Four years ago the stress of renovating our house and my son’s marriage caused intense anxieties in me and culminated in me suffering from panic attacks. There had been several huge attacks that landed me in the hospital trembling and heart pounding with my BP was extremely high 164/110 but my pulse was always at normal of 65-72. I was also perpetually having palpitations. I was put on BP medication and Zoloft. The doctor tried many BP medications on me, but my BP would remain high in the morning when I woke up – 160/103 but by 10am it would drop to 106/70 and by noon time it could go as low as 96/63 and I would feel lethargic. My palpitations did not seem to be better I so I stopped Zoloft as I did not want to depend on drugs. I started mindfulness meditation and breathing exercise which helped reduced the attacks greatly. I still have occasional intense full blown attacks but managed to bring it down with the breathing exercise in fairly short time.
I joined this program 3 weeks ago with the hope to be fully recovered from panic attacks. I have been faithfully doing the homework. I am now ready to do exposure works and have some queries regarding this.
Almost every morning I would be awoken by palpitations or tightness in my chest and this would trigger a fear in me and the thoughts that my BP must be high and I can suffer from a stroke or heart attack even though I have come clean and negative on Echo Test, Stress Test, ECG and Holter Monitor (to check palpitations). These thoughts would trigger mild panic. I would most appreciate suggestions and advice on the kind of Exposure Plan for this issue as I have no idea where or how to begin.