OP you sound exactly like me at that age. I was diagnosed with kidney disease at 16 and got a transplant after one year of dialysis at age 27.

Things were amazing after that but now I’ve got terminal cancer at age 41.

Make the most of everything you’ve got while you still can.

I am also an artist and musician who suffers from high blood pressure! I don’t know your whole medical history so I can only tell you what works best for me.

The biggest two things I’ve done to keep it under control are quit drinking and change my diet. It’s helped me lose a lot of weight and lowered my blood pressure significantly! I’ve always played my guitar when I’m feeling stressed and that helps a lot but lately I’ve also taken up cross stitch which has been IMMENSELY helpful to me! It’s relaxing but it also requires quite a bit of focus so I can get out of my own head and calm down. The other thing I do that’s even more helpful is just going out walking! I started out just walking around the block but now I go 4 or 5 miles with no trouble lol!

I do take a very low dose of blood pressure medication, but my doctor has told me if I lose about 15 more pounds I won’t have to keep taking it anymore!

I hope this was helpful!

You just gotta try to hang on. Life as you get older is a total question of wtf is going to happen next.

I’m in one of those cycles.

1. Covid
2. Walked in on my dad almost dead from undiagnosed cancer and my childhood home trashed because everything fell apart when he was looking after my mom who has early onset dementia
3. 2 weeks later my dad dies & I am visiting the hospital during the height of Covid. My mom has to live in the hospital and doesn’t know who I am anymore. She doesn’t know her husband died.
4. Cancer scare. I think it will be fine? They’re still testing.
5. Husband lost his job. I am the only breadwinner.
6. Sister in abusive relationship with a severely mentally unstable husband who is spending all of their money. I fear every day he is going to kill her and their kids. She can’t kick him out of the house because he is on disability and can’t afford his own place.
7. Substantial changes at my job leading to feelings of mega insecurity for me.

Oh yeah and my mom isn’t even dead yet!

But I’ve also had some really great experiences during this time that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

If psychedelics are safe for you and you have no history of mental illness in your family I would strongly suggest that.

practically everyday.

Tuesday. Ended up in the ER with a massive pain in my side, felt like I had ruptured something.

Turns out it was “Epiploic Appendagitis”, which is kind of like appendicitis but on the other side. I call it “Table of Contentsitis”.

Not dangerous, just hurts like fuck so they loaded me up with hydromorphone.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4644543

“hydromorphone is five to ten times more potent than morphine”.

I had an uncle who went on bp meds at 16. It kept him from being drafted and he passed at age 82. Sometimes it’s just genetics. The concern with high blood pressure is what it does to your body over time. Take your meds - keeping it down will help prevent/limit damage and risk. Check your bp regularly to share with your doc. There are several different types of meds and it’s not unusual to need more than one type to keep it steady. 150 is high for your age, but not usually emergency level, especially if you’re asymptomatic, unless your doc has given you other guidelines.

I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and tachycardia as a skinny teenager, and I’m healthier than I’ve been since childhood now, in my late 30s. You’re not automatically doomed!

I went thru 4 or 5 meds initially, and finally settled on a beta blocker, which i love because it has anti-anxiety effects. I was also on a second med for a long time, but my numbers are finally getting better as i get older.

I know it sounds lame, but yoga helps me so much. I haven’t had an easy life, I’m queer and sorta lived in my car here and there, but yoga helps me feel less out-of-control.

Last time I felt helpless was a little less than a decade ago when I was in active heroin addiction. I knew I had a problem, I really wanted to quit, and I tried hard to quit… and I kept ignoring myself and using anyway.

I ended up finally succeeding in staying clean after like 5 or 6 relapses, with each clean period lasting longer than the previous. Now I’ve been clean for a little over 8 years.

I haven’t felt powerless or helpless since.

Here’s my advice. Put one foot in front of the other and walk forwards. Just take it a day at a time and worry about what’s immediately in front of you.

I’m sorry you’re dealing with a mystery health condition, and especially so young. I’ve been through much the same. Eventually, gradually, you come to get used to how your body works now and health(/death) isn’t always at the forefront of your mind. Hobbies and distractions do help, even something as simple a reading, watching movies, listening to audiobooks, bird-watching, whatever works best for you.

I would also recommend that you measure your heart rate and blood pressure while lying down versus while standing up. This is how I found out that I have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) – which is a long name that means, essentially, my body cannot properly regulate my heart rate, causing it to skyrocket when I’m not laying down. It’s not an uncommon condition, but it is one that most medical professionals will not think of to test for.

Now. For the last decade, honestly.

I’m not an nihilist, I’m the opposite of that. But facing my own mortality every second of life has hit me hard.

My sibling, You are not alone in living in constant terror of medical maladies that doctors have no interest in pursuing further than symptomatic treatment.

I am in the same boat. I have seen half a dozen doctors, all at great personal expense cause I dont have insurance, and been in the ER dozens times in the past 10 years.

and all I have is a handwave and “its probably anxiety”. Sure, I have anxiety. I have anxiety cause my heart rates over 200 for no reason. because my chest feels like an elephants sitting on it. because it feels like a flaming fist has Kali-Ma’d its way into my chest and is squeezing down in my heart. The anxiety didnt cause that shit. That shit caused the anxiety.

As proven when they stick that big beautiful syringe of Ativan or other powerful anxiety med in my IV and I go off to no-fucks given land, yet all my symptoms stay. Just now I dont care anymore cause I’m floating on rainbows amidst femboy angels.

But hey, my cardiac enzymes are good, and my EKG is clean (despite the 200bpm) so it just must all be in my head.

Marcus Aurelius was helpful to me - don’t be sad about the things you’ve lost, be grateful about what you’ve gained. He was specifically talking about the loss of a child. Some people are angry at God because he took away their child to soon. We should be grateful for even the short amount of time we had with that child. I have been able to apply it to so many other situations as well. Just living in constant gratitude can make your life so much better.

Now I’ve had a flare up of ulcerative colitis for most of the year and I was in hospital about a month ago and discharged after 6 days which was a month ago. I’m now back in hospital because my disease didn’t improve at home and now it looked like I was responding to the treatment in hospital but things are going they way they went after I was discharged so fuck knows what they’ll do. I’ve a specialist nurse in charge of my general care and a consultant who calls the shots on the treatment. The nurse wants me on a medication that’s taken as an IV ASAP and the consultant wants me to take the previous prescribed medication that hasn’t worked despite working in 48 hours according to the manufacturer. So as the current treatment probably won’t work I fucking hope that the consultant don’t just decide “eh fuck it, let’s just open up his bowel and give the fucker a stoma bag”

I’m not in the US by the way I’m the UK and the NHS where I live is actually pretty good and the staff in general is great I’m the hospital I’m in and my nurse is great. I just don’t really like my consultant as any time he’s seen me in hospital it’s only for a minute asking how I’ve been and then he fucks off. It’s like he’s not interested in really finding out things in depth whereas the nurse and I will discuss things and she’ll explain why certain foods are harmful for me during a flare and how to work around that and she’ll explain the medication I’m on.

I’m in my 30s and feel completely hopeless right now. It comes and goes, I’ll be great for a few years then everything collapses for a few. Right now I’m staring down an expensive major surgery, losing a series of very important people in my life, divorce, work burnout. Just got to take it as best you can and try to find some goals to point toward

My current hobbies include doing as many physical activities as I can to keep my mind off things, painting minis, and playing ukulele. Do what you can to have good sleeping habits. My sleep is garbage and it makes everything 10x harder. As always, don’t forget to drink water

Seeing people around you partying, having gone through my own drugs and alcohol phase, it’s not all that worth it really. At least for me at any rate. I was much happier after I got a better feel for what I actually wanted in life instead of trying to use alcohol to fit in. I was like 27-28 when I figured that out

Lately I’ve felt helpless in that I can’t seem to get out of this rut. Other times in my life that I can think of was when I was getting paid minimum wage and couldn’t pay the debt I was dumb and racked up many years ago. Another time was when I was in an abusive relationship that I didn’t understand that I could end.

I’m sure there are many others but those stand out to me at the moment.