u/Minute-Swimming-3177

I'm 28, 6'1, 180 lbs. The other week I had a pretty bad panic attack that resulted in my BP going to 174/110. The reaction from A&E was basically "yeah your blood pressure can do that." Just before my panic attack hit, I would be just walking around the house and my BP would go up to like 150/9X.

It's frustrating because I lost a lot of weight (274 -> 180), yet.when I'm anxious (which is basically all the time), my blood pressure is often around 134/90 or so at rest. When I came home from work (with anxiety) my BP was like 144/90 or so, and went down to 130/80 or something. I am taking 2mg Perindopril. In rare instances my BP has went down to 119/74 or something like that. I've told my GP about my massive BP spikes and often high blood pressure even with 2mg, and said I think my BP medication should be adjusted, but they didn't seem convinced.

After my first panic attack I've had serious health anxiety and have been afraid of eating anything unhealthy and especially doing exercise, which increases BP.

I had to stop taking my SSRIs because of side effects like debilitating brain fog and induced panic attacks. I feel like I doomed myself being clinically obese for so long (basically from ages 19 - 28 I was either borderline or morbid). My dad and his mother also have high BP. What should I do?

Edit: I'm in the UK

I've been taking 10mg Propanolol for months now and it still absolutely fries my brain. It certainly works for heart rate, but I can barely have coherent thoughts while on it, and it's interfering with my job. I don't even have low blood pressure.

My dad takes 40mg and doesn't have any side effects. Why would such a minuscule dose still be doing this after I've been taking it for months, when he takes a much higher dose and is fine? I hear people say it takes a few weeks to adjust but that is not happening.

Is there something else I should be looking at? I also take Sertraline 25mg and BP medication as my BP goes up when I have anxiety and I experience panic attacks.

So yesterday I was helping my dad with some work in the garden, and I noticed every time I would bend down to grab something, then stand back up, I would get light-headed, and my vision would get a bit "greyed" (or whatever visual noise you call it), before fading out. I also noticed this morning that, when I would stand up from sitting and walk away, my heart rate would go from around 60, to between 90 to 100, before slowly going back down. But often it doesn't do that and it just goes up by 15-20 or so?

I've actually observed this for years, but just thought it was normal because lots of people get light headed after standing up too fast. I didn't really notice the heart rate thing either until I got my smart watch which can track heart rate.

I have not fainted because of it, wouldn't say I have fatigue (I can go on a jog just fine). I have however had palpitations since I was a child. I do shake a bit but don't sweat (I actually don't really sweat much now.)

I normally take 10mg Propanolol daily for anxiety, but recently paused as I was getting drowsy and having brain fog, though now that I think about it, the brain fog wasn't going away even with low doses.

dad also takes 40mg Propanolol for the same "heart condition" (if you can call it that) where sometimes there's a stronger heartbeat, followed by a pause, before the heart continues beating again. The doctors said that was palpitations, but I'm not sure??

I have pretty bad health anxiety (and anxiety in general, including a dissociative disorder), and I'm not really sure how to proceed, because I've never really heard of this condition before. I'm in Northern Ireland if that helps.

Edit: should probably just ring GP in the morning. I'm just so weirded out by this thing I didn't really pay any heed to previously. This is pretty much a ramble/vent now but I can't change the flair 😭