In Reply to: Re: Anxiety and hypertension posted by friend on November 01, 2000 at 22:52:22:
: : Does anyone know if the two are linked? I don't have a history of anxiety disorder, but i started having anxiety attacks right after I was diagnosed with high bp and put on medication. I'm taking tiazac, diovan and hydrochlorothiazide for my bp and lorazepam for the anxiety.
: : Does anyone else have a problem with anxiety and high bp?
: IIMHO YES YES YES I am 53 yo old / female / I have had anxiety problems since I was 19 yo. If it was up to the docs, I would have been put on HBP meds at 19 LOL. I have had readings of 274/140 due to extreme fear/anxiety/ That was 8 years ago. Recently, I had a reading of 265/140 at the hosp. for an unrelated reason. I had a such a hard time with all the docs, trying to explain that my pressure was up due to the anxiety of what was happening to me. They refused to accept that, and insisited that I was hypertensive, and wanted to give me anti=hypertensive meds. I refused and asked then to just give me a lousy 5 mg. valium. They refused. Tjey said it is impossible to have that kind of reading from anxiety and that it was mpossible for it to come down without HBP med. Welll. within two hours my pressure was down to 140/82 with NO meds. Since I have beenhome from hosp, I have been monitoring my pressure and it is low normal. When I take it in the morning it is in the area of 122/69. Sooooo, docs have really lost their credibility for me. IMHO, I think a persons pressure goes up whenever their is a crisis of some sort and that it should and it does because we are human beings. There is so much they don't know. Pressure fluctuates all day long. By the way, I was having a really big argument at the hosp with my family docand he was yelling at me for being irrational. I said "slap that thing on my arm now that we are having this fight ' LOLOL He did and it was DOWN LOL. There are a lot of risks with taking BP meds. I don't want to think what would have happened to me if I had taken the meds, having low normal BP. Watch out for yourself. Monitor it yourself at home, but don't get obsessed about it. Take it reclining and resting. If your really worried you can get a 24 hour monitor from your doc, to get a clearer explanation of what is going on. Good Luck all. And remember, doctors are the 3rd leading cause of death in America.
WELL SAID !!!!!!!!!!!! AMEN. I am lucky I have a Doc who is against meds in cases like ours.