High blood pressure anxiety

[Weasley123]

I'm 39 female on low dose birth cibtrol pills. All my life I had low blood pressure
90/70. Then ha began. Three years ago I went to a screening 129/87. Panicked. Nurse not concerned. I bougta home monitor I'd get panicked take it sky high 5 min late normal. Eventually I got normal readings in the 120s over 80s and forgot my terror. In the interim I went to the ob/gym. I mentioned my anxiety to the nurse who took my bp I don't know what it was but it just gave been normal as they renewed my scrip. This was a year and a half ago. Last year I for no reason dug out my monitor took my bp and got a high reading. Got obsessed. I'd get high readings theb low. I took it constantly I brought it to work. I ranged from as high as 150/85 to as low was 111/82. I checked non stop. One day the readings where all high and I was panicking and I smashed the monitor. In the year since I have not checked not once. I have no heart symptoms I exercise by walking and biking. I'm active. I'm still terrified of bp machines though. Just seeing them in the store I feel ill. I don't really think I have high bp I think I have anxiety. But I know when I go back to the dr to get my bcp renewed my bp will be ski high. My last reading was in the 150s. I know it will be fear but will the dr believe me. I don't have to go until January and I'm already worried and invisioning readings of 180. I'm sure a 24 hr monitor would be useless as I'm perfectly capable of being terrified for 24 hrs. I am not going to take meds as I'm sure it's anxiety. But I have no way of relaxing when it's taken due to fear of the machine health anxiety and fear of docs. Yet in my day to day life I'm fine. Has anyone dealt with this what did u tell dr

[choccychompa]

I think the top number can go up with anxiety. The bottom number is more an indicator of high bp. I might be wrong, but I have had a high top number when anxious.

[Weasley123]

Mine has jumped all over usually the bottom number was ok sometimes high. It's been over 90 but usually the top was the bad 1

[Weasley123]

Is there anyone else whose has this issue what did you tell the dr

[swajj]

Well maybe you should stop being afraid of having high blood pressure...

It's not a death sentence and there are millions of people with high blood pressure who live long lives. There was a time when that wasn't the case. So you are lucky because even if you do have high blood pressure it can easily be brought under control with medication.

---------- Post added at 19:21 ---------- Previous post was at 19:16 ----------

To answer your question:

Yes me. I experienced high blood pressure because of my anxiety. I didn't want to go on meds either but I knew that uncontrolled high blood pressure was dangerous so I did. I was always worriying about my blood pressure being up and I figured that all the worrying about it being up might be keeping it up. It was just simpler to go on the meds. Furthermore, once the anxiety is under control it is possible to come off the meds.

[Weasley123]

I'm definitely not comfortable going on meds for what I'm
Nearly positive is transient anxiety induced hbp.st home is gr a high reading 5 min later normal. At dr it's high cause I'm scared and won't come down. Granted I haven't checking in a year. For me checking leads to obsession abs it rises so I don't think it's traditional hbp but I know self checking will lead to obsessing and that 24 hr won't be accurate. I have had normal readings. I'm also not overweight no family history etc. I guess the answer is just to refuse the meds if dr. Suggestsfor now
I just know it will be high at the dr. I break out in a cold sweat there and cab feel it rise. This may have been stupid ?

[swajj]

Well clearly you are worrying about it otherwise you wouldn't have started the thread. I'm not sure what you want people to say. "It's just anxiety so don't take the meds". No responsible person is going to give you that advice if your doctor recommends meds.

[Weasley123]

Well he hasn't but my concern is he won't realize it's anxiety. I lookncal during panic attacks. But I know I'm panicking and I know my bp goes up from panic and I don't think I'm the only one. But I've also seen it go down. I really think it's anxiety perhaps I'm wrong but I think there are others on here with anxiety induced bp and checking obsession. Perhaps I'm wrong. I' had already decided no meds. I guess I was looking for info on anxiety induced high bp which is what I'm sure I have

[Brian_VA]

About 6 months ago went to the Dr for something and my bp was little high, 150/90. Thry took it 3 more times and it was between 140/85 - 150/90. The Dr had me monitor mine at home for 2 weeks. It was much lower at home. Usually around 130/80. My Dr was happy with those numbers. He wants it to stay under 140/90. Also said it would have to be consistently high to be put on meds.
I had blood pressure worries for years leading up to that appointment due to a slightly high reading about 6 or 7 years ago. My Dr told me my high readings at the office are most likely due to anxiety of the appointment itself. When I was taking my BP at home I would relax for 5 min, feet flat on the floor and sitting comfortably.

[Weasley123]

There's also the fact that I dint want to be taken off my bcp which they won't give if u have job I taje it to manage really bad periods which are anxiety inducing in themselves flooding clots etc. but if I have to go off then I'll deal.

[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.