pulse checking

[mirelle]

Hi

I'm new to the forum and I have suffered health anxiety for about 4yrs now I do now feel after a long hard struggle I'm now beginning to deal with my symtoms but the thing i'm finding hardest to deal with is the fact i constantly check my pulse i like to make sure i have correct beats per minute and if i do find myself panicking i check my pulse and when i find my heart rates faster i panick even more.

Does anyone else do this or am i just obsessed this just drives me crazy

Any advise would be warmly welcome thankyou

mirelle

[nomorepanic]

Loads of posts on this.

It will however do you no good as the pulse changes every minute of the day so there is no point getting obsessed over it.

Read these

fast pulse (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=446)

Pulse Rate (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3177)

CONSTANT CHECKING (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4795)

Pulse Rate (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4048)

Slow pulse (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2078)


Nicola

[Two heads]

Hi mirelle!
I did this alot a few months back when my anxiety frist started.If you are hard on yourself you can stop this hun.Everytime you feel like checking your pulse try to do something to take your mind off it,even if its just truning the tele over!The more you do it the worse it gets hun.xxxxxxxxx

[mirelle]

Thanks for the advise i will try and focus on something else rather than check my pulse it will be hard i know but life with anxiety seems to be one long hard struggle.



mirelle

[Jo3016]

Hi

I do this a lot too. I am not so bad at the moment but at times, I become obsessed with it. I especially check it if I get anxious and so, obviously, it is fast. Then I get into a cycle where I keep checking it and worrying that it is too fast! It is definitely one of my worst symptoms of anxiety.

Jo Fitzgerald

[tgow]

Yes that's one of the things I used to do all the time and I still do it when I worry. I know it will be normal and the doctors have assured me I'm as healthy as an Ox but it's just a nervous habit that stuck from when I first got my anxiety problems [:O][Oops!]

[Phill2]

You're not alone.As soon as I feel a bit off I check my pulse and reach for the blood pressure monitor. Funny thing is they're always normal and I'm not doing it anywhere as much as before
Phill

Don't believe everything you think.

[lizmarshall]

i used to do this all the time and then i bought a wrist BP machine which also tells you what your pulse rate is, must admit havent used it for a while as i tried to break the habbit.

Liz

[jackie]

oh yes i do this even on my better days, just a hard habit to break i guess

jackie

[lin]

Hi Mirelle

I can relate to this i used to check my pulse all the time even when i was out it's just something i had to do. My anxiety was bad at the time and i think thats why i used to do it.

linda xx

[TraceyW]

Hi!

I'm always checking my pulse. I have a very visable bulge on my right wrist that is my pulse, so I do not even need to feel for it. I spend a lot of time staring at my wrist and counting the beats. I get missed beats and palpitations which makes me anxious which in turn raises my pulse. I bought an elctronic pulse reader which always gives a reading higher than it really is! Best bin that!!!;)

Tracey

[ruthb1]

hi mirelle,

i did check my pulse for ages as i was obsessed with it as, i had to check my parners all the time as he had suffered two heart attacks at a young age. when i started having anxiety and panic attacks i found myself doing this all the time, and then i was speaking to someone on a helpline and she told me that it was the worse thing that i could do and from then on i have hardly done it since. the reason you need to stop doing it is that you are re-inforcing the issue regarding your pulse and when i used to check mine, if it was too fast, i would check it about 4 times until i thought that it was slowing down a little, i was a like that also with blood pressure machines in chemists, now i wont go on them or when i go to the doctor i ask him not to tell me the reading as i know i would worry about it. its just little things that can start you on the road to recovery, its a hard thing to do at first as you dont beleive that there is nothing wrong with you but in time it does get easier.


take care

ruth

[tracylou]

hi just read ur msg and ad a chuckle as i thought i was the ony person who checked their pulse, tracylou.XX

[Breatheon]

Hi Mirelle

Sorry to hear you are suffering but been there and done that.

I also went through a phase of constant pulse checking so much that I would even make my wrist sore to the touch. However I have now stopped doing it and was helped a lot by the posts of the wonderful people on this website, which can be found at the following link.

Quiet pulse and loud pulse (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11201)

It had become so bad that I was even going to buy a blood pressure machine from Boots @ £90 so I am glad that I didn't do this.

You know reading these posts makes me wonder if anxiety can ever be cured. I have to think yes. Because I've been reading about the pulse checking again but I've had no desire to start checking my own again like I used to.

Of course, if I got 6 numbers on the lottery tonight then I WILL need to check my pulse I think!!!!!!

Take care and get well soon