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Anxiety in taking Blood Pressure
Every time I take my bp at home I get extremely anxipus. I can feel my body tensing up and my heart racing. The readings are high most of the time. After I take the BP, I get calmer. How do I overcome this fear? I exercise and tryto eat right. What can I do?
Thank yu for your quick response. I will take your advise. I will work on eliminating my self-conditionaing to have an anxious reaction wether I take or the doctor. ThankYou & GOD bless you!!!
Hello and welcome!
I guess the first question I would have is, why are you taking your BP at home? Were you directed to do so by your doctor? Do you have high (or low) BP? How often are you checking it? The high readings cannot really be taken into consideration as no doubt the anxiety is causing a spike in your pressure. For that reason alone, if you were directed to check it at home, your doc may reevaluate that plan taking the anxiety into consideration.
If you've just taken it upon yourself to check your BP without any reason, such as a BP problem, or instructions from your doctor, I would recommend that you cease checking it. It's not uncommon to develop a preoccupation with things like this that can lead to a lot of unnecessary anxiety.
If you DO have a reason or need to be checking your BP, I would recommend keeping it to a minimum, like once a day. It's tough to overcome a fear like this, as you've basically conditioned yourself to have an anxious reaction to taking your BP.
I would first determine how important it is to do so, explain what's going on to your doc and see what he/she says. It may be something that your doc may tell you isn't necessary to check outside of his/her office.
Let us know how you're doing!
I guess the first question I would have is, why are you taking your BP at home? Were you directed to do so by your doctor? Do you have high (or low) BP? How often are you checking it? The high readings cannot really be taken into consideration as no doubt the anxiety is causing a spike in your pressure. For that reason alone, if you were directed to check it at home, your doc may reevaluate that plan taking the anxiety into consideration.
If you've just taken it upon yourself to check your BP without any reason, such as a BP problem, or instructions from your doctor, I would recommend that you cease checking it. It's not uncommon to develop a preoccupation with things like this that can lead to a lot of unnecessary anxiety.
If you DO have a reason or need to be checking your BP, I would recommend keeping it to a minimum, like once a day. It's tough to overcome a fear like this, as you've basically conditioned yourself to have an anxious reaction to taking your BP.
I would first determine how important it is to do so, explain what's going on to your doc and see what he/she says. It may be something that your doc may tell you isn't necessary to check outside of his/her office.
Let us know how you're doing!
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