Blood Pressure Phobia

After the last set of a weeks readings I relaxed and, just for a laugh and because I wasn't recording it, I tried again. BP was 111/66! Previously it had been up to 160+. Actually I think these fluctuations are a bit worrying though.

I am like you, I do have a monitor but never use it because I’m scared of the results. Even thinking about taking it out of the cupboard, I feel my stress levels rising!

If I do take it, the first reading will be ridiculously high, and by the time I’ve taken it about five times, it will be in the region of normal.

I was meant to have a medical recently for an insurance policy, but I wouldn’t have it, because I was terrified of a high reading.

Advice to me has been to take an average over a week. If it goes up and stays there then medical advice definitely needed. Try not to focus on it as up it will go.

If you were taking your BP again because you were stressed the first reading wasn't correct - then it would be higher because you were worried about it.

I would sit down quietly and watch a bit of TV, then calmly take the BP. Write down the result and forget about it. Do it at about the same time each day. Get used to the process of taking it and maybe it will just become a normal thing to do and won't cause you to worry so much.

There really isn't any way to take it "wrongly" so don't imagine you are doing that.

After DHs first stroke he was told “Take your BP three times and pick the one you like the best”.
He was also told by a GP that he had White Coat Syndrome when his readings were sky high. Then he had a major stroke. I think the moral is BP readings are unreliable.

I have a monitor and my pressure goes up and down like a yoyo.
I had BP at stroke level in hospital last year, and did get a bit of a shock!!
I had to take my monitor to the doctor's to get it checked and calibrated and it was spot on, so the readings were accurate.

I can take readings 10 minutes apart and the are totally different. I don't stress about it any more, I just record it and show my GP the readings when I see him.Initially he thought it was White coat syndrome when he took it, despite me saying it was always like that.
It turns out I had an undiagnosed heart condition and my extremely high BP , exacerbated by my RA drugs, has caused a fair bit of damage to the micro blood vessels in my heart. .

GPs usually take average readings over a week and don't rely on just a few.
If you are worried, why not have a chat with your GP?

BP is a weird thing, and you can raise it by just thinking about it.
So relax, and try to stay stress free.
That will help to keep it down.