My parents were elementary school teachers in the most formative years of their careers, years that happened to coincide with raising their children, and so they channeled that knowledge and understanding into how they raised us.

One of the things they always said, is that if a child doesn’t get enough positive attention, they will find attention some other way. A tantrum, doing something outrageous or simply just being annoying is often an attempt to get someone’s attention.

Last month, on the Friday night of St. Patrick’s Day weekend, I arrived home in a good mood, excited about Saturday’s row and to see my husband who had been out of town on business most of the week. I walked in the door and #1 dog, 55-pound Bleu, started to bark and jump, extremely hyper and annoying. #2 dog Zora got worked up and ended up peeing down the hall (her most disturbing attribute and kinda outrageous), making a mess. Husband walked in to the mix and started passionately cussing about Zora’s problem peeing. How he was processing his frustration reminded me of the teenagers I work with daily–and how I find this one of his most annoying habits.

Annoying. All I wanted to do is turn around and walk out the door. But instead I cleaned up the mess and started calming myself down, so in turn I could give and receive some of that positive attention everyone was craving.

I’m starting to recognize that my hypothyroidism caused by Hashimoto’s disease, with it’s brutal fatigue, was my body’s way of saying “hold up”, your life is a bit out of whack. I wanted to be able to take my little Levothyroxine pill and slide back in to my old shenanigans and energy level–without doing any self-reflection or making any changes to my lifestyle. I thought my body just wanted a quick fix of attention and that I would only have to make some temporary adjustments. However, I’m realizing that this may have been a little short sighted of me.

My world has been needing some attention and finding my own ‘right’ balance is going to take some time and effort.

No quick fixes here.