First, here is a very long, exhaustive review of what depression is, and how it works. This lecture from Robert Sapolsky at Stanford University goes into great detail about how depression develops, what can trigger it, and what sustains a major depression. I could not recommend a better resource to learn about it. It’s an hour and a half long, but it is packed with useful information that completely changed how I see my own post-thyroidectomy depression and anxiety. I suspect that a lot of people on this sub will also have similar moments while watching this, where his explanations just \*click\*, and suddenly something you experienced makes a lot more sense.

I’d like to start a discussion on this sub about how thyroid cancer, thyroid removal, TSH suppression, and thyroid hormones all play a role in survivors’ experiences of depression. My hope is that \*maybe\* we could get the mods to put up a sticky thread for certain frequently discussed topics, or a wiki that has resources like this lecture that would be helpful to people trying to understand what they’re going through.

Finally, this is not a thread for uncouth people to barge in to dismiss depression as a “lack of willpower”. Watch the damn lecture. \*\*Depression is a physical illness with clear, \*physical symptoms\* that cannot be cured by just wanting to be happy or “thinking positively”.\*\* This is not up for debate, it is a medical reality.

Thyroid cancer can directly cause major depression before, during, and long after treatment. We should talk about it more.