Hi. It’s Jenny at AnxietyBoss.com. Our question today is from Jolene in Dallas, Texas. Can stress or anxiety cause high blood pressure?
Well, blood pressure is the force at which your blood pushes against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. If the force of the blood flow is often too high, the tissue of the arteries get stretched beyond a healthy limit and this creates serious problems such as damaging your heart, kidneys, blood vessels and other parts of the body.
Can stress or anxiety cause high blood pressure? Yes. During stressful situations, your body produces a surge of hormones which increase your blood pressure causing it to beat faster and your blood vessels to narrow. If your blood pressure readings are constantly at 140/90 over a prolonged period, the high pressure can put extra strain on your heart and it’s this extra strain which increases your risk of a stroke, aneurysm, heart attack or a condition known as atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries.
Left uncontrolled, high blood pressure contributes to a poor quality of life. If you are under stress, you may smoke more or overeat and exercise less. For your own sake, the physical and behavioral signs of stress can’t be ignored. High blood pressure is a silent killer and often has no symptoms, and the best way to find out if you have high blood pressure is to have yourself tested.
High blood pressure can be controlled by making lifestyle changes as well as taking medication. Managing it needs to become a lifelong commitment of lifestyle changes. Listen to your doctor about your blood pressure medications. Help your body to help itself.
Getting a massage from a professional masseuse, for example, is a wonderful way to relax. Meditation is also an effective self-help therapy with the aim being to achieve voluntary control over your mental processes by means of a high level of concentration.
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I work with a woman boss that has major favoritism she only like certain people, if she don’t like you she will give you bad reviews and if you tell her about a co-worker that’s making trouble for you she’ll change the subject and ignore you and go on, she retaliates against employee she don’t like also, she had several employees quit on her and one employee was going to be transferred to her team and he retired because he didn’t want to work for her. Another associate filed a workers compensation case against her and has an investigator on her. She’s giving me a lot of high blood pressure.
I’m sorry to hear of the work stress you are enduring. If you don’t handle your work stress, then your high blood pressure will convert into hypertension, requiring medical treatment to get your blood pressure under control. I would recommend that you get a blood pressure monitor (home kit) to monitor your blood pressure. If it is consistently high, then you need to see your family doctor for a full physical. You also need to relieve your stress- this website can help to get your started with stress reduction.