does anyone have any advice on how to overcome white coat syndrome or a bad fear/phobia of the doctors, or bad anxiety in general
i’m 21F and for as long as i can remember i have been afraid of the doctors, and what once was a small fear as a kid turned into a full on phobia and every time i go into the doctors i have very bad anxiety, and my blood pressure rises so much. (side note: ive already been diagnosed with high blood pressure a long time ago, high BP runs on both sides of my family and my dad and both my brothers also have it, and i have been receiving treatment, i have had lots of blood & urie tests and have had an echocardiogram and all results are normal)
i went to a doctors appointment today (of course anxious out of my mind, shaking, nearly crying, and heart racing) and they checked my blood pressure and it was significantly high, somewhere like 160/80 which is not what it usually is ever unless ofc im anxious, they tried so many ways to calm me down but tbh none of it helped, in fact it kinda made it me feel worse, it’s like they’re freaking out abt how high it is, so now i’m freaking out sorta thing. the nurse even left the room and let me read a book and i started to feel better but got anxious as soon as she came back into the room.
i came home, relaxed a bit, did some breathing exercises, talked to my mom, watched my favorite youtuber, ate some food, waited an hour and took my BP again and it was 118/69, Usually my bp is around this level.….WAYY lower than it was at the doctors office, i even took it a second time and it was still normal
i have no idea why i have this fear or where it came from but the doctors office isn’t the only place i feel anxiety. i feel it before phone calls, meetings, and appointments in general (medical or non medical) and it’s really bad and genuinely no breathing experience or anything ever works to calm me down because that doesn’t take away from the reality that im there.
does anyone have advice on how to deal with this? or if anyone could share their experiences too! i’ll take anything!
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celestw
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I am WAY, WAY older than you are, but I have had Severe Anxiety re. blood pressure taking esp. at the doctor's office. I take a couple of meds. for high blood p., and High B/P runs in my family. I have had my B/P Very high in the doctor's off., and when I take it at home, it's usually fine. Have Anxiety, in general, not only at doctor's off. While you are still young, you have the chance now to overcome these issues so that it won't get worse in later years. Perhaps, going to a doctor, or place where they do alternative methods, or a blood pressure clinic where you can Talk to staff about your fears, or a meditation retreat, etc. Just suggestions. You are Not alone, by the way, with these medical fears --I have read several articles on my phone re. these medical fears esp. the one re. taking B/P in a doctor's office!
thank you for sharing your story! i really want to overcome my issues but i have no idea how, no matter how much i try to calm myself down at the doctors im always antsy and anxious
I hope that you can talk to your current doctor about your fears, perhaps she, or he can help you, or refer you to a therapist that deals with Anxiety. There are all kinds of methods that therapists use to help with anxiety issues like CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) ,Exposure & Response Therapy, Talk Therapy, etc. The hard part is practicing these methods --I, can manage my anxiety better than I used to, but still have trouble with the Blood P. issues in the doctor's office! Knowing what caused your fears may be helpful, but that's not enough. How to deal with these fears is not easy, but there is help out there. A good book to read re. Anxiety, & Fears is: Hope & Help for your Nerves by Dr. Claire Weekes. This book has been mentioned many times by others on HU, and it's one of the best books that I have read on dealing with Anxiety.
I am sure my story will help you relax a little. I am 60M and son of a very anxious mother (RIP). Anxiety is my best friend since childhood.
In 2009 "by chance" on a routine check up they found my BP on the higher side. Another couple of visits, high BP readings and I was started on medication. Eversince then it is within normal range or a little up (like 132/85) when I take it at home. However, on routine clinic follow ups it is way high (whatever method they use to calm me) and doctor tries to add or change medicine.
Now the most interesting part, I am a medical doctor and teach at a medical school too! My GP and most of residents, nurses, support staff even pharmacists are my students. As a doctor my solution is this that I use my home readings to adjust my dosages and it works well. My GP is always "reminding" me politely that the textbook and AHA advice is to follow clinic readings if high on multiple visits.
My suggestion for you, take a chart of multiple (20 or more) home readings taken at the same time of day (preferably morning) with u when u go for a follow up. In my opinion ur BP at home is nicely controlled. You have to live with white coat anxiety, it is there to stay (I agree with the Weatherwoman points, these things help especially deep breathing).
Ending on a lighter note...when i asked my GP if "I am afraid of myself?"...his answer was "No sir, you are afraid of ur wife" (she is a doctor too!) therefore "exposure to trigger" .... getting a doctor as ur partner won't help either. Goodluck
thank you for the reply! and that’s a great idea to come in with 20 or more bp readings so my doctor can see those too hopefully i get this anxiety under control but it feels nice knowing im not alone!
Abadar, thank you so much for sharing this response to the post. Appreciate you as a physician and educator in the medical field to share your anxiety experience. Just comforting to hear that it’s ok to have anxiety disorders and even physicians deal with it. 🙏🏻
Thank you for the reply. Oh yes; the proportion of GAD and other related conditions is higher (than general population) in medical professionals. Even more in nurses and surgeons within the profession. We try to help each other and mostly have our quick support networks within our profession. The pandemic increased both the incidence and prevalence. I hope now celestw knows that she is not alone in this...
You’re welcome. Thank you for your honesty and sharing this. So comforting. And I’m sure Celestw feels the support. Lifting all those with anxiety and mental health struggles in comfort and strength. 🙏🏻
Ha ha --You gave me a laugh re. your "Trigger!" Thanks for your suggestions re. taking B/P at home several times. My B/P has been high many times at my doctor's office so I do know that I do have high B/P pressure. "White Coat Syndrome" could indicate a Very Anxious Person whose blood pressure does go up (sometimes, way up) when under any kind of stress & therefore the Anxiety, in general, should be treated. If I had had treatment for my Anxiety Years ago, I don't believe I would have developed High Blood P., or other health issues I now have. That is why I recommend getting help when you are young! By the way, my Mom was a Very Anxious Mother --was Anxious All her life, and bless her she did live till 103, it must have been in her Genes cuz she & my Grandmother were "Nervous Nellies!"
Thank you for the nice message. This genetic transfer of anxiety is the most accepted etiology. As a scientist I feel anxiety gene is a dominant one and if even one parent has it, then it is shown in the next generation following Mendelian pattern.All of my kids have different levels of anxiety. They are all grown up and manage in their own styles and rarely care for my advice or "sharing experience".
I personally feel that the stigma of psychological disorders that we witnessed as kids is no more there. The generations after baby boomers and especially the millenials have changed the way they now look at it. They are not afraid of mentioning " I am on therapy" and they use modern tools to help themselves.
Agree re. the Genetic transfer, for sure! My Mom even admitted that she was SO Scared when I was a baby being her first born! My Grandmother suffered Trauma due to religious persecution in Russia, & other traumas in her life. Passed down from generation to generation. And, Yes the Stigma of Mental Illness was Rabid in "My Time," and one just "sucked it up," suffering in silence. So, by the time I got any proper help, I had a Protracted Case of Severe Anxiety! At last, things have changed, as you mentioned, with today's generation speaking out about mental health issues, and it's No longer a "hush, hush" mentality! The stigma is still there, but things are changing!
I feel for you. You’re definitely not alone. And the awful thing is that the physical symptoms are very real and even though it’s from anxiety it’s still very much scary. Try doing some journaling. Maybe write about your appointment before you go. What your fears are and even exaggerate them to be scarier. And then remind yourself that it’s all anxiety. You’re perfectly fine and it will be ok. You can also try deep breathing every hour to practice it inhale from the nose hold it exhale from the nose. Think I am strong I am healthy my blood pressure is stable. Anything that helps stay positive in that area of thinking. Hope some of the stuff can help. Hang in there 🙏🏻
thank you so much for the kind message, practicing deep breathing is definitely something i’ll try because i probably just need to do it more often to get better at it, thank you for the reassurance!
You’re welcome. And it absolutely needs practice. Cause once we go into anxiety mode we forget the breathing correctly. So easy to hyperventilate or make the anxiety worse breathing wrong. Lifting you in prayer. 🙏🏻
I hate going to the doctor. I had to reschedule my annual 3 times this year, and each time, I was so relieved to put it off. I feel like this about phone calls too. Certain things trigger a lot of anxiety. I remember feeling this way from a very young age. I try to tell myself, I'm going to treat myself after the huge stressor. It gets me through it because I have something else to focus on. I treated myself to a pizza place after the appointment this year. Whenever thoughts of the appointment came up, I thought about how wonderful the food was going to taste and how much I was going to look forward to it. Maybe try that.
I also am scared of visiting doctors of all stripes. Since the start of COVID, I have found it very helpful that I can often get medical care without actually visiting a doctor or a nurse in person. I am lucky that my insurance includes a 24-hour chat line to get advice and prescriptions from nurses without a visit and doctor visits, including with my primary care doctor and psychiatrist can usually by video visits. Because I haven't felt up for a video visit on more than one occasion, I have also been able to change some of these virtual visits to phone consults. Often I simply message my doctor rather than deal with a virtual visit. Yes, I still have some anxiety with these remote visits, but I find them much less stressful than in person visits, and the messaging is relatively anxiety free. Perhaps you can figure out a way to get more remote medical care?
Hey been there, done that ;still there. You are talking to the choir with this. I have major phobia of bp even the cuff. For .me when the cuff goes on and starts tightening I go into panic mood. I try to be calm. I try breathing, wiggling toes, putting thoughts elsewhere; everything yet I still have panic I mean a Full Blown Panic Attack. Yes even at home. I wrote about this before and got great feedback. All I can do is keep trying. I just want to snatch cuff off and keep it moving.We will get there eventually I hope.
Good luck you be the little engine that could; I'm stuck at the station😁
i feel the same way too! I get anxiety just seeing the BP cuff and the squeezing makes me so anxious i just wanna rip it off, i feel better knowing im not the only one who feels like that! thank you for your reply
I have white coat syndrome and my father had it and I also belong to a glaucoma support group and there are many there that have it when they go into their ophthalmologist and have their eye pressures checked and their eye pressures are abnormally high. It's way more common than doctors want to believe.
Anymore when I go to my gp, I check my bp for a few days before going and take my readings in to give to them. I also have pointed out to them that the correct way to take bp is to wait at least 5 minutes or more with the patients feet flat on the ground, sitting up and relaxing and the bp reader at the level of the heart of the patient. They are also supposed to take 3 readings and then average them and use it. The other thing I do is allow myself to have the anxiety and tell the doctor or staff up front that I have white-coat syndrome and they need to take that into consideration. A few years ago the AMA actually increased the range for blood pressure based on aging and then rescinded it because they got major pushback from the drug companies so the system is somewhat rigged. It's nothing to be ashamed of.
You may also try remembering back to your childhood and see if you experienced any kind of trauma around health related issues which could be contributing to your anxiety.
I have a rather non-PC solution, which worked for me many years ago.
Imagine the person you are to see, sitting on the toilet with a bad case of constipation. I used to be very scared of doctors, and that is a trick my mother taught me.
Just remember they are like you, and all the bodily functions work similarly. If you can remember to bring up that image each time, you should feel easier.
Hi I have white coat syndrome as well so understand this. I now find the best thing for me is to tell the medic you're dealing with. Most are sympathetic and have seen it all before and if you can have a laugh about it then all the better.
Hi there! I work with doctors and so I am on the other side. Theres no reason to fear doctors they just want to help. I mean they might be having a bad day but don't take it personal. If you establish a good relationship with your doctor then you can feel more comfortable around them for your medical care, if not then find one that better suits you.
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hopefully i get this anxiety under control but it feels nice knowing im not alone!
My fear came true 
I have real trouble agreeing this is all anxiety 
Living in terror 
Advice for all new arrivals.
Mild anxiety 
