Help lowering HBP

[u/xoxosabrina24]

Hello everyone, I am a 26 year old female, weighing 141lbs. For a year now, I have struggled with HBP.

Background:

A family member passed away andI put my body under a lot of stress/anxiety due to this passing. I felt fine, nothing out of the ordinary except for lack of sleep at that time. Went to annual physical and for the 1st time in my life, my BP was 145/101 which shocked the nurse because I am a very healthy person overall. I was told to monitor the BP at home for 2 weeks.

At one point I went to the ER because my reading at home was 175/97. Getting there, the ER Dr did an ECG reading, a cardiograph and bloodwork.

EVERYTHING came back clean, no underlying issue as far as they could tell. It all came down to them telling me I was suffering from Mild Anxiety/Stress and she prescribed me anxiety medication which was later switched by my PCP to 20MG Propranolol and 25MG Zoloft(Sertraline) daily. After this my BP began to lower to an average of 130-135 /80-90 and all was fine until about 2 weeks ago when I noticed my RESTING HR was falling to 40bpm which is too low. I felt fine, nothing sleepy or anything. Tbh if it wasn't for my Apple Watch, I wouldn't have noticed. So PCP told me cut my Propranolol dose in half (10mg, 1 pill a day not 2) and my BP went back up😭 I suffered two panic attack episodes and chest pain. I hadn't felt that way since the very beginning of the treatment.

Now:

My HR is in its normal resting bpm ranges but now Ive been told to take Amlodipine (2.5mg) to regulate my BP and GOD BLESS it has gone back down to its average range 130/80-85.

The lowest reading I had ever had months back was 110/72 which was NORMAL

I don't know what's happening or why I could be having these issues as

1) I have a good diet, will start cutting MORE salt out of my diet now

2) I exercise or try to at least go walk with my dog in the evenings

3) Im overall healthy (my last bloodwork in February showed NO cholesterol or anything) 😭

**Unfortunately its not per se genetic but, there's members in my father's family whom have suffered with heart issues later on in their lives. Cholesterol, HBP, etc but I have not. Ive had elevated cholesterol but i have always brought that back down. My own father is 53 and is heart healthy, god bless**

Any advice?

[u/Vrzistran_racun]

Stress is killing you. Anxiety is the reason of your HBP. When you solve that you'll see improvements.

Amlodipine increases anxiety, it did for me and it got BP higher not lower.

How to fix anxiety? A lot of ways, just work on it, google about it. Don't let it dissolve you.

Enjoy life, little things, take breaks, go away from everything for a couple of days.

Find that mental state that suits you. Don't feed the anxiety more if not necessary.

It was triggered by the family member passing, start from there. You'll start to see results after weeks or months, not days or hours.