Medical Anxiety

[guynfl2chat]

I have been more anxious over the past few months and my BP shows it. I went to my primary and all the blood tests were fine, but my BP was high in the office. I also see a cardiologist for some minor heart issues and I cant seem to control my BP in her office either. At home its relatively normal but sometimes does spike. I am sick of getting this white coat syndrome and have worked through it before and I have been successful. All the doctors want to do is increase my BP medication and that helps for a short time but them I have an "episode" and cant control my BP. Does anyone else suffer with this and its almost embarassing to the point that I cant calm down even though I am in a safe place and both doctors do understand but they want the number lower?

[Agora1]

What is it about doctors that scare us and our furry friends??The plea for help in the eyes of our pets is heartbreaking...

As humans, we go into an unnatural breathing and thought

pattern that allow the adrenaline to rise making the numbers rise

as well on our b/p.

What if (I don't like using that context) we use Meditation while in the

waiting room. Even for 5-10 min, it can effectively calm down our body.

Nothing is worse than rushing to an appointment, walking from the car to

the office feeling anticipational anxiety the whole time. Then within moments

we are suppose to switch gears and first thing they do is b/p. But you're not

ready mentally yet...

What has worked for me is to do my breathing on the way there while driving.

Leave a little earlier so you have time to wait in the office. Check in, put on your

headphones and Meditate/Breathe. That short time should help enough to put

your numbers in perspective when the nurse takes your vitals.

After all, we're human and we can't help fearing the unexpected news that we might

get putting us in a "fight or flight" state.

Once we realize everything is alright, we literally skip out of the office mentally which

makes our body follow suit. xx

[designguy]

I tell the doctors I have white coat syndrome and bring with me my BP numbers from home and tell them to put those in the record too.

[guynfl2chat in reply to designguy]

I do that as well!

[CL3V3R-G1RL]

Agora 1 and designguy have silver pretty good ideas 💡

I also think you should tell the tech/nurse who's about to take your vitals that you have white coat syndrome or explain you have bad anxiety and to give you a minute to compose yourself. Take some calmly deep breaths. Then once you feel okay, tell them take the BP.

I know it's hard cause doctors are so stubborn about numbers being perfect and totally forget about other things, like anxiety and stress can cause some numbers to fluctuate. Doesn't mean you are not taking good care of yourself. You're on a healthy diet and working out. It's just your sensitive person. My mom when she gets mad/ annoyed her BP goes up. Doctor tells her, her BP is up and shes like yeah cause I been stuck in your office for 3hrs and I'm just finally getting seen cause your double booked 😂

[guynfl2chat in reply to CL3V3R-G1RL]

Thank you. They sometimes love to hook up me up to EKG is still elevated and that adds to my anxiety but everything comes out OK.

It's just a process and I do have high bp so I take meds.