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Mental Health (Expert Forum)
Anxiety or hypertension or both??
Answered by
Roger Gould, M.D. - Mental Health, Wellness
Questions posted in the Mental Health forum are being answered by Dr. Roger L. Gould, author of the Mastering Stress and Depression program and affiliated with the UCLA. Department of Psychiatry. Topics covered include anger, attention deficit disorder (ADD), bipolar disorder, dementia, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), learning disabilities, memory, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, personality disorders, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, stress, transitions, and work problems.
Anxiety or hypertension or both??
by QQQ, Oct 24, 2002 12:00AM
I am a 23 y/o male with headaches everyday that have been called tension headaches with migraines. I also have hypertension with stress however this occurs everyday even with just sitting down and talking with others. I feel peranoid. I feel my heart pounding and my head throbbing. My b/p goes sky high like 170/100. I even try to avoid others and keep to my self. I dread eye contact. I have been treated with enderal la which works for the b/p when I am not stressed it still goes high. The meds do not help the symptoms though. I have had 24h urine done, kidney MRI and ultrasound, head CT and they all have been normal. I have been recently taken off the b/p meds and am going to biofeedback and seeing neuro again. My normal b/p when sitting at home and taking my b/p myself are 120-130/70-80. My questions are
1. What is the normal b/p rates with stress and activity? Is it okay for my b/p to go up to 158/80 when I run up the stairs?
2. Could the stress be the cause of the hypertension, HA, and anxiety feelings or is the hypertension the cause?
3. Does type A personality lead to hypertension and this type of response?
4.Where should I get help?
I have basically seen every specialist except for cardio and psych. Everyone else says it is just hypertension and Tension headaches seperately. Please give me some help and options thanks.
1. What is the normal b/p rates with stress and activity? Is it okay for my b/p to go up to 158/80 when I run up the stairs?
2. Could the stress be the cause of the hypertension, HA, and anxiety feelings or is the hypertension the cause?
3. Does type A personality lead to hypertension and this type of response?
4.Where should I get help?
I have basically seen every specialist except for cardio and psych. Everyone else says it is just hypertension and Tension headaches seperately. Please give me some help and options thanks.
Doctor's Answer
by Roger Gould, M.D., Oct 25, 2002 12:00AM
, Oct 25, 2002 12:00AM
I strongly suggest you see a psychiatrist. The kind of labile hypertension and symptoms you describe are most likely caused by stress and anxiety, and a combination of psychotherapy and anti-anxiety medication is more likely to bring your blood pressure down and keep it down. This is very treatable and you should expect excellent results.
i too have severe anxiety/panic attacks. ive had it for several years, but for the last 6 months it has taken over my life. it has caused health problems like heart palpitation and afib. my blood pressure rose very high during my attacks. for hours and sometimes days at a time, i just lock myself in my bedroom and worry if i am going to die when a bad anxiety attack hit me. thanks to a friend, i went to a physician and take 50mg of atenelol for my BP and palpitations. i am also seeing a psychotherapist to easy my tension. i have to say i feel my better.
you MUST see a doc for your problems and do not wait!!!
I am new to these forums, but I know how much talking can help sometimes. My anxiety has come and gone several times troughout the last ten years. I can remember the first time like it was yesterday, it came outta nowhere, and I had never experienced anything like that before. I was never afraid up until that point. My life has had many dramatic changes from then until now, because now I understand it, but I guess understanding it is not a cure in itself. My battle has a ways to go yet. My days seem to go by alright all the way up until the sun goes down and its time for bed then my mind takes over for me and I lose the ability to think for myself and fear grips me for hours. It seems to all center around the extreme beleife that I cant breath as if there were something like babypowder in the air sufficating me. I know it sounds strange even to me, but this prevents me from sleeping with my wife at night or enjoying a television show. I quit smoking behind this, and I think that was the only positive thing to come from this. I have found many breathing exercises that help, but Im tired of this now, and I dont want to fight this any longer. I almost want to see where the anxiety will take me if I dont fight will I sufficate? I dont think so, but I think facing this fear will help as scarey as it is for me. For me these attacks are very real although not as bad as when I was younger. My mother and father were both heroin addicts, so I had no guidance at all I was taught to fight, and to distrust everybody. When I became curious about straightening up my act as a 16 yr old in the ghettos of Baltimore this was hard. I think thats when I developed a contience, and my trouble started. The first night I had an attack I woke everyone in the house telling them I was having a heart attack. My mother ignored me and went back to sleep, and because of that I associate that with my mother and her feelings for me. So from that day on my feelings for my mother were tainted until her death in 1997 only after do i remember forgiving her. sorry to ramble on