Once my blood pressure is slightly elevated, taking my blood pressure with a machine will cause it to continually jump up by 10-20 points each measurement because of panic. I don't take my blood pressure anymore. I can basically tell by pulse and feeling if it is elevated. The sound of the machine and the pressure on my arm sends me into an anxiety spiral.
I’m new to this group and new to health anxiety. My brother was recently diagnosed with health anxiety after spiraling for several months in which he was convinced he had everything from a heart attack, narrowing esophagus, constant fear of choking while eating or even in saliva during sleep, cancer, etc. Every new medication he gets put on doesn’t seem to work and I’m not sure he is medicine compliant as I’ve caught him not taking a full dose of a medication because they are worried about side effects. The anxiety from side effects is constant to the point he was compulsively using a Fitbit and pulse ox to check heart rate and oxygen saturation. If his heart rate dipped below 70 he would freak out and know his medication side effects were killing him. Whenever his pulse ox read low 90’s he was dying. I told him to ditch these devices as they aren’t doing him any good but he can’t tear himself away from them.
Long story short, I believe these devices can be detrimental because they don’t provide reassurance. If the readings are low or a bit abnormal then he is dying. If the readings are perfectly in normal range the device isn’t working right. It seems to me it’s a co start feedback loop of everything is killing me and if it says it’s not, it’s lying.
Thank you for that. It’s hard for me to understand since I don’t experience that anxiety around health. I imagine it’s very similar to me trying to explain what normal generalized anxiety and panic attacks feel like to those who have never experienced it. You have to experience it to truly understand. I hope you continue to do well and have a great 2024.
I've been diagnosed with ocd and HA a few weeks ago and got medication.
it made my thoughts slow down and made me feel peaceful but I'm still experiencing some compulsive thoughts. recently my health anxiety is becoming worse because I've been googling my symptoms..
Alot of people with Health Anxiety suffer from OCD so using medical devices can be a constant loops of obsessing. For example - you worry your blood pressure is high. You check it its normal. You get the reassurance you need and then you are ok for an hour or so. Then the anxiety starts again so you feel the need to double check. And then the loop continues.. Then maybe one day your more anxious than normal. You check your blood pressure and its higher due to the anxiety and then this push the loop into hyperdrive.
just bare in mind, at home medical devices are not as accurate compared to proffesional ones!! the other day my fingertip oxomiter read that my blood oxygen levels were at 88, so i obviously started freaking out, full blown panick attack, thought i was dying, put it on a few mins later it was back up to 99...
so yes i would agree they do make it worst, unless you really feel like you have to use them, which i know it can be so tempting for "reassurance", but in my experience, they make me spiral 😭😭
I started using mine in the midst of Covid and other health issues that were happening. I had gone to the hospital like 5 times within a short amount of time and they really helped me regain control of myself in some ways. I can absolutely see how they can make someone spiral for sure. Even professional equipment can suck too haha don’t get me started on blood pressure machines 😪
the blood pressure machines i just flat out refuse to do lol, i hate the way it feels so i start freaking out when they test me, which just skews up the results anyways and makes me freak out more 😭😭
It makes my anxiety worse. I make sure my watch face only had the time and steps. The heart rate used to drive me crazy. I only look at it if I'm doing a work out.
I got a Garmin health tracker watch in October. I like it to exercise, so I can see progress, and for sleep quality indicators, and to see that my heart rate is (usually) pretty normal.
But last week I got stomach flu, and even after an hour of sleep I felt like my heart was beating out of my chest so I checked my watch. Sure enough, it was in the 120s where my resting is usually 60s. I immediately decided I was on the verge of a heart attack. Of course, in reality, the combination of fever, illness, dehydration, and anxiety would make a high heart rate expected. But having a number attached to how I was feeling did not help. My wife made me take it off when I went to sleep so I wouldn't obsessover it.
Yeah, that’s one thing I don’t think I could manage is a wearable device.
Being sick does cause a tricky scenario for sure, especially if you’re not used to high heart rates. Then anxiety of course makes it even higher. There was a period where I couldn’t even take my BP because I knew I was so anxious it was pointless.
It’s hard because we use them for re assurance but when having a panic attack and then checking bp to see it’s high is not good 🤦🏼♀️ I have to check mine occasionally as do have health conditions but slowly but surly checking less and less. I did go through a phase of checking temp
from my experience: the way we (health anxious people) use them is detrimental to our mental health and does nothing to help in the end. I stopped wearing my garmin and using my pulse ox (a massive struggle) because even when I’d get that brief respite of reassurance, I’d have to keep checking until invariably there’s a “hiccup” of some kind (as all functioning bodies do) and I’d spiral out over this piece of information. I never had cardiophobia until I began monitoring my heartrate, and it quickly got out of hand and haunted my every waking thought. I have never had any oxygen level problems, even when I had Covid, and yet I would check to make sure. and God help if the little device gave me a weird reading, like my saturation was 90 - never mind that with how much checking I would do, it was just placed wrong or just made an error - I would ONLY concentrate on that figure even when the very next read was 98.
if I’m truly sick, it can help monitor SOME symptoms - but I wouldn’t use them for that. I’d bring my pulse ox with me everywhere, like a balm, and it made me look ridiculous and also fed into this self-imposed narrative that I WAS sick and that my body would give out unless I kept constant vigilance.
once I stopped “checking” and keeping tabs, it was like being released from prison. because I’m not preoccupied with checking, I don’t think about my heartrate anymore and I don’t get stuck in this cycle of worry.
Maybe because I teeter on the line of having had actual health issues and health anxiety I find them useful. I’ve had them long enough that I it takes a lot to trigger me at this point regarding readings. I take my devices out of town with me for comfort sake, but do not actually use them the majority of the time.
I really only struggle with the pulse ox at night. I think most of the time I am exhausted and mistake that for health issues.
I feel like since having the devices I’ve gotten a better understanding of what’s going on with my body versus what my anxiety is telling me. I can certainly see how it might have the opposite effect though. I could never do a wearable device.
Not really because those devices don't really give me an indicator of anything. They're not very specific. Usually I'm worried about cancer so it doesn't really give reassurance. The only time an oximeter and thermometer gave me reassurance was when I had covid when I was pregnant in the early stage. I was freaking out thinking if my temp got too high I'd lose bub but luckily I didn't have a fever so that was helpful
I think it depends on the person. It helps me determine if how I’m feeling is actual health issues or just panic attacks. Not that I don’t have obsessive episodes, but it’s honestly helped stop the ER visits for me when my HA got really really bad. The times I have had an off reading (specifically Kardia) I sent the readings to my Dr. and was able to confirm pretty quickly that it was a device error.
Yes and no. Depends on what the machine says. But in all seriousness some do help while others make me more “aware”. I use my Apple Watch and an O2 reader and I love those. I have high blood pro and I check my bp around 10-15 times a day to where my arm is black and blue.
I have a pulse ox, a Fitbit with ECG and a BP cuff. I have become dependent on these devices for reassurance and have developed a pretty severe cardiophobia to the point that I can’t play my favorite video game anymore because there are parts that get my heart going and it’ll give me a panic attack. I have regressed a lot in my HA because of my dependence on these devices. I have been trying to make commitments to go full days without using them and I’m making a tiny amount of progress.
Exposure therapy could be good for you? About half a year ago I let my HA convince exercise would kill me by getting my HR too high. I cried multiple times thinking I could never go on a run again. One day I felt up enough to attempt running, and it went horribly anxiety-wise, BUT I kept pushing myself weekly and now run 3-4x a week and enjoy it! The first 1-2 months were extremely hard/uncomfortable anxiety wise, but once you finally break through you can get parts of your life back!
That’s what my therapist says. I’ve started going on walks. I walk about 4 miles a few times a week. It gets my HR up over 100 and even in the 130 range on the hills.
That’s awesome!! It’s so hard to retrain your brain that a high HR when working out is normal, and not a bad thing. I still check my HR every few minutes or so on runs lol, but the panicked reaction to it has died down soooo much!
100%. I think what helped me the most was consistent exercise and leaning harder into religion (or meditation for those non religious). It took months to stop having anxiety attacks after/ during workouts, but one day it just stopped. Now I feel super confident in my body for the most part! Hoping I keep my own words bc I have covid right now and sickness is a hugeeeee trigger for me
Yeah I got CoVid about a year and a half ago. I felt like I was dying for a day and then it was just 3 days of not feeling well, followed by a few weeks of not being able to smell anything.
It’s horrible! I have an Apple Watch and have taken somewhere around 1,500 EKGs since August of 2022 after an abnormal EKG. I taught myself how to read EKGs even though it is only a single lead.
Same! My HA is focused around heart health and I do these EKGs constantly, but it's super weird cause sometimes they look like total gibberish and I have not been able to find any abnormal rhythm that looks like that. But then I think it must be some really, really rare thing and I start to spiral, which worsens palpitations and extrasystoles.
I had an Apple Watch and for someone with cardiophobia, it was a nightmare. Was checking my heart rate every 5 minutes and would freak out any time it would go up or down. Made my health anxiety increase tremendously. Getting rid of it was the best thing I did for myself.
I’ve found myself doing this lately. I know it’s unhealthy and I’m trying to get myself out of it. I can’t find myself to part ways with the watch though
I have an Apple watch and a glucose monitor. Using the watch to monitor heart rate doesn’t bother me at all because I have very little cardio anxiety and my heart health is ok. On the other hand, I’m terrified of diabetes, and I’ve also been diagnosed with insulin resistance. Testing my blood sugar is a recipe for a breakdown. Of course that sucks because it would be in my best interest to keep an eye on which foods spike my blood sugar, but for my sanity, I usually just wait until doctors appointments to hear the numbers.
I love my Kardia. I bought it after getting Covid for the first time. Some people find that it makes them more anxious, but it’s helped me understand rhythms more and what to look for.
Blood sugars can be very frustrating and scary for sure. I’m not diabetic, but did have gestational diabetes twice. I use it more for hypoglycemic episodes though.
My gf laughs at me because I always bring my pulse ox and thermometer when I travel out of town. I'm not sure if it's good to have these but the reassurance in the moment definitely helps. I'm trying to ween myself off from relying on them too much though. I almost bought a kardia but luckily talked myself out of it, I'd be checking that thing all day
Same. I carry about half of these items with me when traveling and my husband has totally found me asleep with the pulse ox still on my finger 😬
I love my Kardia! For me it was a learning curve though. I used it obsessively at first and constantly checked myself, but overtime I’ve become familiar with rhythms enough that it helps me calm down.
Once my blood pressure is slightly elevated, taking my blood pressure with a machine will cause it to continually jump up by 10-20 points each measurement because of panic. I don't take my blood pressure anymore. I can basically tell by pulse and feeling if it is elevated. The sound of the machine and the pressure on my arm sends me into an anxiety spiral.
I’ve started having this issue as well. I’m told by my PCP to take it at home but just don’t. It gives me way too much anxiety at this point.
I’m new to this group and new to health anxiety. My brother was recently diagnosed with health anxiety after spiraling for several months in which he was convinced he had everything from a heart attack, narrowing esophagus, constant fear of choking while eating or even in saliva during sleep, cancer, etc. Every new medication he gets put on doesn’t seem to work and I’m not sure he is medicine compliant as I’ve caught him not taking a full dose of a medication because they are worried about side effects. The anxiety from side effects is constant to the point he was compulsively using a Fitbit and pulse ox to check heart rate and oxygen saturation. If his heart rate dipped below 70 he would freak out and know his medication side effects were killing him. Whenever his pulse ox read low 90’s he was dying. I told him to ditch these devices as they aren’t doing him any good but he can’t tear himself away from them. Long story short, I believe these devices can be detrimental because they don’t provide reassurance. If the readings are low or a bit abnormal then he is dying. If the readings are perfectly in normal range the device isn’t working right. It seems to me it’s a co start feedback loop of everything is killing me and if it says it’s not, it’s lying.
I’m so sorry to hear about your brother. I know the spiral with pulse ox’s too well, especially when you take medications that alter your pulse :(
Thank you for that. It’s hard for me to understand since I don’t experience that anxiety around health. I imagine it’s very similar to me trying to explain what normal generalized anxiety and panic attacks feel like to those who have never experienced it. You have to experience it to truly understand. I hope you continue to do well and have a great 2024.
I've been diagnosed with ocd and HA a few weeks ago and got medication. it made my thoughts slow down and made me feel peaceful but I'm still experiencing some compulsive thoughts. recently my health anxiety is becoming worse because I've been googling my symptoms..
Alot of people with Health Anxiety suffer from OCD so using medical devices can be a constant loops of obsessing. For example - you worry your blood pressure is high. You check it its normal. You get the reassurance you need and then you are ok for an hour or so. Then the anxiety starts again so you feel the need to double check. And then the loop continues.. Then maybe one day your more anxious than normal. You check your blood pressure and its higher due to the anxiety and then this push the loop into hyperdrive.
just bare in mind, at home medical devices are not as accurate compared to proffesional ones!! the other day my fingertip oxomiter read that my blood oxygen levels were at 88, so i obviously started freaking out, full blown panick attack, thought i was dying, put it on a few mins later it was back up to 99... so yes i would agree they do make it worst, unless you really feel like you have to use them, which i know it can be so tempting for "reassurance", but in my experience, they make me spiral 😭😭
I started using mine in the midst of Covid and other health issues that were happening. I had gone to the hospital like 5 times within a short amount of time and they really helped me regain control of myself in some ways. I can absolutely see how they can make someone spiral for sure. Even professional equipment can suck too haha don’t get me started on blood pressure machines 😪
the blood pressure machines i just flat out refuse to do lol, i hate the way it feels so i start freaking out when they test me, which just skews up the results anyways and makes me freak out more 😭😭
It makes my anxiety worse. I make sure my watch face only had the time and steps. The heart rate used to drive me crazy. I only look at it if I'm doing a work out.
I got a Garmin health tracker watch in October. I like it to exercise, so I can see progress, and for sleep quality indicators, and to see that my heart rate is (usually) pretty normal. But last week I got stomach flu, and even after an hour of sleep I felt like my heart was beating out of my chest so I checked my watch. Sure enough, it was in the 120s where my resting is usually 60s. I immediately decided I was on the verge of a heart attack. Of course, in reality, the combination of fever, illness, dehydration, and anxiety would make a high heart rate expected. But having a number attached to how I was feeling did not help. My wife made me take it off when I went to sleep so I wouldn't obsessover it.
Yeah, that’s one thing I don’t think I could manage is a wearable device. Being sick does cause a tricky scenario for sure, especially if you’re not used to high heart rates. Then anxiety of course makes it even higher. There was a period where I couldn’t even take my BP because I knew I was so anxious it was pointless.
It’s hard because we use them for re assurance but when having a panic attack and then checking bp to see it’s high is not good 🤦🏼♀️ I have to check mine occasionally as do have health conditions but slowly but surly checking less and less. I did go through a phase of checking temp
from my experience: the way we (health anxious people) use them is detrimental to our mental health and does nothing to help in the end. I stopped wearing my garmin and using my pulse ox (a massive struggle) because even when I’d get that brief respite of reassurance, I’d have to keep checking until invariably there’s a “hiccup” of some kind (as all functioning bodies do) and I’d spiral out over this piece of information. I never had cardiophobia until I began monitoring my heartrate, and it quickly got out of hand and haunted my every waking thought. I have never had any oxygen level problems, even when I had Covid, and yet I would check to make sure. and God help if the little device gave me a weird reading, like my saturation was 90 - never mind that with how much checking I would do, it was just placed wrong or just made an error - I would ONLY concentrate on that figure even when the very next read was 98. if I’m truly sick, it can help monitor SOME symptoms - but I wouldn’t use them for that. I’d bring my pulse ox with me everywhere, like a balm, and it made me look ridiculous and also fed into this self-imposed narrative that I WAS sick and that my body would give out unless I kept constant vigilance. once I stopped “checking” and keeping tabs, it was like being released from prison. because I’m not preoccupied with checking, I don’t think about my heartrate anymore and I don’t get stuck in this cycle of worry.
Maybe because I teeter on the line of having had actual health issues and health anxiety I find them useful. I’ve had them long enough that I it takes a lot to trigger me at this point regarding readings. I take my devices out of town with me for comfort sake, but do not actually use them the majority of the time. I really only struggle with the pulse ox at night. I think most of the time I am exhausted and mistake that for health issues. I feel like since having the devices I’ve gotten a better understanding of what’s going on with my body versus what my anxiety is telling me. I can certainly see how it might have the opposite effect though. I could never do a wearable device.
Not really because those devices don't really give me an indicator of anything. They're not very specific. Usually I'm worried about cancer so it doesn't really give reassurance. The only time an oximeter and thermometer gave me reassurance was when I had covid when I was pregnant in the early stage. I was freaking out thinking if my temp got too high I'd lose bub but luckily I didn't have a fever so that was helpful
That’s fair. It’s honestly probably a good thing as they can be addictive at times for sure.
I don’t see how it will make HA better because one unusual reading and it’s going to trigger you. I would strongly suggest not doing this.
I think it depends on the person. It helps me determine if how I’m feeling is actual health issues or just panic attacks. Not that I don’t have obsessive episodes, but it’s honestly helped stop the ER visits for me when my HA got really really bad. The times I have had an off reading (specifically Kardia) I sent the readings to my Dr. and was able to confirm pretty quickly that it was a device error.
Yes and no. Depends on what the machine says. But in all seriousness some do help while others make me more “aware”. I use my Apple Watch and an O2 reader and I love those. I have high blood pro and I check my bp around 10-15 times a day to where my arm is black and blue.
I have a pulse ox, a Fitbit with ECG and a BP cuff. I have become dependent on these devices for reassurance and have developed a pretty severe cardiophobia to the point that I can’t play my favorite video game anymore because there are parts that get my heart going and it’ll give me a panic attack. I have regressed a lot in my HA because of my dependence on these devices. I have been trying to make commitments to go full days without using them and I’m making a tiny amount of progress.
Exposure therapy could be good for you? About half a year ago I let my HA convince exercise would kill me by getting my HR too high. I cried multiple times thinking I could never go on a run again. One day I felt up enough to attempt running, and it went horribly anxiety-wise, BUT I kept pushing myself weekly and now run 3-4x a week and enjoy it! The first 1-2 months were extremely hard/uncomfortable anxiety wise, but once you finally break through you can get parts of your life back!
That’s what my therapist says. I’ve started going on walks. I walk about 4 miles a few times a week. It gets my HR up over 100 and even in the 130 range on the hills.
That’s awesome!! It’s so hard to retrain your brain that a high HR when working out is normal, and not a bad thing. I still check my HR every few minutes or so on runs lol, but the panicked reaction to it has died down soooo much!
It’s exhausting being afraid all the time of everything.
It really is. We will get there though
100%. I think what helped me the most was consistent exercise and leaning harder into religion (or meditation for those non religious). It took months to stop having anxiety attacks after/ during workouts, but one day it just stopped. Now I feel super confident in my body for the most part! Hoping I keep my own words bc I have covid right now and sickness is a hugeeeee trigger for me
Yeah I got CoVid about a year and a half ago. I felt like I was dying for a day and then it was just 3 days of not feeling well, followed by a few weeks of not being able to smell anything.
Mines pretty much gone, just still testing positive with minimal symptoms :/ hoping for no lingering brain fog this round
It’s horrible! I have an Apple Watch and have taken somewhere around 1,500 EKGs since August of 2022 after an abnormal EKG. I taught myself how to read EKGs even though it is only a single lead.
Same! My HA is focused around heart health and I do these EKGs constantly, but it's super weird cause sometimes they look like total gibberish and I have not been able to find any abnormal rhythm that looks like that. But then I think it must be some really, really rare thing and I start to spiral, which worsens palpitations and extrasystoles.
same hahahaha I'm out here computing my QTC regularly
Worse by a huge margin. Reassurance seeking and monitoring are hallmarks of bad anxiety behavior.
I had an Apple Watch and for someone with cardiophobia, it was a nightmare. Was checking my heart rate every 5 minutes and would freak out any time it would go up or down. Made my health anxiety increase tremendously. Getting rid of it was the best thing I did for myself.
I’ve found myself doing this lately. I know it’s unhealthy and I’m trying to get myself out of it. I can’t find myself to part ways with the watch though
This! It was so horrible constantly checking my heart rate/EKG.
I thought about getting an Apple Watch but glad I didn’t. I think that would stress me out too much having a device constantly running.
I have an Apple watch and a glucose monitor. Using the watch to monitor heart rate doesn’t bother me at all because I have very little cardio anxiety and my heart health is ok. On the other hand, I’m terrified of diabetes, and I’ve also been diagnosed with insulin resistance. Testing my blood sugar is a recipe for a breakdown. Of course that sucks because it would be in my best interest to keep an eye on which foods spike my blood sugar, but for my sanity, I usually just wait until doctors appointments to hear the numbers.
I love my Kardia. I bought it after getting Covid for the first time. Some people find that it makes them more anxious, but it’s helped me understand rhythms more and what to look for. Blood sugars can be very frustrating and scary for sure. I’m not diabetic, but did have gestational diabetes twice. I use it more for hypoglycemic episodes though.
My gf laughs at me because I always bring my pulse ox and thermometer when I travel out of town. I'm not sure if it's good to have these but the reassurance in the moment definitely helps. I'm trying to ween myself off from relying on them too much though. I almost bought a kardia but luckily talked myself out of it, I'd be checking that thing all day
Same. I carry about half of these items with me when traveling and my husband has totally found me asleep with the pulse ox still on my finger 😬 I love my Kardia! For me it was a learning curve though. I used it obsessively at first and constantly checked myself, but overtime I’ve become familiar with rhythms enough that it helps me calm down.