kef300
23-07-13, 21:33
Sorry for the long post but I was hoping someone could give me some guidance.
At the end of 2011, on a random september day, I felt like I was fainting, and my anxiety problems started. I was diagnosed with anxiety and put on lorazepam. I told my psychiatrist I was afraid of benzos so he switched me to Lexapro, an SSRI, which I took for more than a year, until last May when I took the last dose (I gradually reduced dosage).
I feel my anxiety had always been due to health anxiety, even though I've been healthy my whole life, I felt there was probably something wrong with my heart, sometimes I thought it could be the brain.
I felt like me again while on Lexapro, and felt safe to come off it.
I was fine afterwards, having occasional bouts of anxiety but managing to cope. On a random day, I took my blood pressure, for no reason, with a home monitor, and it was 144/85. I was so scared I went to the pharmacy, so that I could have it taken by a nurse there, and it had gone up to 160/90.
Over the next days, I kept monitoring it, while drinking coconut water (heard diuretics help) and flaxseed "juice". Over a few weeks my blood pressure dropped slowly, until one day it measured 120/78. That day I stopped worrying and stopped taking my blood pressure.
I took it again last friday and it was in the 144/90. Went to the pharmacy and it was 144/70. I decided to go see a doctor, who suggested I take a hemogram, a blood cholesterol test and a urine test. I had those tests done on last Saturday and went to see my doctor immediately. She made me wait a while in the waiting room, which made me pretty nervous. Finally we sat down and she showed me my results. Everything was great, in fact, my cholesterol was slightly lower than the minimum. However, she took my blood pressure after that and it was 180/110. I felt like I could faint as soon as I heard that and got extremely worried. Never had I been able to measure my blood pressure that high. The highest I had seen was 160/90 before that.
She told me to calm down and handed me some blood pressure pills. She also asked me to get a 24 hour Holter. She gave me a recipe for Xanax, which made me sad, since I want to stay off pills. However, she says it seems my emotions are making my blood pressure shoot up. Just before I left, she took my blood pressure again and it had dropped to 160/85. After seeing that, she said that maybe I shouldn't take the blood pressure pills just yet, as it seems my hypertension might be anxiety related.
As a side note, I've been very depressed and without motivation about my job and had lots of doubts about my career choice (Civil Engineering).
The point of all of this is that my anxiety has come back due to my high blood pressure. I keep worrying that there might be something wrong with me, or that a spike in blood pressure could lead to a stroke or something like that. My blood pressure yesterday was 138/84. Today after waking up it was 144/88. I've been getting stressed out about my blood pressure too much.
I'm fairly skinny, at least average weight (28 years old, 1.82 meters tall (roughly 6') and weigh 80 kg). We have a treadmill at home which I occasionally use lightly.
Any tips on how to deal with this?
At the end of 2011, on a random september day, I felt like I was fainting, and my anxiety problems started. I was diagnosed with anxiety and put on lorazepam. I told my psychiatrist I was afraid of benzos so he switched me to Lexapro, an SSRI, which I took for more than a year, until last May when I took the last dose (I gradually reduced dosage).
I feel my anxiety had always been due to health anxiety, even though I've been healthy my whole life, I felt there was probably something wrong with my heart, sometimes I thought it could be the brain.
I felt like me again while on Lexapro, and felt safe to come off it.
I was fine afterwards, having occasional bouts of anxiety but managing to cope. On a random day, I took my blood pressure, for no reason, with a home monitor, and it was 144/85. I was so scared I went to the pharmacy, so that I could have it taken by a nurse there, and it had gone up to 160/90.
Over the next days, I kept monitoring it, while drinking coconut water (heard diuretics help) and flaxseed "juice". Over a few weeks my blood pressure dropped slowly, until one day it measured 120/78. That day I stopped worrying and stopped taking my blood pressure.
I took it again last friday and it was in the 144/90. Went to the pharmacy and it was 144/70. I decided to go see a doctor, who suggested I take a hemogram, a blood cholesterol test and a urine test. I had those tests done on last Saturday and went to see my doctor immediately. She made me wait a while in the waiting room, which made me pretty nervous. Finally we sat down and she showed me my results. Everything was great, in fact, my cholesterol was slightly lower than the minimum. However, she took my blood pressure after that and it was 180/110. I felt like I could faint as soon as I heard that and got extremely worried. Never had I been able to measure my blood pressure that high. The highest I had seen was 160/90 before that.
She told me to calm down and handed me some blood pressure pills. She also asked me to get a 24 hour Holter. She gave me a recipe for Xanax, which made me sad, since I want to stay off pills. However, she says it seems my emotions are making my blood pressure shoot up. Just before I left, she took my blood pressure again and it had dropped to 160/85. After seeing that, she said that maybe I shouldn't take the blood pressure pills just yet, as it seems my hypertension might be anxiety related.
As a side note, I've been very depressed and without motivation about my job and had lots of doubts about my career choice (Civil Engineering).
The point of all of this is that my anxiety has come back due to my high blood pressure. I keep worrying that there might be something wrong with me, or that a spike in blood pressure could lead to a stroke or something like that. My blood pressure yesterday was 138/84. Today after waking up it was 144/88. I've been getting stressed out about my blood pressure too much.
I'm fairly skinny, at least average weight (28 years old, 1.82 meters tall (roughly 6') and weigh 80 kg). We have a treadmill at home which I occasionally use lightly.
Any tips on how to deal with this?