Need answer

Hello everyone, I just think I got an anxiety attack but the symptoms were different. I felt the irrability, I felt cold, I left like I wanted to crawl out of my skin, the fear. I went to the company nurse. She took my blood pressure it was 156/100 but my heart beat was 72. Is that normal during an anxiety attack. I thought your heart beat should be pounding fast as well with the blood pressure up. Please help me now I am more frightened, what if I developed high blood pressure. It was taken 20 minutes later and it 102/75.

[greenlydia]

Hi Toots!
Well.......156/100 is fairly high, no doubt about that, but the fact it went back down to 102/75 should have reassured you that it WAS just anxiety. Because that's all it was!  The fact that your heart rate stayed around 72 is a little surprising, but not all that unusual. Most of us do get a very rapid HR during an attack, but attacks are tricky buggers and we don't always get all the symptoms all the time. I would not worry about that at all. Your blood pressure is very good at 102/75. If you are concerned about having HBP, time to visit your doctor to rule that out. Just remember that your pressure will undoubtably go up when you're at the doctors! Just about everyone presents higher when sitting there with our "white coat" anxiety on high alert!
Sitting home stressing about it WILL increase it, so get proactive and see your doctor. Ask yourself "what's the worst that could happen?" The worst is that you MIGHT have HBP. Better to KNOW.....and get it treated............they don't call it the "silent killer" for nothing.
I think you're fine, but you need to hear that from a doctor, OK?
Pick up the phone and make the appointment. Get the peace of mind you need.
Peace
Greenlydia

[Paxiled]

I'm one of the funny ones.  I only get one physical symptom from panic attacks, a nervous stomach.  My heart doesn't race, I've never hyperventilated, I don't sweat -- if you looked at me you'd think I was calm as still water.  With me it's all racing thoughts.  I think it's because I was already exercising quite a bit and meditating twice a day when I started getting serial panic attacks.  I once had my blood pressure and heart rate tested while having a panic attack and it was athlete's normal -- which is a little lower than average.  Imagine that!  Yet my sister had agoraphobia, and she hyperventilated and got all kinds of physical symptoms.  We're all different, not only in our symptoms, but also in our reaction to treatments.  It's a weird world out there.