Obsessive??

Mental health
1

Apart from my many anxiety symptoms, I am obsessive with taking my blood pressure and following my heart rate on an phone app. Has anyone else experienced this. I do this many many times in the day.

2

Hi,

I used to take my blood pressure all the time until I got some skin caught in the cuff while it was inflating!  God, the bruise was awful!

I have bought a Fitbit Charge HR and am constantly checking my heart rate.  

I suffer awfully with health anxiety.  It's debilitating.

x

3

Are you into fitness? you could incorporate your checking with some exercise to see if there are any changes

4

Heya check my heart rate over 20 times a day I hate this I really do only no much I can take !!

5

Hey Claire

Can I ask you why you do this?

6

Hi Richard,

No I am not into fitness. Just trying to figure this craziness out

7

Yes I used to take my blood pressure, had to stop it would determine if I was going to have a good day or a bad day depending on the reading 😡

8

Hi Mona,

How hard was it for you to stop and how often did you take it?

9

What happened I thought if I took it every day I would know if I was ok, most days I was ending up having a worse day ,plus wanted to take family members until one said no! I'm not doing that again , it ended up ruining my day, I said how did you stop , he said just forgot about it put it away , I did and never bother with it now, plus blood pressure goes up and down all day long , and you know what Lolasmom it was great to be bloody free of it xx

 

10

Mona,, i really need to do that too. Sometimes it is 105/65 and other times it is 145/90. You are right my day is controlled over how I feel. Same for heart rate. Thank you for sharing

11

Start tomorrow, you will feel a lot more in control, I would love to know how you get on x

12

Would be surprised if the blood pressure reading would be even be accurate.they have fit bits that read everything. I would be a mess with something like that.

13

I was obsessed with checking my heart rate and blood pressure after I had pre eclampsia during my pregnancy and for 6 weeks after I was on medication for the high bp caused by this condition and was terrified I would have an eclamptic seizure and die.

My bp returned to normal and I was off the tablets 8 weeks after the birth but for about a year afterwards I was constantly checking it.

I had CBT for health anxiety and it really helped me. Part of it was focused on reducing the checking behaviours.

What I had to do was set a goal so for example- I will only check my bp at the Drs surgery or twice a year.

Now when you start this goal seems unattainable but you set yourself interim goals in a stepwise manner.

For eg- I will only check my bp once a day then when you are comfortable with that you move onto your next goal eg 4 times a week etc

This used in combination with other CBT techniques mean I no longer check my bp and heart rate and I was obsessed I would check it multiple times over and over I have a naturally highish resting heart rate so that scared me plus obviously heart rate is going to go up when an anxious person is focused on it!

If you haven't already please see your GP or find the details of your nearest IAPT to refer yourself for CBT the waiting list can be long so best to do it soon.

Best of luck.

14

Hi M it from myself I guesichelle,

Great advice, thank you

I take both so often because whenever I am feeling weird from other anxiety symptoms, I immed. check HR and BP thinking it has to do with that. My husband wants to throe the machine out!!!! Cannot hide it from myself I guess.

I really want to stop this craziness.It is just fuling the fire.

Thank you for your reply. I will really work on this

15

Hi Lisa

If I had a fit bit, that would mean I could checkit  when I am out. That would send me to the moon. Atleast the BP machine is at home and when I am away it stays there.

Going to really work on this

16

Hi,

Is the phone app even accurate?

17

Doesnt it cause anxiety to check it though? My husband laughs at the fit bit, mine doesnt have that on it my husband said it would destroy me and then he just laughs and laughs.im glad he finds it funny. It isnt funny. 

18

My husband says he is going to hide my BP monitor on me. When I try to get my kids to use it, they just roll their eyes.........aren't they the crazy ones?

19

Have not done it today though, and it is 12:00 lunchtime. Things are looking up.

20

Yes, I do that when my anxiety gets bad and have heart palpitations. Plus my bp tends to run low. My app only tests heart rate. Do you have one that does bp too?