Hashi Kitchen

A feeling that your body is reacting as if something is wrong, while your rational mind knows everything is fine.

The Symptom Nobody Warned Me About

For a long time, I thought I was the only one experiencing this.

My Mind Felt Calm, But My Body Didn’t

This became especially obvious during my work as a DJ. Before a performance, I knew exactly what I was doing. I had prepared. I knew the music. I knew the venue. I had done this countless times before. Mentally, I felt calm. Yet my body often told a completely different story.

My hands would become cold and sweaty.

My feet would become cold and sweaty too.

My stomach would react.

More often than I would like to admit, I would even experience diarrhea before an event.

It felt as if my body had decided there was danger nearby, even though my mind had not received the message. That was what made it so confusing. If I had been sitting at home worrying about every possible scenario, the reaction would have made sense.

But I wasn’t.

Most of the time I was simply getting ready for another day at work.

Why This Can Feel So Frustrating

Most people associate anxiety with thoughts. We imagine someone lying awake at night, overthinking everything or constantly worrying about the future. But physical symptoms do not always follow the same rules. Sometimes your body reacts before your mind fully understands what is happening. Sometimes there are no obvious anxious thoughts at all.

That can leave you feeling confused.

You start asking yourself questions.

Am I anxious?

Am I stressed?

Why does my body feel this way when my mind feels completely fine?

And when you cannot find a clear answer, it is easy to start doubting yourself.

What Made It So Difficult To Understand

The hardest part was that I never saw myself as an anxious person. In fact, most people would probably describe me as optimistic. I often joke that I have unicorns and rainbows in my head because I naturally look for the positive side of things. That is exactly why these physical reactions confused me so much.

I was not spending my days worrying. I was not expecting everything to go wrong. Yet my body often reacted as if it was preparing for something terrible to happen.

The disconnect between how I felt mentally and how I felt physically made it difficult to understand what was happening. For a long time, I simply assumed it was normal.

Or stress.

Or part of getting older.

Looking back, I am not so sure.

The Body And The Nervous System

One thing I have learned through my Hashimoto journey is that stress is not always something we consciously feel. Many of us think of stress as feeling overwhelmed, emotional or worried. But stress can also be physical. Lack of sleep. Chronic fatigue. Illness. Major life events. Overtraining. Working through exhaustion. Long periods of pushing yourself when your body is asking for rest.

All of these can place demands on the nervous system.

Over time, your body may become more reactive, even if you do not feel mentally stressed in the traditional sense.

My Theory

Looking back, I think I spent years pushing through symptoms.

I travelled frequently.

I worked long hours.

I ignored fatigue because I assumed everyone felt that way.

I told myself I was fine because I was still functioning. And mentally, I genuinely believed I was fine.

Now I wonder whether my body was simply carrying a burden that my mind had not fully recognised yet. Not because I was weak. Not because I lacked discipline. But because my body was working much harder than I realised.

Is This Hashimoto?

The honest answer is that I do not know. And neither does the science, at least not completely. I am not suggesting that Hashimoto causes anxiety. I am not suggesting that everyone with Hashimoto will experience these feelings. What I am saying is that many people with chronic illness describe a similar experience.

A disconnect between how they feel mentally and how they feel physically. That experience deserves more attention than it often receives.

You Are Not Imagining It

One of the hardest parts of living with symptoms like these is trying to explain them to other people. Most people understand worry. Most people understand fear. But they struggle to understand why someone can feel physically on edge without a clear reason. That can feel incredibly isolating, I know for me it did and sometimes still does.

If you recognise yourself in this story, I want you to know that you are not alone. Many people living with Hashimoto and other chronic conditions describe similar experiences. Whether the cause is stress, hormones, illness, fatigue, the nervous system or a combination of factors, the experience itself is real.

The Bottom Line

For me, this has been one of the most unexpected parts of living with Hashimoto.

Not the fatigue.

Not the hair loss.

Not even the cold and sweaty hands and feet.

Although, ugh…

But the strange feeling that my body sometimes seems to be having a completely different conversation than my mind. I still do not have all the answers. Maybe I never will.

But learning to listen to my body instead of constantly fighting it has been one of the most important lessons of my journey so far.

And if nobody has told you this today:

You are not weak.

You are not overreacting.

You are not imagining it.

Sometimes your body is simply trying to tell you something before your mind catches up.