Could this be anxiety or a panic attack?

Dear All,
I just stumbled on this website and I hope someone can help me. I am young (just turned 21!), but was diagnosed with sudden quite high hypertension (sometimes up to 160/128), which till today, doctors are adamant is caused by a secondary cause. But nobody can put a finger to what is the secondary cause. Have no family history, am female, and my BMI is 20.
Have been a top student all this while, and have represented my state for national's in debate. Also active in public speeches etc.
Lately, have started trembling real bad. Used to get trembling when I had to speak in front of public, but it goes away about a minute into speech. But now I tremble all the way, until the podium shakes, and even 15 minutes AFTER speech, I still tremble so badly I cant hold even a bottle of water. It affects mostly my left side of the body.
Like yestedray, all through the day, my left thumb was trembling, even when I was resting my entire arm on the table. If I apply pressure to my thumb to stay still, I can see the vein (or whatever you call it) pulsating.
Is this just a bad case of anxiety or is something wrong? One of the doctors was worried about my trembling, while another said "anxious people tremble". Tested negative for thyroid disorders, pheochromocytoma.
Appreciate your time for reading this far. Thanks, and looking forward to hearing from anyone who would like to give their two cents.
Cheerio!

[spade22]

Hi,

one "effect" of high blood pressure is trembling!  You have very high blood pressure to begin with and I would guess that when you give your speech your blood pressure rises even further (adrenaline kicks in etc.) - when it gets to a certain point the trembling begins.

From what I understand, the causes of hypertension are NOT known 90-95% of the time.  Are you currently taking any antidepressent/antianxiety medications?  A potential side effect of these is elevated blood pressure.

Have the doctors given you anything to control your blood pressure?  Regardless of the cause of your hypertension (although it is clearly important to get to the route cause of this) it is important to get this under control.  My "guess" is that if your resting blood pressure is lowered to a more acceptable level, you will no longer experience the trembling (your blood pressure wont be able to get to the level needed to cause the trembling).

Do you experience any other typical anxiety feelings?  Do you feel nervous about your presentations?  When you dont have any apparent stresses in your life is your blood pressure significantly lower (you can measure it for free in the pharmacy section of  most grocery stores)?

You might want to try posting this question in the "symptoms" forum also for further input.

[Ccck]

Hi Spade22,
I am on 2 antihypertensives now...Diovan (Valsartan) 160mg, and Norvasc (Amlodipine) 10mg...but my bp still rockets (I have a home kit) even when I just had a great night's sleep...Not on antidepressive or antianxiety pills...
I used an ABPM machine, and even when asleep, my pressure was noted to be high...
NOw when I take tests in school, my writing can become illegible...I mean, yes, Im nervous as expected, but throughout my school years, I've never trembled so much so I cant write properly.
Thanks!