High blood pressure anxiety

[swajj]

Well you are right about many people experiencing high blood pressure due to their anxiety. I would be guided by your doctor. If he thinks your BP is only high in his office and doesn't think you need meds then he is the expert.

[gothic_rose]

if I may add.....

I have had pre eclampsia twice... so have had meds before for high blood pressure, even though it was a temporary condition... when my bp was under control, I was weaned off.

Now because I have anxiety/panic disorder/Health anxiety whatever you want to call it.... I have "white coat syndrome"... so I ony have to look at a dr or a BP machine and the damn thing shoots up!

My anxiety makes my BP very high... during one panic attack in hospital it registered at 150 over 110... were the drs worried no... cos they knew I had anxiety (as did I) was in the middle of a full blown attack so they checked it every 10 mins and within 20 mins was 119 over 70. Perfect.

every time I have had my BP checked for whatever reason I tell the dr first I have anxiety, its gonna be high. Sure enough it is. They chat to me for 5 mins, tell me to shut my eyes, check it again and lo and behold its normal. a dr once told me its standered practise to check a few times if the initial reading is high to allow for things to settle down. if 3 consecutive readings are all abnormally high then yes they may talk about meds but if every reading is lower then the last then I doubt it will be mentioned. perhaps at your medical explain you have anxiety and ask to be tested a cpl of times and once the dr realises its your anxiety causing a high reading Im sure they will be very reassuring

[Weasley123]

Ok thank u. I don't waht to monitor at home because it triggers my checking obsession. But at home other then one major panic. I generally had the readings drop significantly often by 20 points. I'd go from 160 over 81 to 120 over 80 on 3 to 5 minutes. My problem is I was never satisfied I'd check again and again so I chucked monitor

---------- Post added at 15:07 ---------- Previous post was at 15:03 ----------

Another thing I don't have heart phobia. Im more cancer phobic. My high bp is fear in general of docs

[Joystick]

I have a fear of BP being taken, always high at the surgery - so the practice nurse gave me a BP machine to take home for a week and also talked me into taking calcium channel blockers. I took my BP for the week first, hating doing it every time (I have a fear of the machine never mind the doctor/nurse) - then started on the CCBs. My readings averaged out at 152/87. Two weeks later I stopped the medication as it felt as if nothing was happening in my body - a weird feeling - and my digestion came to a complete halt – nothing moving at all. I went back to the surgery and told the nurse I would not take any more. At the same time she had the BP calculator up on the screen (the one they put your readings into to calculate your risk) and I noticed that there was a higher reading in there than I had ever had, so that was a mistake. She altered it and then agreed that my BP was just below the level where they would normally call me in to discuss it, so I decided I would concentrate on diet and exercise and we left it at that. Then covid-19 happened and I heard nothing from the surgery until last week when they asked me to have a BP monitor again. I had also bought a basic one from Boots and in August tested my own BP for 3 days - readings were 130 something over 70 something. Of course, with the surgery machine the fear came back and the readings were higher. Nevertheless, I kept a record and averaged the readings out over 7 days and the result was 144/80. I have lost a stone and follow a Mediterranean style diet - lots of 5:2 recipes etc. I also walk every day. I was disappointed when the surgery rang tonight and said that although there had been a 'slight' improvement in my readings they wanted to set up a telephone conversation with the nurse to discuss medication. At 144/80. Is that really so high for someone over 60?

My plan is now to follow the Fast 800 (Michael Mosley) for a couple of weeks and ensure that my exercise, already regular, is adequate and then continue with a Mediterranean style diet. I can't do any more except look into supplements, I suppose. However, I feel pressured into considering medication even though I don't really feel my BP is overly high. I have been told that the lower figure is more important and at 80 that would seem to be normal. It doesn't help that I have a trapped nerve in the neck (courtesy of my chiro) which makes my left arm ache and some of the fingers in my left hand tingle sometimes and occasionally makes my left jaw ache.

I noticed Cathy V, in another thread, say that she was OK with her reading of 145/83 - so can I breathe easy do you think?

Thank you for reading.