Your patients outlook is troubling. How can someone think supplemention Iodine will have no effect yet they think that there MAY be some chance the thyroid will heal on its own?

That makes no sense at all. Iodine is a crucial element needed for many bodily functions and even if direct supplementation of I does not reverse her hypo she has a much better chance of healing her thyroid if her body has the nutrients it needs.

Her road to healing is not just about giving the body the building blocks of hormones but giving the body the nutrients it needs to function but beyond that, nutrients which act as electron donors to the immune system and actually help with the detoxing process and strengthening of the immune system.

Lithium carbonate may destroy the thyroid, yes. It is usually taken for bipolar issues.
"The anti-thyroid effects of lithium carbonate are well documented [51, 77, 78]. The mechanisms by which lithium can cause hypothyroidism are complex. Lithium is concentrated by the thyroid gland and inhibits thyroidal Iodine uptake."

Iodine and lithium are antigonists, taking loads of Iodine without a little lithium could trigger an underlying bipolar or other psychological issues. Same as taking loads of lithium without supplementing Iodine could cause a full blown bipolar.

I actually suspect that the bipolar situation is a thyroid illness; have for some time;

"The association between thyroid functions and behavioural disturbances has been known for the last several hundred years. Although the effects of thyroid hormones on the developing brain were recognised long ago, recent advances in biotechnology have led to an improved understanding of the impact of thyroid functions on the adult, mature brain [1]. This development has been particularly helpful in elucidating the role of thyroid hormones in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders, especially mood disorders. The primary focus of interest has been on the connection between thyroid functions and depressive disorders. However, abnormalities of thyroid functions may also play an important role in the pathophysiology of bipolar affective disorder, but this area has received much less attention than it probably deserves."

"Hyperthyroidism or thyrotoxicosis is usually associated with symptoms such as anxiety, depression, mood lability, and insomnia in a majority of the patients. However, overt psychiatric disorder is rare and occurs in only about 10% of the patients [1, 5]. Manic episodes have been known to occur in patients with hyperthyroidism, but are quite unusual [9]. Occasionally, patients with late-onset mania are detected to have hyperthyroidism, which requires to be treated to achieve full recovery [10]. Nevertheless, patients who develop a true manic episode while thyrotoxic, frequently have an underlying mood disorder, or a family history of mood disorder [11, 12]. Manic episodes can also result from the relatively uncommon phenomenon of lithium carbonate-associated thyrotoxicosis [9, 13]. Lithium may induce thyrotoxicosis by several mechanisms including triggering of the autoimmune process with resultant thyroiditis, abnormal iodine kinetics, that is, overflow of thyroid hormone after expansion of the intrathyroid iodine pool, Jod-Basedow-like phenomenon, direct toxicity to thyroid follicles resulting in release of thyroglobulin, and coincidental Graves' disease and hyperthyroidism "
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC314...