Major Setback

[kivyt73]

Well, I had a major HA OCD setback today. I have been obsessing about my bp for a couple of years now after a few high readings at the docs office. That lead to obsessive checking which I had under fairly good control most of the time until the last few months. I have been experiencing "elevated" readings off and on for a couple of months. My average bp is 109/75 but I have been up in the 120s-130s/80s for the last couple of months. So today I went to the store to check and same thing could not get below 120/80 to save my life. Of course I MUST have 120/80 or below because that is what everything says is normal. Well I went to three different stores and could not get it lower so I did a bad thing....I bought a home monitor and have been checking for the last hour until I finally got 113/73. Now I don't know what to do, I am all worked up, my arm hurts and I don't know if I should keep the monitor and try to practice self control or return it or trash it our what. I have been getting more anxious at the stores lately so part of me says just keep the monitor (it can't get much worse than running all over town checking at different places) but I am afraid I will fall even farther off the wagon if I keep it.

Ughh! I hate this bp obsession.

Ivy

[potato11]

the funny thing is about blood pressure is that the more you worry about it, the more it goes up lol, like heart rates.. you worry.. so your fight/flight mechanism kicks in

the best thing you can do to help yourself is to stop checking. If you must check, once a month!

Instead, focus on what you CAN control about your health... healthy eating, exercise etc. Then you are doing something proactive about your health, it always helps your frame of mind.

Iv checked mine manually at home (im a student midwife) and its 110/70, last drs appt i went to it shot up to 140/95 - because i don't like being a patient haha

[kivyt73]

You are so right, that is the thing. I know I shouldn't check but the more I feel like I can't the more I want to...but then the higher it gets. Its a vicious cycle for sure. I took it until I got an acceptable number 113/73 and then I took the stupid machine back. I am going to try to get back on track, I do normally check once every three weeks or so and that was manageable.

You are right about focusing on the healthy things I can do which I was also thinking about today. I exercise every day and do yoga to try to de-stress and I eat healthy for the most part so I am doing good there.

I am just trying to think of it as a setback and these things happen and we get back on track...fingers crossed.

Ivy