I've been terrified going to the doctor since I was a little kid.
Now I'm way way far from that era but still 100% terrified to go.
My brother is the same. Last time he went for a check up his blood pressure was up to 180 due to nerves (White coat syndrome) mine was over 160 when its usually 130 when I'm relaxed at home.
If you have this phobia - what do you do to offset the miserable anxiety (and hyperventilating) when you are approaching an appointment you can't avoid?
Pray, exercise, keep busy - i do all these but nothing really seems to help.
Thanks.
i have bad anxiety to go to the dr my blood pressure always is higher and very anxious, nothing helps me i just struggle to get through it. and getting bloodwork done i avoid it as long as i can its fear real bad with that.
I’m also a catastrophic thinker. Everything is going to be the absolute worst.
Blood tests are really scary!
God knows what they will find.
One thing that really helps is proper breathing. When you hyperventilate everything gets worse. Listen to a couple of great short meditations that are on YouTube. Practice this before you go to a doctors appointment so you can do it there.
even if you are not panicking, this teaches you how to breathe. It’s called don’t panic. it’s a white background with black letters. She guides you through it. another is called stop panic attacks now guided visualization. He explains what is going on when you feel like this. like I said breathing properly is the Number Way, #1 way to calm yourself down during anxiety it can also lower your blood pressure ! hope this helps 