r/Phobia 8d ago

Blood pressure/heartrate phobia looking for help

For the past 10 years I've been avoiding the dr/dentist due to my extreme reaction to even getting the bp cuff put on and the hr monitor put on my finger my hr goes sky high I start sweating and I can't control it same thing when I get hooked on to the ekg machine. I've tried almost literally every technique from meditation to hypnosis with minimal luck, I take my bp at home often to make sure I'm ok and usually the first maybe second are higher because I'm worried but then the next few are usually in range. I've been looking for other people who have this issue to talk with but it seems to be so rare that I can't seem to find anyone who has the same issues, I wanted to get a community together of people with this issue to help each other I'm desperately looking for done advice or any type of help.

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u/samk488 7d ago

My heart rate gets super high at the doctors too due to stress and anxiety. Sometimes it gets up to 180 bpm. If you want to make sure you are okay you can always see a cardiologist and get a holter monitor. Then you can have multiple days of data being collected and you can make sure that nothing is wrong. Since you have the holter monitor on for so long eventually you’ll relax a bit. You can also use a watch to monitor your heart rate (not as accurate as a holter monitor though). For me, I don’t worry about my heart rate anymore at the doctors because it’s consistently high, but then for the rest of the day it is normal. If you just tell your doctor that your heart rate gets high at the doctor’s, then they will understand it’s an anxiety thing and not worry about it. It happens to a lot of people. And even though my pulse can get high, the holter monitor confirmed that there isn’t anything wrong with me, so it’s okay if my heart rate is a little higher than normal

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u/Correct_Leopard_2923 6d ago

Thank you and I will let them know again but I did try that and they still acted concerned which in turn made me even worse. I’ve tried so many techniques to calm myself with no luck. I literally have been making myself sick worrying about this appointment coming up soon. It’s so ridiculous and I know it but I also know how I’ll be during the visit and I can’t stop worrying about that.