Graves' Disease

Your thyroid is running hot. It is producing hormones in excess, your metabolism is racing, your heart beats faster, your hands tremble, you sweat, you lose weight even though you are eating. You are wound up inside, nervous, constantly under strain — and at the same time exhausted, because your body cannot come to rest. Many people affected experience something characteristic in addition: the eyes protrude, as if they have seen too much and can no longer stop looking. Medically, Graves' disease is an autoimmune condition — your immune system produces antibodies that keep your own thyroid in a state of permanent alarm. From a psychosomatic perspective, a different question arises: What must be going on inside you for your body to hold a gun to its own temple and floor the accelerator at the same time?