Over thinking it?

[Pete87]

Hi everyone,

So it's been 6 weeks since my initial panic attack.

I must admit I am better but I still have a fuzzy/detached head every day but not all day. It comes in waves and I feel a bit light. This happens everyday.

I had a checkup the other day and my blood pressure was a little high. The doctor said it was nothing to worry about but to monitor it.

I have a home monitor and I am getting 128/93. 128 is normal but 93 is just over normal. I'm stressing hard on this but I know I shouldn't.

Has anyone had similar experience? Again the doctors have said the way I'm feeling is in no way related to my blood pressure but I find myself questioning that...

It's getting to the point where I'm pretty sure this is all related to stress and I'm contemplating leaving my job and taking a few months. But I don't want to run away either...

Not having a great week.

Pete

[Briggs1]

I am 21 years old and have been dealing with anxiety my whole life. I know the feeling you're talking about. It feels like you're not completely there and then you start thinking about it more and it makes it worst. It is completely normal if you have anxiety. Hard to explain to other people but you will be fine. Reading your post made me feel like I wrote it. Stop stressing!

[AshleyG88]

Hey Pete. Yes I UNDERSTAND FULLY WHAT YOUR GOING THROUGH. I am 28 years old and have 2 children. Health anxiety has gotten me down so bad at times I could not get out of bed. Your not alone in this please know that. Everything you said you were experiencing is symptoms of anxiety and panic. Stress can take a HORRIBLE tole on our bodies and our minds feed off of that. My mom has terrible blood pressure issues...like passing out constantly 200/193 bad. I think you need to step back, take a breather, and do not focus on the bad bc it only makes it worse. Myself I have health anxiety terrible and I have experienced everything you wrote....

[Jeff1943]

Pete, you are worrying needlessly about your blood pressure, you wisely saw your doctor and he/she isn't worried, the distolic is slightly raised but only by a fraction. Incidentally, I expect you know that to take blood pressure correctly you need to have been sitting comfortably for at least 5 minutes, keep your arm with the cuff at the level of your heart and supported, don't talk and don't take it too soon after a meal. The first reading is always higher for some reason, leave it 2 minutes and take it again, then again after another 2 minutes. Add them all up and divide by 3 to get an average and that's as accurate as you can get.

So I suggest you stop all this speculation about your slight dizziness being caused by blood pressure, it ain't, you can worry about your blood pressure in 40 years time, not now.

As you had a panic attack a while back I think you can be certain it is stress, when we suffer from stress and worry for a period of time it can jangle our nervous system, make it a lot more sensitive than normal. So we become too introspective, even obsessive about phantom illnesses and fake symptoms. A sensitised nervous system is damn good at mimicking real organic illness but don't let it fool you, your fuzzy headed feeling is classic anxiety.

The thing to do is to recognise it's not serious, nothing organic, and stop fighting it, stop frightening yourself, just accept the strange feeling for the moment. This stops the initial flash of fear turning into second fear and continuing to sensitise your your nervous system. By temporarily accepting the fake symptoms you starve your sensitised nervous system of the fear that it feeds on and eventually your nervous system returns to normal.

Even if you had another feeling of panic in the future remember that it's a fraud, it's not caused by organic illness, so just relax every muscle in your body and let the panic feeling come, it can't harm you and will pass in a minute or less. Once again by accepting it you deprive it of the oxygen that it thrives on (fear) and the bad feelings pass.

Whether you withdraw from work is your decision but occupation is very therepeutic, it gives you something real to worry about rather than staying home consulting Doctor Google and frightening yourself to death. Good luck and stop being fooled by things that are only blips in your nervous system!