Blood pressure anxiety

[neon_skyline]

I'm 24 and am under investigation for my blood pressure. It fluctuates from 125/80 to 150/110 but I have had my kidneys and heart scanned and bloods taken, and as there are no problems with those and I'm young and trying to lose weight he has kept me off the meds.

However I also suffer really badly with health anxiety. I bought a home monitoring machine and check myself obsessively, to the point where I know I am making myself worse but can't stop.

I don't have to go back for 6 months, but every time I get a ready over 140/90 I get completely stressed. He said I don't need to worry yet, and that because of my good health and age he won't put me on meds until my BP is consistently higher.

I don't want to go on meds and want to break this cycle of anxiety and just get on with my life... Has anyone else suffered with their BP and managed to not get themselves so stressed and anxious about it?

[countrygirl]

With blood pressure the emphasis is on the consistently high rather than normal then up when stressed. If you have anxiety then the Dr will knock off about 10 points on your reading for white coat syndrome.

As you know the worst thing you can do is buy your own machine! Bit like constantly taking your pulse the more you do it the higher it goes.

If the Dr was at all worried he would not leave you 6 months - its a bad case of white coat syndrome - I have a gold star in this with my pulse- it can be totally normal and as soon as I walk in a surgery or a hospital it goes through the roof like over 140bpm and I always have a hard time convincing Drs that this is normal for me just let me out!!!!!!!!!!!

[daybyday]

I have a home monitor and have been known to take it several times a day. As soon as I get a calm feeling, just the thought of checking makes me nervous. That is the tough call, because anxiety people have higher readings because we are anxious and that raises blood pressure for the fight or flight mode. So really it is doing its job very well. It can be hard to know if I really have high blood pressure. I don't think I do though. My monitor is wrist and has this unnerving beeping that tells me how fast my heart rate is. Well, you all know what that does.
I actually have the monitor here by my computer and took several readings before I even saw this post. 120/86,116/83,115,83,126/83, The lower number tells the resting heart rate. Well:doh: I have anxiety, I don't rest well :)
My husbands is on the lower normal range. He worries, but doesn't catasrophize like me.

One day I intentionally watched something funny to get myself laughing. Took my reading and it was 117/76. Laughter is good medicine. Something I don't do enough.

[sezios]

I have been on 'mild' meds for BP for many years and have six monthly checks. I had it checked by GP three weeks ago and it was 140/100, he suspected 'white coat syndrome' as my pulse rate was 100 too. I was anxious at the time as I was due to take a flight and hate flying so I put the raised BP and pulse rate down to stress. However, this did not stop me going straight home and start taking my BP on a home monitor every hour. I got really scary readings at home, the highest being 167/113! Returned to GP next day, reading there 160/100 and I was given another low dose med to take with the other one. Just having this calmed me down (although I'm not ususally keen on taking drugs). I have made a decision NOT to keep taking BP on home monitor and try to do it only once or twice a week. It has gone down to around 135/90, and I am also trying to lose a bit of weight to help it!

My point is this (finally!!) - your BP is obviously not consistently high and readings of 125/80 are good, and even 140/90 is acceptable. I have been assured that high BP is only a problem if consistently high and unmonitored. Six months may seem like a long time between check ups but does show that you should not unduly worry about your BP. Please try to stop taking it on home monitor too often - (believe me I know this is hard to do especially for those us who suffer from health anxiety!) we do make it worse by doing this - stress definitely raises your BP.