
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  Am I a little nervous to go downstairs now? Yes. But talking about it helped
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  me figure out my emotions and kind of separate like where I overreacted to what was fine, right?
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  Talking it out can help in a stressful situation.
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  And that is why therapy is so important. I am a big fan of therapy.
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  There's a lot of different types. You got to find one that works for you.
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  But if you are facing stress, high stress, or chronic stress,
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  it is so good to have a trusted person to walk you through your situations and
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  to figure out, help you figure out, you know, what was wrong.
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  People do wrong things. You probably were hurt at some point in time because
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  we live in a world full of humans and humans hurt other humans intentionally and unintentionally.
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  And depending on your background and even your current situation,
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  there might be a lot of hurt.
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  You may experienced abuse or you currently are experiencing abuse and having
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  a therapist or counselor to work with and process through that to figure out
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  how you can look at those things and have compassion for yourself.
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  In the situation and how to build resilience and healing now,
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  those are so crucial for our overall health.
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  Your physical health is impacted by your emotional health.
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  Your physical health is impacted by your spiritual health.
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  You are a whole person and you cannot separate your physical body from your
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  emotions and from your mental health, from your spiritual health.
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  You cannot separate those from your environment, whether it's your in-home environment
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  or whether it's the environment outside and the toxins, whether it's the environment
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  of people, maybe of your workplace,
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  that you live in or you exist in environments and those impact your health,
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  your physical health, your emotional health, your mental health,
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  your spiritual health even.
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  And then your diet is impacted by all of that and your diet impacts all of those
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  and your diet impacts how you can respond to all of those.
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  You are a whole person, body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
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  And when you are seeking better health, when you're trying to get healthier,
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  you really need to look at all five parts.
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  You don't have to do something in all five parts every single day,
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  but doing something on those five parts of the whole you will impact your health
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  more than just doing something on one part of the whole you,
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  looking at yourself as a whole picture.
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  And you'll notice that the logo that I designed is a Venn diagram.
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  That's how it started out. The flower was started out as a Venn diagram of the
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  five parts of the whole you.
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  There's five petals on that flower, body, mind, spirit, diet,
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  environment, and then the middle overlapping is the center, that's the whole you.
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  I created it as a Venn diagram because you are interconnected, you cannot divide.
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  All of the parts from each other. You are a whole person.
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  So after that fright with the snake, I had to look at the whole person.
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  Obviously, I removed myself from the environment immediately.
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  Absolutely immediately. I talked to my oldest son who is driving age.
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  And I said, if we don't have any great stuff, it's that expanding foam.
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  I don't know if you've ever seen
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  it. You need to go to the hardware store right now. Here's some money.
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  You can go get it because if there was a hole in our our house,
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  I need it plugged right now.
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  I don't feel like, I don't feel safe downstairs if a snake can get in.
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  Well, he did go to the grocery store, or not the grocery store, to the hardware store.
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  And in the meanwhile, my other, one of my other sons told me that it was hot. He felt hot.
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  So he opened up one of the windows that does not have a screen.
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  And of course, that's where the snake came in because he opened the window that's
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  on the ground level and the snake was curious, I guess.
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  I don't know why it wanted to come into our house, but it turns out we do not
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  have a hole in our house, which I mean, clearly,
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  if I would have thought about it a little bit more, I would have known that
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  there wasn't a hole in the house because we don't feel the outside air and we
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  don't have bugs coming in.
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  And during the winter, that window is colder than the wall, but we don't have
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  snow or rain or wind coming in through a hole in the house.
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  This was the window was open so
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  I might have overreacted again by sending
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  the sun to the hardware store but at that time the boys
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  were telling me that it must have just come through a hole
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  in the wall and I was still a little freaked out so I believed them so it was
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  an open window which is easily remedied and maybe we need a new screen for that
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  window so that was my environment like environment I worked to well I removed
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  myself from the environment and then and worked to make sure that the environment
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  was safe. I worked on breathing.
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  That's both emotional health, mental health, and physical health.
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  Because when you're breathing with your diaphragm, you are telling every cell
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  in your body to relax, that you're safe, to move in, to rest and digest. And then...
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  And then moving your muscles is also part of that physical response,
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  making sure that your adrenaline that is primed you for movement that you can
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  move and moving actually helps that stress response.
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  As far as diet, I didn't do anything for my diet. I did not go stress eat because
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  number one, all the food is downstairs.
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  And even though it was nearing lunchtime, I didn't want to be downstairs until
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  the snake was for sure gone.
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  And when I ran upstairs, they were still working on getting the snake back outside.
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  So yeah, the snake is back outside.
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  My stress response is way back down. I am back to normal.
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  And I just thought it was kind of a funny story. Very ironic,
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  the timing as soon as like within, I don't know, 15 seconds of hitting send
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  on an email, helping you if you're on my email list, like lower stress and showing
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  you pictures from my introvert retreat that I talked about last week.
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  I sent out those pictures and then all of a sudden my stress level goes up.
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  I just thought it was such ironic timing to have that happen.
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  But anyway, I thought I hope that the story kind of amused you and that you
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  were able to learn something from my experience.
• 18:46
  I have a question for you. I am going to be talking more about GLP-1 in a series
• 18:52
  coming up, and I would love to answer your questions about GLP-1.
• 18:55
  Now, I did an episode a while back about GLP-1.
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  It's those shots, the weight loss shots like Ozempic and Monjuro, Wagovi.
• 19:05
  There's a couple of them and we did talk about them, but I would love to know
• 19:09
  what other questions you have because I am going to be doing a full series,
• 19:14
  including ways that you can increase your GLP-1 naturally,
• 19:18
  safely, and using your own body's process.
• 19:21
  So hop over to either Instagram and then tag me in your stories or send me a message.
• 19:27
  I am at health.with.hashimoto's, health.hashimoto's with a dot in between each one on Instagram.
• 19:33
  You can send me a message over there or you can join our discussion in the community
• 19:38
  and let me know over there.
• 19:39
  I would love to answer your specific questions about GLP-1.
• 19:43
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 19:46
  Please discuss any concerns and plans with your trusted healthcare professional.
• 19:50
  If you found this episode helpful, will you please share it with a friend?
• 19:54
  I'll see you next week on The Health with Hashimoto's Podcast.
• 19:57
  Music.