All of us can feel overwhelmed at times. However, in Wilson's Temperature Syndrome the associated emotional and physical manifestations persist inappropriately, even after the adverse conditions have resolved. There is a good physiological reason why these people often suffer from inappropriate feelings of frustration, disappointment, discouragement, inadequacy, weakness, anger, irritability, hostility, defensiveness, moodiness, depression, anxiety, panicky feelings, selfishness, guilt, low self esteem, and feeling overwhelmed or out of control. They can even have more severe emotional problems, including difficulty in controlling one's actions (which can erupt into inappropriate violent behavior and abuse).

Sufferers may tend to be on the selfish side because they have a pervasive feeling of not having enough resources for themselves, much less enough to make the lives of other people any better. They can be extremely short-suffering and feel that they are at the end of their rope. They can have severe mood swings, especially prior to the menstrual cycle. They can suffer from lack of motivation or ambition and find it difficult to accomplish even simple tasks, such as washing dishes, driving to the store, giving the kids a bath, or changing a diaper. They sometimes just can't gather themselves up in order to scrape off a few plates after dinner, wash them, and put them on the shelf. They just can't picture being able to go to the grocery store to pick up a few groceries or even take out the garbage. They sometimes tend to be cranky, abusive, stingy, critical, judgmental, and have a whole host of other exceedingly undesirable tendencies.

The patients know that their feelings and behavior are quite inappropriate. They often feel very frustrated, because in spite of their best efforts, there doesn't seem to be much they can do to control these feelings, especially when the symptoms worsen during times of stress or just prior to the menstrual cycle. For instance, if someone drops a spoonful of oatmeal on the floor, the WTS sufferer might very well go through the ceiling.

It's often hard for them to find enjoyment in activities. They have a tendency to not feel like doing anything. They don't feel like going to the beach, to the movies, or to the park. "There's no sense in going to the beach because it's not going to be any fun anyway." They frequently can no longer find enjoyment in the things that they used to find quite interesting and enjoyable. For them molehills frequently seem like mountains.

Many patients I treat are concerned about their relationships with their children. Especially during difficult times, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by the actions of their children, the patients can often feel that they are at the end of their ropes. It can be very difficult, because although they have great love and concern for their children and want them to have the best, they so easily and quickly become impatient that they are concerned about what they might do in a moment of anger. They frequently walk in fear of those times, feeling guilt, and loss of control. The impact of this condition on society is enormous and can lead to dysfunctional family units, and less than ideal work-place performance.

Of course, we all have had these types of feelings at one time or another. But, there are times when people know intuitively that the emotions with which they struggle are inappropriate. It is especially obvious when the feelings disappear rapidly with normalization of body temperature patterns from proper thyroid hormone therapy.

One way normal people can imagine what it feels like to have a severe case of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome is by imagining that they have lost their job, their home, their wife and family, have become paralyzed and unable to walk, and have had to move to another state where there are no family or friends. What's so difficult is that Wilson's Temperature Syndrome sufferers may be troubled with such severe emotions persistently, even when the adverse conditions are long gone.

With the WT3 protocol patients sometimes use phrases like, "It feels as if someone has turned on a switch," "It's like looking through a new pair of glasses for the first time and seeing the world differently," "It feels like a great burden has been lifted off my shoulders." It is unlikely that the inappropriate feelings were completely psychological when the patients' emotional manifestations resolve quickly, even within two days or two weeks of proper thyroid hormone therapy, especially when they have the same house, the same job, the same husband, the same children, the same family, the same parents, the same brothers and sisters, etc.

Many times one of the first things that happens to a patient with proper thyroid therapy, is that people around them (their husbands, their children, and their coworkers) notice that they seem nicer. They can be much more calm, resourceful, cooperative, patient, easily pleased, and less easily provoked. It is amazing how many of the feelings that we take for granted as being completely mental or psychological, can actually have a tremendous physical component. The real eye-opener comes when patients who have been suffering from debilitating, emotional problems, such as depression, anguish, sorrow, irritability, and confusion for years, have their symptoms resolve with proper thyroid therapy, even though their lifestyles and other factors haven't changed at all. It makes one realize that the roller coaster emotional problems with which many of these patients must cope, can indeed have a physical basis and can be closely related to their body temperature patterns.

While this doesn't explain all emotional problems, it certainly can explain some of them. This is especially true when a person's feelings of inadequacy or other emotional problems can be traced, upon careful history taking, to a major life stress, and when these feelings resolve quickly with the WT3 protocol and there are no other changes in life style. Again, extremely obvious cases make more subtle cases easier to recognize.

When The Cause Is Not Immediately Obvious
We know that the emotions and the mental processes come from the brain, which is an organ made up of chemical (physical) processes. It can be argued that all that is emotional and mental is a result of that which is physical. Of course, neither I nor the patients who suffer from this condition are wanting Wilson's Temperature Syndrome sufferers to be given excuses, or to be patronized, legitimizing their falling short of their potential. To the contrary, they want to get better so that they can more fully realize their potential. These people don't want to be sick so they can be excused from life. They want to be helped so that they can return to normal, productive lives. Of course, it is best for the tough to get going when the going gets tough, especially if they can. For example, not many people would encourage a marathon runner on the streets of a large city to get up and finish the race if they saw him struck by a car causing both his legs to be broken. But, if he is taken to the hospital and treated for his fractures and given proper support and nutrition for his legs to heal properly, some might encourage him to begin training again for the sport he loves so much. He might some day win the Boston Marathon.

Again, the difficulty with Wilson's Temperature Syndrome is that the impairment is not so obvious to outside observers. Once patients themselves and the people around them see the dramatic difference that can take place when a patient suffering from a classic case of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome is properly treated, then it becomes more obvious to them that criticizing and condemning people with the inappropriate emotional manifestations of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome is a little like criticizing a blind man for not being able to see. Perhaps only after you have been through the experience yourself can you easily recognize others around you suffering in the same way.

It must be remembered that the emotional manifestations of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome; short suffering, impatience, irritability, selfishness, and others, are not held by Wilson's Temperature Syndrome sufferers out of strength, but out of weakness and out of a lack of resources. People usually don't try to be miserable for the fun of it.

Some people might think that if a person did have such a severe impairment, then it should be more physically obvious like the blindness of the blind man or the fractured legs of the marathoner. They might think, "You can't be feeling that badly because you look fine." It can be especially difficult for a WTS sufferer when her doctor sees that her blood tests also look normal. Such patients sometimes get the feeling that their doctors think the tests are telling "the truth" and that they, the patients, are lying.
 

When too much emphasis is placed on medical knowledge and tests that are incorrectly considered to be conclusive, relationships suffer.

Wilson's Temperature Syndrome is most easily recognized when it disappears quickly and easily with proper thyroid hormone treatment. As I mentioned, for patients and their families who have been through the experience, it is easy to recognize the condition in other people. Many of them describe it as if blinders have been removed from their eyes and they are able to see it almost all around them. WTS is not difficult to recognize, and when people become aware of the condition, it will be, together with the body temperature, one of the first things to come to mind, rather than the last. While not everyone has Wilson's Temperature Syndrome, I would say that almost everyone knows someone whose life is being greatly affected. People have been blinded to the existence of this condition because of over-reliance on indirect and therefore inconclusive measurements (thyroid hormone blood tests with large numbers of false negative results for DTSF). This blindness often leads harsh and unfounded criticism of those suffering WTS .

Of course, one of the biggest ramifications to which this problem can contribute is divorce. It is very common for patients with Wilson's Temperature Syndrome to have their marriages end in divorce because it is hard for WTS sufferers to live with other people. And it is hard for other people to live with them because of their physiological predisposition to be short suffering, irritable, and difficult to please. One of the saddest and most ironic aspects of this problem is that they often inadvertently alienate the people they love the most and, who are the only people that are really in a good position to be of support to them.

As we have discussed, Wilson's Temperature Syndrome is characterized by a person being stuck in the conservation mode, which is a physiological state in which the body feels that it does not have sufficient resources to meet its challenges. Of course, in such a situation it would helpful to be able to obtain more resources and/or reduce the challenges for a time. However, when the resources are down it is easy to be irritable, frustrated, and selfish. This may further decrease available resources by alienating those in a position to help, for example; parents, spouses, children, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc. If this process continues too long, it may lead to an even larger drop in available resources such as being fired, getting a divorce, or alienating parents and children, which only adds to the predicament. It would then be even more difficult for them to leave the conservation mode and enter back into the productivity mode.

Wilson's Temperature Syndrome sufferers may have terrific difficulty with their sex drives which can further impair marital relations. The spouse may become insecure about his or her own desirability when the patient's sex drive drops off dramatically, especially during difficult marital times. This problem can be hard to address, especially when the patients themselves can't explain it adequately, maybe not even to themselves. They begin to wonder what could be wrong with their sex drive and why they don't feel the way they used to towards their spouses. This can result in further difficulties in a family, which can lead to further complaints of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome, thereby stating a vicious cycle that frequently ends in divorce. It seems that the incidence of divorce in Wilson's Temperature Syndrome sufferers is much higher than that of the normal population, especially in those patients in which the condition has been long-standing. It is sad because when patients' resources are down and they are feeling inexplicably overwhelmed, confused, and tired, they and their families may strike out in frustration, saying things to each other that are difficult to take back.

Patients often relate to me that they are putting up fronts at work and at home in an attempt to keep their problem from being easily noticed by others. This is true especially of executives in high pressure positions who have to work up schemes and methods to disguise their impairment and shortcomings at work. They live in fear that their employer, subordinates, or clients might discover their impairment and their inability to remember, concentrate, or function properly at work.

The fatigue of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome, unlike the fatigue resulting from other causes, can frequently be overcome for short periods of time. It's not as if the patients have absolutely no resources. It's just that their resources are easily depleted. They can put on fronts at work, being able to function behind the façade of being halfway normal. Then if they don't fall asleep on the road, they might collapse in a heap once they are home and be worthless for the rest of the night. They can muster their resources for a time, but when they are gone, they are gone. In the worst cases, their disability is so severe that it can't be overcome and they simply can't function at normal levels, making their disability obvious to all.

Interestingly, Wilson's Temperature Syndrome sufferers are sometimes over-achievers. Because they push themselves so hard to overcome the feeling of fatigue, they can develop strong determination and frequently end up accomplishing a lot, even though it is difficult. If the condition is long-standing, the sufferer may have an unsteady job history being unable to function well in the work place.

I remember one person who was having an extremely difficult time passing her real estate license exam. Although she had previously been an excellent student and adept at taking tests, since she had developed Wilson's Temperature Syndrome, she found it very difficult to study. She found herself reading the same page over and over and unable to remember what she had read. She had the opportunity to take the test only three times and had failed the exam on her first two attempts. With treatment, her body temperature was normalized with a gratifying resolution of her symptoms and she was once again able to retain what she read. She was happy to report that she had passed the third and final try without difficulty. It is staggering to wonder how many other people's test scores and lives are being affected by their body temperature patterns.

Typical Treatment Received By Medical Field
Let us now explore briefly how Wilson's Temperature Syndrome sufferers have been typically handled by medical doctors. They will usually come to the doctor complaining of their worst symptom or possibly a combination of the worst two symptoms (again, either being unaware that more symptoms are related or out of fear of being considered a hypochondriac). If they are not severe, but only bad enough to bring the patient to the office because he or she is not feeling well, they may be told that there is no need for alarm, that it may simply be a matter of getting older, and that they may need to learn to live with the symptoms. If the patient does recount enough of the symptoms or if they are severe enough, the doctor might order routine multichemistry blood tests. Such tests generally check for 24 to 26 blood chemistry values including sodium, potassium, glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, liver enzymes, kidney function tests, and others. With this screening, he may also order a complete blood count or CBC. The blood chemistry tests and CBC tests look primarily for evidence of any obvious abnormalities that could explain the patient's complaints, such as kidney impairment, liver derangement, anemia, leukemia, electrolyte abnormalities, diabetes, infection, and other possible explanations for the patient's complaints. Thyroid blood tests are frequently not tested on a screening (routine) basis. When they are tested, they are frequently normal, even in patients who are suffering from DTSF.

If the person's description of their own problem does not lead the doctor to think of any specific problem and if the blood tests show no significant abnormality, the physician will often conclude that there is nothing significantly wrong with the patient and that they should get more exercise, more sleep, start eating better, and stop certain bad habits, such as excessive alcohol consumption, or smoking. If the patient's complaints are specific enough and reminiscent enough of thyroid hormone deficiency, the physician may think to order thyroid blood tests. However, if these blood tests come back within normal limits, the physician will frequently incorrectly conclude that this necessarily means that the thyroid system is functioning adequately, and the patient might be given the same instructions as above.

If the symptoms are so severe and debilitating that the patient and doctor would consider the above advice to be obviously insufficient, if not ludicrous, and, if it appears to both the patient and the physician that there is definitely something seriously wrong; then the patient may be sent to a hospital, and/or multiple specialists in an attempt to isolate the problem. The patient may be referred from their family practitioner to an internal medicine specialist who may perform extensive blood tests looking for some other possible explanations for the complaints. Patients are often referred to neurologists, gastroenterologists, gynecologists, ENT (ear, nose and throat), infectious disease, endocrinologists, and psychiatrists. In some cases patients are given virtually every test in the book (brain scan, EEG, liver spleen scan, all manner of blood tests, thyroid scan, gall bladder scan, chest x-ray, upper GI, lower GI, etc.). Their bills can run in the tens of thousands of dollars in less than a month. At the end of all the tests and evaluations, there is often still no clear diagnosis. There is no treatment recommended and the patients are discharged from the hospital with all the currently known health problems being pretty well ruled out as causes of the symptoms. These evaluations aren't always confined to a one month period of time. It may take place over a period of many years in a lifelong search to feel well.

With careful history taking, physical exams and laboratory tests (to rule out other obvious causes), such patients can often be recognized as having classic presentations for Wilson's Temperature Syndrome. Although it is not extremely expensive, there is a test that is very useful in helping to predict the likelihood of such a patient responding favorably and quickly to normalization of body temperatures (with Wilson’s T3 Therapy and/or WTSmed Supplements). That test is body temperature measurements. Although the evaluation does not take weeks or tens of thousands of dollars, the findings can be more than enough to explain a long list of annoying and even debilitating complaints.