nbutton93
07-09-21, 15:59
Following a couple of hospital trips for venesections where my blood pressure was elevated through anxiety, I bought a home blood pressure monitor to see what my real blood pressure was away from the hospital setting.
I freely admit that I have health anxiety and get very stressed over health related matters. I’m a 28 year old male, thin build (about 9st 5lbs), eat a relatively healthy diet and keep quite physically active through a lot of walking
.
Whenever I do a blood pressure reading on the monitor, the first reading I get is somewhere around 140/95 (not horrific, but far from ideal). I get quite tense because of my health anxiety which I can tell because my heart rate, which is normally 60-70 when sitting quickly shoots up to over 90 or 100. After a few readings, my BP will generally fall to around 120/90. Then if I sit with the monitor for a while and continue to take readings, it will eventually fall to somewhere around 115/85 (even getting as low as 98/72 once). Sometimes this will happen very quickly and sometimes it will take much longer, even perhaps taking 20 minutes or so. If I go away and do something else and then come back and take another reading, it starts high and I have to bring it down again in the same way.
So, what is my real blood pressure? Is it the lower reading because I’ve calmed down after initially feeling anxious, or is it the higher reading because that’s the one I got when I first take a measurement? I plan to discuss it with a GP, but would be grateful for advice on whether I genuinely have a blood pressure issue, or this is just part of my anxiety. Has anyone encountered a similar problem? I've noticed that as I've got more anxious the number has been steadily creeping up, now hitting 150/100 a couple of times, so I've banned myself from using the monitor.
For context: three years ago, before I developed anxiety, my blood pressure at the doctor's was 118/78 and I haven't changed weight or lifestyle significantly since then.
I freely admit that I have health anxiety and get very stressed over health related matters. I’m a 28 year old male, thin build (about 9st 5lbs), eat a relatively healthy diet and keep quite physically active through a lot of walking
.
Whenever I do a blood pressure reading on the monitor, the first reading I get is somewhere around 140/95 (not horrific, but far from ideal). I get quite tense because of my health anxiety which I can tell because my heart rate, which is normally 60-70 when sitting quickly shoots up to over 90 or 100. After a few readings, my BP will generally fall to around 120/90. Then if I sit with the monitor for a while and continue to take readings, it will eventually fall to somewhere around 115/85 (even getting as low as 98/72 once). Sometimes this will happen very quickly and sometimes it will take much longer, even perhaps taking 20 minutes or so. If I go away and do something else and then come back and take another reading, it starts high and I have to bring it down again in the same way.
So, what is my real blood pressure? Is it the lower reading because I’ve calmed down after initially feeling anxious, or is it the higher reading because that’s the one I got when I first take a measurement? I plan to discuss it with a GP, but would be grateful for advice on whether I genuinely have a blood pressure issue, or this is just part of my anxiety. Has anyone encountered a similar problem? I've noticed that as I've got more anxious the number has been steadily creeping up, now hitting 150/100 a couple of times, so I've banned myself from using the monitor.
For context: three years ago, before I developed anxiety, my blood pressure at the doctor's was 118/78 and I haven't changed weight or lifestyle significantly since then.