BP Checking

[kivyt73]

Hi Everyone,
As some of you know I have a huge obsession with my bp and want to check it all the time. Of course I don't have high bp, I just had a few "high" readings at the docs office almost 4 years ago now and haven't been able to shake the obsession. I have been checking it every three weeks for the past couple of years and my average is 110/75 (and that is with anxiety) so I logically know that is great. I am 39 years old by the way so I am not super young. It just seems that I have associated anxiety with bp and every time I am anxious, I believe my bp will be elevated and I want to check it to make sure. Everyone I know, including my doctor and my therapist tell me to stop checking and I finally have realized that this has nothing to do with my bp and is just a manifestation of my anxiety. So, I am not checking anymore.....today will be the first time I have gone past three weeks without checking so I am getting a little nervous. It is like my mind argues with itself and it says "your bp is not only fine but it is low you don't need to check" and then it says "but if you don't check how can you be sure, so then I think I am being neglectful of my health" then I think but you have checked it regularly for almost 4 years, that should be enough to "prove" that it isn't high.

I just need some reassurance that I am doing the right thing and that I can do this.

Thanks,
Ivy

[tanpixie]

wow for a second I thought I posted this!
I'm terrible when it comes to checking my BP.
Mine started during pregnancy when I read that high BP was bad for you. Guess what happened - after taking it 4 times a day for 2 months I started developing HB.
Then after pregnancy I threw it out because it became an obsession - I'd take it about 10 times a day, then I recently went for a post partum check up and guess what!? It was low - so what did i do - went straight to Walmart and bought another one - obsessively checking it about 4 times a day again. This is day 3 of not checking and my anxiety about it is debilitating.
My internal dialogue goes like this,
"just take it, just once.'
'No don't take it, it will only make it worse.'
"but if we take it at least we'll no if we are ok, qhat if it's to low - then we should call the DR."
"Who cares if it's to low, BP changes every second - don't take it."
At this point I have the monitor on my arm.
"If you take it something bad will happen to you!"
"why would you say that?" etc etc.
Seriously throw it away but feel really good that you didnt take it that much - BP does change everyday every second - just eat healthy drink water and know you're the perfect picture of wonderful BP - because you are!
110/75 is text book perfect - which by the way I am also!!

[kivyt73]

Hey Tanpixie,
Yep that train of thought is so similar and the level of anxiety I have felt over this has been just as debilitating. It really sucks. I have been at the point you are taking it 30 times a day several days a week just looking for that magic number which for me is under 115/75 and not a point higher. It just got to the point where I felt like a drug addict with that machine strapped to my arm in the basement when my family was upstairs having dinner. I just knew I had to stop. I feel better this time around, because the difference is I really do know that I don't have hbp. Before this whole episode I was getting 90s/50s and googling low blood pressure. What are your "low" numbers like?

Ivy:)

[tanpixie]

haha that's so funny, I would do the same - sneak and take it in the bathroom, run the taps, pretend to have a shower. My partner finally realised what I was up to so i had to do it when he wasn't around, which yep made me feel like a drug addict and i'd take it once but then take it again straight after.
My BP got up to 140/100 whilst pregnant whilst taking it ... I was driving myself crazy.

My lowest BP was 88/48 - that's the pressure that prompted me to buy another BP monitor after I threw the old one out and now my source of anxiety.

It's never gotten that low again, in fact it's on the higher end, which ironically I prefer!

The highest it is now is 115/83 which I'm totally happy with - normally it runs the same as yours.

so bizarre .. I really dislike having anxiety.

[vinnievince]

Hi,
Just want to point out that I have the same problem, my anxiety come from my heart and the fear of having a heart attack.

Everything start back in 2010 when the panic disorder hit me again after several years without having any panic attacks at all. I start taking my blood pressure at first when I was out of the house, I was saying to my friend that I had to stop at the drugstore to buy things and the first thing I was doing there was to take my blood pressure on the big machine they have there... of course with the anxiety and panic my blood pressure was always high, I remember back then it was around 150/90 because I was out of the house and very anxious about having a panic attack....took it everyday for almost 6 months in 2010 at the drugstore...

In 2011 things got worse and I buy a blood pressure machine for the home...and then I start taking it more than 30 times a day really, even if the Therapist I had at the time was saying to me to stop, of course I never stop taking it...

In 2011 things got worse for me, I start having chronic weirds symptoms, constipation at first and then intestinal pain, bloating, I loose more than 60 pounds without trying to loose weight and my blood pressure start going crazy, I had a panic attack in my car, was not driving and it was on the highway and I faint and then I start being more and more obsess with the blood pressure and start having low blood pressure reading even when I was anxious, who increase my anxiety futher more...

Right now it's horrible how I feel. Dont even need to take my blood pressure to know how low it is. I have low blood pressure with orthostatic hypotension, feel dizzy, always have that bad headache related to the low blood pressure, have dilated veins everywhere and of course I continue to take my blood pressure at least 10 times a day...

I saw a Cardiologist, had all the heart tests like a 24 h holter monitor, 2 weeks with a events monitor, stress-test on a treadmill with an EKG, several trip to the emergency with blood tests and EKG...nothing seem to be wrong with my heart BUT I continue to feel very anxious. Chronic chest pain also start in 2011 who worse the anxiety and make me more anxious. Right now I have no life at all, everything I do is related to my heart and how I feel... Dont go out of the house cause I can't be in a car anymore especially on the highway, didnt drive since october 2010, I can't stay out under the sun cause the hot weather make my heart race too fast, I can't even enjoy having friends at home cause I always think about my heart...

I feel trap...really... I try to stop taking my blood pressure but it's seem that I can't for now. I'm on a little dose of beta-blocker to reduce the speed of my heart but I think it may be why I have low blood pressure now with reading of 100/50-55 who is not my normal, I was at 130/80 in the past, before 2009...now it's too low for me...

Anyway, need to see another Therapist soon cause I will become crazy... the heart is the number one problem but I have many others symptoms who make me anxious as well and I know I will not be able to recover and put order in my problems alone, I need help, but it's expensive and I dont work and can't have a free Therapist...

Well well, if you find a solution and know what to do to stop that madness you can write it...maybe it will help me ;-)

Thanks and I do hope you will feel better soon ;-)

[Mr Brownstone]

I have slightly high BP, but when I go to my docs she generally says "come back in 6 months". from that, I take it, that even if your blood pressure does go high, its only a problem if its for long periods of time. Taking it once every 6 months should be enough.

[kivyt73]

Hey Vinnie,
Sorry to hear about all of your troubles with bp. I do know how you feel, like I mentioned in my post I used to google low blood pressure and still can get 90s/60s fairly often but I can also swing the other way although I never really go above the 120s/80s. I still haven't checked and its been 23 days the longest I have gone in almost 4 years. I felt kind of anxious a little while ago I think because I am alone but I know logically that I don't need to check it, that it is fine and that I can trust my doctor to manage it. I think what you have to realize is that it is the anxiety that is the problem, not the bp. Once you figure that out it gets easier. I don't even want to check really right now, in fact I can't imagine sitting down at that machine but that voice in my head does try to mess with me and say "you are going to regret this, your bp will be high at the next docs visit because you haven't desensitized yourself to taking it" but then I think well, what is the worst thing that can happen, it might be slightly high at the docs office and I will just have to check it again later to make sure it goes down...so what. And even more than that some day I may get high bp, well again so what, it is treatable. Low bp is really not a problem if you don't have symptoms and you can improve it by eating something salty or drinking water.

I think you are ok.

Ivy:)