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blood pressure phobia
Hello, I really hope someone can help me overcome my phobia. I tend to get extremely nervous when I have my blood pressure taken ( even at home). I don't know how to overcome this. I have come up with a theory and tell me if this makes sense. I feel if I cry, it relieves the stress rather than building up anxiety. It seems to me that crying would relieve the stress. If this is true, I am going to cry when I have to have my BP taken rather than stress out about it. Please e-mail me ASAP. I am really hurting inside. I appreciate your understanding about this irritational phobia. I would appreciate any advice to help me through this difficult time. Thank you so much. God Bless.
Yeah I myself am a man and see that Im the only man here commenting but I too have a blood pressure fear and it's becoming a phobia. Mine stem from when I was 19 and this girl was taking my bp and she ran off the room saying my reading was wrong (it was in fact not, but she was a newbie) I became real nervous that day before the dr came and corrected her and never was able to get over it. And I have a dr's appointment in a couple days! I wish it was already done with so I can keep going with my normal life. I am just going to ask the Dr. to see if there is anything that helps other than trying a BP machine at home.
OMG..I'm not alone! With so many patients experiencing "white coat syndrome" you'd think my doctor would be a little more knowledgeable about it. I too get the "oh my gosh, it's scary high" from the nurse and there's no going down after that, no matter how many times they take it. Even after taking in my monitor and it matching their scary numbers AND showing a log of readings from home that are semi/normal with the same machine, my doctor still acts like there's something wrong!
If I didn't need BP meds, I'd never go to the doctor!
If I didn't need BP meds, I'd never go to the doctor!
I too have a horrible phobia of taking my blood pressure. It started about 8 years ago when I went to the dr because my readings at home were a bit high and I wasnt feeling good. When the nurse checked it she said "OH MY! It is really high!" which it wasnt running THAT high at home (150/89) As soon as she said this my head felt like it was going to explode! I couldnt do anything and they had to take me to the hospital. I was doing fine after that day and my blood pressure came down to normal. Then they tortured me the day I was going to go home saying"The dr says if your blood pressure stays down, you can go home. But if it comes back up, you have to stay here" and continued checking it every 20 minutes. It continued to climb and was once again sky high (200/120)
I avoided all drs for years because of this and the fear of being sent off to the hospital again. This is not a good thing because I have high BP and a heart condition!
I blame the nurses for not keeping their mouths shut. They should know better than to exclaim "OH MY!" when they check your blood pressure.
Now I have a hard time even checking it at home. I have to completely ignore the cuff and machine and write calming bible verses out of Psalms while my BP is being checked. It takes me about 5 or 10 readings to be calm enough to get an accurate reading.
I feel so stupid because the actual taking the BP is not going to hurt or anything. Im just afraid of the readings and the "Oh my!" and the "We will recheck it in a few minutes" When rechecked it is even higher.
I have to go to the hospital in 6 days for a flexible sigmoidoscopy. I do not care about the procedure. I dont care if they stick that tube up my bum. Im petrified tho because they monitor your BP and Im going to be wide awake and not sedated, hence sky high readings. This is so irrational!
I avoided all drs for years because of this and the fear of being sent off to the hospital again. This is not a good thing because I have high BP and a heart condition!
I blame the nurses for not keeping their mouths shut. They should know better than to exclaim "OH MY!" when they check your blood pressure.
Now I have a hard time even checking it at home. I have to completely ignore the cuff and machine and write calming bible verses out of Psalms while my BP is being checked. It takes me about 5 or 10 readings to be calm enough to get an accurate reading.
I feel so stupid because the actual taking the BP is not going to hurt or anything. Im just afraid of the readings and the "Oh my!" and the "We will recheck it in a few minutes" When rechecked it is even higher.
I have to go to the hospital in 6 days for a flexible sigmoidoscopy. I do not care about the procedure. I dont care if they stick that tube up my bum. Im petrified tho because they monitor your BP and Im going to be wide awake and not sedated, hence sky high readings. This is so irrational!
1 Comments
Yes! Oh my goodness, yes. At home, when i'm calm, my bp floats around 110/65. Today at the dentist I got 196/110. The nurse says "oh my God, so high!" I spent 5 minutes calming myself down, got my hr down to 65, and tried again. The second the cuff begins to tighten my hr shot up to 125.
Well, I also thought I was alone. I will stop worrying about it, and stop taking it, and eat well and exercise. Let's all take a month off - no more Bps till after Christmas - then see how we feel after we deliberately stop stressing out.
I totally relate to how everyone feels here.....I can't even use my home monitor now! I'm actually the opposite to most people, I get freaked when I take it myself but when I'm at the doctors office & have it taken manually then it's a better reading....I think it's the digital monitor making me worse as I can see the numbers shooting up & even the sound gets me!...It's instinctive, as soon as that cuff goes on my arm & I press the start button my pulse quickens and I get high readings....I used to be able to take it myself and I would take 3 consecutive readings with a short break inbetween as instructed by my health professional...it would drop with each consectutive reading ....then when I developed the big fear I found it kept going up!!
I'm on 2 different bp tabs daily which I never miss taking....dunno what happened exactly but I went thru an intense period of anxiety & had a few panic attacks....then started to worry that it would affect my bp...hence when I would take it, it was higher....then I ended up in a&e with a back prob where the power in my legs went & they brought me to resuss thinking I was having a stroke!!! The readings were going thru the roof & seeing them wasn't helping....as soon as they realised it wasn't a stroke they got me out of there pronto as they knew it was just working me up...since then I can't even look at an electronic monitor!
So alas I am in a difficult situation because I can't take mine at home now and that makes me feel vulnerable as some days I worry a lot wanting to know what it is, but I can't keep turning up at the doctors office to have it checked or they will think I'm a complete hypochondriac!
I just try to remain positive and keep myself calm....my cardiologist told me on my last visit 2 months ago that I am fine & he is happy with my bp, that it's normal and also the bp meds I'm on are excellent & give me great coverage...he's actually on the same ones. He told me he only gets his checked now & again as it can become an obsession...yeah like I know! lol
Had it checked a week ago & it was fine at the surgery....have been doing ok and not panicking as much about it but if I get a headache or feel a bit iffy I start to think OMG what's my reading......just feel SO stuck not being able to take it myself.....just for the relief of seeing that it's ok like I used to get.....but I know there's no point now as it would only freak me out more....
I'm on 2 different bp tabs daily which I never miss taking....dunno what happened exactly but I went thru an intense period of anxiety & had a few panic attacks....then started to worry that it would affect my bp...hence when I would take it, it was higher....then I ended up in a&e with a back prob where the power in my legs went & they brought me to resuss thinking I was having a stroke!!! The readings were going thru the roof & seeing them wasn't helping....as soon as they realised it wasn't a stroke they got me out of there pronto as they knew it was just working me up...since then I can't even look at an electronic monitor!
So alas I am in a difficult situation because I can't take mine at home now and that makes me feel vulnerable as some days I worry a lot wanting to know what it is, but I can't keep turning up at the doctors office to have it checked or they will think I'm a complete hypochondriac!
I just try to remain positive and keep myself calm....my cardiologist told me on my last visit 2 months ago that I am fine & he is happy with my bp, that it's normal and also the bp meds I'm on are excellent & give me great coverage...he's actually on the same ones. He told me he only gets his checked now & again as it can become an obsession...yeah like I know! lol
Had it checked a week ago & it was fine at the surgery....have been doing ok and not panicking as much about it but if I get a headache or feel a bit iffy I start to think OMG what's my reading......just feel SO stuck not being able to take it myself.....just for the relief of seeing that it's ok like I used to get.....but I know there's no point now as it would only freak me out more....
Oh, can I empathise! I measured my BP this morning and it was 110/65. I thought I had overcome my phobia, and decided to go for the 24 hour monitor so that we could see how things really were. In the surgery, with the monitor fitted, what is the first reading? 180/105. I give up. I am a pragmatic, commonsensical person. And I am doing this lunatic thing. I give up.
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