What's wrong with me?

[HJam5880]

I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy with the holidays. I have a problem:

My blood pressure was 140/94 when I went to the doctor on December 12th. I had been going through a really stressful time at school and had a few headaches related to the high blood pressure. My BP has always been around 120/80 and has not strayed but just a couple of points in either direction usually, so for my BP to be 140/94, this was rare and concerning to me. The next day I was started on Buspirone and Sertraline. Since that day, I have been on winter break from school, had a great Christmas and New Years, and have been feeling less anxious. However, my BP is still at 135/85. I've been sleeping a lot (at least 12 hours a day sometimes more), which is very unlike me. This is possibly due to my depression worsening the last week or so also.The only reason I wake up when I do is because my mom comes and wakes me up. Of course I will mention this to my doctor at my next appointment. Does anyone have any suggestions until I see the doctor again?

Today has been so bad that I didn't wake up until almost noon, then laid on the couch in my pajamas all day, and I didn't have the energy to get up and take a shower and go to church tonight ( again, unlike me).

[NeuronerdDoaty]

The sleeping could be due to the medication. Enjoy it before they lighten the dose.

None of those BPs are stroke or heart attack range. You were hyped up. You may not have been resting well. Were you in pain? I don’t know how old you are but 135/85 is perfectly acceptable.

Despite what people think, blood pressure vary in an individual throughout the day, week and month. It’s been holidays and you’ve started new meds.

Can you stop checking except for every other or third day at the same time - not the morning. As an RN I don’t see the need but it might make you feel better. You’re well within normal limits.

Try to relax and take care.

Doaty💛

[HJam5880 in reply to NeuronerdDoaty]

Thank you for your comment. I just checked my BP this afternoon. That's the first time I've had it checked since December 12th. It's just unusual for it to be this high for me. I'm 21 years old. Yes the sleeping may be caused from the medication but the Sertraline would just now be starting to work since it's only been a couple of weeks and I'm on a 50mg pill and Im not sure if that's considered a big dose or not. I haven't seen any "good" effects from it which is why I was scared to take it in the first place, I was scared that it wouldn't work.

[NeuronerdDoaty in reply to HJam5880]

I’m not good at that type of medication given for anxiety since I’ve moved on from that type of practice. 15 years ago they would rarely give an antipsychotic for this issue. I do know you titrate up. I’m sure if you speak to your doctor you can get your dose balanced out.

I’m very glad you’re not constantly at the BP machine. That’s excellent.

[Hazrat]

Garlic can normalize Blood Pressure

[quitter333]

do you feel good?

my mom had high bp, and she normally feels fine (very active and easily tires, easily recuperates). doc gave bp lowering drugs and she started having strong dizzy spells and thus stopped using the drug.

.. so it REALLY depends how you feel overall. e.g. my normal pressure is very low 110/60 as i did lots of running and football for years. i feel hightened bp pretty sharply, have tired eyes, headache. (i.e. high resting bp. during physical activities high bp feels good).

if you feel fine you shouldn' t concern over data.

also depending on your age weight training or regular running, akiing would do wonders for you

edit: I do not advocate not following doctor's orders regarding drugs. Mom went to doc and informed she was feeling much worse because of them.

[Philjc]

Not sure if you're causing yourself more concern by connecting your BP to your sertraline usage.

I'm 51 no BP concerns, my sertraline use was because I felt that I was missing a chemical in my brain causing me to be stressed/depressed for unknown reasons.

If you find your are sleeping more then keep doing it, as long as you can, I felt as though I was resetting while sleeping I didn't miss going out or socialising because I promised myself that I will do that when the anxiety is gone.

[HJam5880 in reply to Philjc]

I was started on Buspirone and Sertraline because I had an increasing amount of anxiety and depression, not because of my Blood Pressure being high although it was the anxiety that was causing it to be high. I also know that the medicine has not caused it to go up any further but has brought it down a little, I just thought it shouldn't be this high still. The sleeping however has thrown off my entire sleep schedule. I didn't sleep at all last night but I slept from 6am-1pm today and, that's going to continue to mess tonight's sleep up probably. I can't sleep all day because my mom knows about my depression and anxiety but my stepfather doesn't and he expects me to do chores while they are at work, nothing big but usually a couple of things like washing dishes and sweeping the living room. Anyways, if I don't do these things while he is at work then I get fussed at. I don't want him finding out about my depression and anxiety so I have to wake up and do the chores for the day. I don't want him to find out because he acts like its no big deal and he tells everyone without asking me first and I don't appreciate that so he doesn't know a lot of what happens in my personal life since he told my last secret to his daughters while we were eating lunch once in a little restaurant in town. That's my business, I'm not even sure how he found out in the first place...anyways sorry to rant to you about that.

[Philjc]

I understand what you say about getting your sleep back on track, maybe a sedative at 10pm and set an alarm to get up at 7am no matter what.

I get what you said about people sharing your personal problems too, but with myself the sertraline have made it that I couldn't care less what people say to the point that I just put all my thoughts out there anyway. It's quite liberating as I find that they open up to me too.

You may find that your stepfather has his own demons also and that you have a lot more in common than you realize.

Try to do chores before being asked and you'll be surprised how effective the response, it becomes second nature eventually.

Finally, don't worry about having a rant on here, we don't judge, and you know it will help, so do we, so keep venting.

Hope things get better soon.

[HJam5880 in reply to Philjc]

I’ve been taking 5mg of melatonin about 10pm every night and I do actually have an alarm set for 7am that was my school alarm that I didn’t turn off, I’m on winter break right now. I try to get up at 7 but sometimes just the thought of getting up exhausts me. Right now I go to bed exhausted and wake up exhausted, especially when I don’t sleep well. I try to do the chores before being asked but it’s hard to get ahead on them right now...especially with me sleeping so long. I feel like the Buspirone has made me where I’m nonemotional, and it makes me not care that much what I say. However, I still don’t want people knowing my business, especially in today’s world where people are not as accepting as I would hoped they would be. The biggest regret I have about all of this is letting it all go on long enough that people were starting to notice the change in me because I couldn’t hide it as well as I had been. Thanks for listening, I’m just having a rough few days.