White Coat Syndrome

[fredschair]

Does anyone else struggle with this and have you developed any ways to deal with it?

As a young adult, both my parents had significant health problems and some of my early memories (aged from 11 onwards) are of hospitals, scary diagnoses etc. As an adult I've been in Resus with my dad just after he'd been revived after a cardiac arrest, my mum died not long after in the same hospital and I guess that's the root because anything hospital/GP related just sends me into this weird tailspin.

I don't have any other kind of anxiety and weirdly I really enjoy watching medical programmes/dramas and even weirder, while at Uni I nearly switched my course to do a foundation year so that I could start medicine. Good job I didn't!

The problem is particularly focused around blood pressure. If I take it at home, I get anxious and worked up and that gives me a high reading. After a few attempts the other day it was obviously high so I went to the GP. I had to wait 20 mins for the appointment and by the time my name was called I was almost hyper ventilating. BP reading was off the charts (like 210/100) and my heart rate was 100. Heart rate is normally 55-60. GP gave me a minute to calm down and on second reading it went down a bit but he said that even factoring in my panicky state, it was still too high so he prescribed meds. He was very nice and said to me 'why does this upset you?' I said I honestly didn't know but the minute I walk into a surgery it's like I get hit with adrenaline and stress.

I've bought a home monitor and will
take it again in a week when the meds have had chance to kick in but I've been thinking a lot about white coat syndrome (which I clearly have). It feels so completely ridiculous to get SO anxious about such a small thing but then I know that any form of anxiety often is illogical. That doesn't make it any easier though!

So just wondering if anyone has successfully dealt with this and what methods you used to get through it? I have to go back for a blood test next week and already the thought of sitting in the waiting room is making me feel 'urgh'.

I'm exactly the same OP but unfortunately I don't know the answer! It's like an automatic reaction in me. Interested to hear others' views.

I’ve been like this for years. I do my own bp monitoring at home. Gp knows that any reading in surgery isn’t accurate. If I need to go for anything else I have to write it down in advance, practise saying it and either read it off the paper or hand it over if I can’t speak at all. I am quite normal and chilled in most other situations.

I have this, it started in pregnancy and now I can’t shake the anxious feeling when I know my blood pressure is going to be checked!

I’ve always had white coat syndrome about my blood pressure. In fact I was so anxious about having my BP measured that it put me off getting pregnant. When I did get pregnant, at my booking in appointment my BP was 187 over 115 and they wanted to admit me for fear of a stroke! To cut a long story short I ended up having hypnotherapy during my pregnancy and it helped me cope and I had normal BP measurements throughout. After I gave birth the fear came back straight away and I had to resist having my BP measured. I’ve no idea what my BP is as I daren’t get it measured, not even at home. I’m worried that I will never to be able to have an accurate BP reading and the implications of this.

I have this. I watch videos of cute puppies for about ten mins before blood pressure is taken. It hasn't worked the last few times tho...

I've bought a BP monitor and this morning I was feeling very chilled so I took a reading. It has definitely come down after a week on meds and today was 155/85 which is a huge improvement on Monday's reading. It's obviously still high but I'm encouraged and it's motivated me to keep doing what I'm doing...good eating and daily walking! I know it can take a few weeks for the drugs to fully take effect but every pound I lose is also going to make a difference too.

I'm going to take it once a week at home and hopefully by doing this I'll learn to normalise it and not fear that pesky little machine!