What is fear of blood?
What is the fear of blood called and what is it? Hemophobia, or hematophobia. This is an irrational fear of the sight of blood and the anticipation of meeting it. When contacting an object of fear or while waiting for contact, the hemophobe panics and becomes ill. The term was first introduced in 1972. Its author is American psychiatrist George Weinberg.
How does blood phobia manifest itself?
- paleness of the skin, especially the face;
- increased sweating;
- trembling and tremor;
- dizziness (loss of consciousness);
- nausea;
- headache;
- tinnitus;
- feeling of wobbly legs;
- tachycardia;
- breathing problems;
- chills;
- feeling of suffocation and lack of air;
- pain in different locations;
- clouding of consciousness;
- decreased cognitive abilities;
- problems with coordination.
Often the patient says that he smells bloody cells. But in reality it is not there, it is a form of hallucination at an advanced stage of the phobia of fear of blood. During a severe panic attack, a person is afraid of going crazy or dying. His actions are inappropriate. He can scream, attack people, throw objects, and run away.
conclusions
Blood phobia is an obsessive state of unconscious anxiety that complicates the patient’s life, “prohibits” him from engaging in active sports, and does not allow him to fully take care of his health. What is dangerous is not the feeling of fear, but the subconscious desire to avoid a traumatic situation for the psyche: refusal to visit the clinic, donate blood for analysis, or treatment.
Hemophobes stop eating meat, hide knives, razors, scissors, forks in inaccessible places, and wrap soft fabrics around the sharp corners of furniture. They are treated mainly with herbal infusions, spells, and meditations.
To stop being afraid of the sight of blood, you should carry out psychotherapeutic correction, suppress panic, and adapt to society. It is necessary not to run away from fear, but to boldly look into its eyes, overcome yourself, and the fear of blood will recede. Of course, sick people, adults or children, must be treated with understanding, without rudeness or insults. And always remember - a person must become stronger than doubts, anxieties, illogical fears, then he will be the master of his destiny.
Causes of hemophobia
On a subconscious level, red liquid is associated with war and death (these associations were inherited from distant ancestors).
Other causes of fear of blood (phobia) include:
- personal negative experience of receiving medical services;
- personal psychological trauma associated with physical damage or watching someone die or be injured;
- fear of infection;
- fear of fatal or serious illness.
Why are people afraid of blood?
- memories of a past unsuccessful test experience (feeling sick, dizzy, the doctor couldn’t get into a vein, the client fainted);
- memories from childhood in which the mother scolded the child for every abrasion are frightening;
- memories of an unpleasant incident in which a person experienced physical and mental pain, and where bloody liquid was present, are frightening;
- Memories of violence are frightening (both from personal experience and against the backdrop of news from the media or movie plots).
In women, fear of blood may be a reflection of non-acceptance of their sexuality and femininity. In teenage girls, this may be associated with a fear of growing up and further entering into close and intimate relationships.
Why do people faint at the sight of blood: this is the result of a sharp drop in blood pressure, which is caused by a sharp surge of adrenaline. This, in turn, occurs due to severe fear, stress, and tension. Thus, fainting is the result of anxiety and fear. But at the same time it becomes a cause of phobia. Become aware of this feature and stop being afraid of fainting.
main idea
Talk to your doctor about your fear of blood, especially if it's taking over your life and causing you to skip routine medical appointments. Seeking help as soon as possible will ultimately make your treatment easier.
But beyond that, facing your fears head on can also help prevent your children from developing hemophobia. Of course, there is a genetic component to phobias, but some fears are learned behaviors. With the right treatment, you have a chance to be on the right path to recovery.
Types of hemophobia
Fear of blood has several subtypes. The following subtypes of fear can be distinguished:
- fear of seeing someone else's blood;
- fear of the sight of one's own blood;
- fear of seeing animal blood;
- fear of seeing any blood.
If a person is afraid of his blood, then this may also be due to the fear of pain. And if he is afraid of someone else's blood, then this may be due to the fear of punishment or the fear that he will not be able to help another.
Fear of donating blood
With this form of fear, panic grips a person long before the procedure begins. In this case, it is recommended to distract yourself, read a book or watch a movie on your phone. When entering the office, you need to immediately warn the medical staff about your phobia and that you are having a hard time with the procedure. After this, your fear of embarrassing yourself will decrease, and the nurse will immediately take all the necessary measures, for example, take a thinner needle and put you on the couch (in this position the blood circulates better).
It is important! Make it a rule not to look at the needle or the procedure itself. Turn away and imagine something pleasant or talk to the medical staff.
First aid for a hemophobe
What to do if a person becomes ill in front of you? To normalize your physical condition, you need to increase your blood pressure and disperse blood throughout the body. Physical exercises will help with this: tilting your head to your knees or consciously tensing all your muscles and active leg movements. To normalize the mental state, you need to take the hemophobe to a safe place, turn away from the source of fear.
If a person faints, then you need to give him ammonia, lay him on a hard surface, raise his legs, and unbutton the top of his clothes. If a person is in a pre-fainting state, then you need to give him a drink of water, help him wash, and put him in a horizontal position. You can first tilt your head towards your feet to improve blood circulation. It is important to ensure a flow of fresh air: open a window or take a person outside.
It is important! If you can help yourself, then you need to do a few squats or bends. This will restore blood circulation.
How to get rid of hemophobia yourself
To self-correct the condition, psychologists have developed a special five-step technique that tells you how to get rid of hemophobia. Let's look at each of the steps in more detail.
Talk
Sometimes simply speaking your thoughts out loud helps you realize the irrationality of your experiences and overcome anxiety. Contact a psychologist, a close friend, or talk to yourself about everything that worries you. Try to reason, find the root cause of fear, talk about its consequences and impact on your life. Such reasoning helps not only to change the attitude towards the problem, but also to find a way out of the current situation.
Exercises
In moments of panic or when you feel like you are about to lose consciousness, do the following exercises:
- For five minutes, tense all the muscles of your body one by one. Start by clenching your fists and move up, then move to your shoulders, chest, stomach, legs. Practice this technique every day, then during an attack you will definitely not forget about it. This technique allows you to restore blood circulation and reduce the level of cortisol, the stress hormone.
- Take 20 quick breaths. This will help quickly saturate the brain with oxygen.
Meditation
Meditation allows you to calm down and look inside the subconscious. This technique allows you to understand the connection between soul and body, teaches you to hear the soul and the body. The essence of meditation is to concentrate on your feelings, abandon any thoughts and ask yourself: “why are you afraid of blood?” You may not hear the answer right away, but if you practice meditation daily, you will learn to understand yourself.
How to meditate correctly to get rid of the fear of blood:
- Choose a convenient time and place, make sure there are no distractions.
- Find a comfortable position. It is not necessary to sit in the lotus position, but your back should be straight.
- Try to relax your body with the power of thought.
- After this, pay attention to your breathing.
- Say a mantra (positive affirmation). You can supplement this stage with visualization.
If you catch yourself on extraneous sensations and thoughts, then immediately return to a relaxed state by force of will. Switching will happen less and less each time.
Psychotherapy
If the fear of blood is beyond your control, the fear of blood has reached such proportions that you cannot take the necessary test, or you have locked yourself within the walls of the house and thrown out all the sharp objects, then it is time to consult a psychotherapist. As part of the professional treatment of hemophobia, psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, hypnosis, and gestalt therapy are used. A specialist will study your case and select the optimal treatment. If necessary, the psychologist will prescribe sedatives.
How to overcome your fear of blood on your own
Try to communicate as much as possible with those who are not afraid of blood, but take your phobia seriously. Find out the stories of people who have suffered serious injuries or recovered from major blood loss. Think about what exactly scares you. Now you know emergency self-help methods, you don’t have to worry about fainting.
Possible consequences of advanced phobia and prevention
In advanced stages, a person refuses meat (due to a dangerous lack of vital vitamins and microelements), avoids hospital services, and switches to traditional medicine. Traditional medicine is largely based on self-hypnosis and helps only with minor ailments and colds; in other cases, self-medication and lack of professional diagnosis (including blood tests) can lead to death.
In addition to physical health, the mental state of the patient also suffers. Every day the tension increases even more, because you can encounter blood in everyday life. It is especially difficult for women (menstruation) and people with weak blood vessels (nosebleeds).
Without monitoring and treatment by a specialist, the patient’s condition will worsen. Some hemophobes lock themselves in their homes and remove all sharp objects. Often, against the background of hemophobia, a fear of sharp and piercing objects develops.
Risk factors
Researchers estimate that 3 to 4% of the population suffers from this phobia or has a fear of blood (data).
Specific phobias often first appear in childhood, between 10 and 13 years of age.
Hematophobia can also occur in combination with other psychoneurotic disorders, such as agoraphobia, various zoophobias or panic disorder.
Additional risk factors:
- Genetics. Some people are more likely to develop phobias than others. They may have a genetic predisposition, or by nature the person is overly sensitive and emotional.
- Anxious parents or guardians. You can learn to be afraid of something by observing the fear of adults. For example, if a child sees that his mother is afraid of blood, he also has a chance to develop the same phobia.
- Overprotective parents. Some people develop general anxiety. This is the result of being in an environment of strong dependence on an overprotective parent.
- Injury. Stressful or traumatic events can lead to a phobia. This could be anything that involves blood, such as a hospital stay or severe physical injury.
Phobias often originate in childhood. Toddlers' experiences typically revolve around things like fears of the dark, strangers, loud noises, and monsters. As children get older, between the ages of 7 and 16, fears become more focused on injury and health. We can also talk about hemophobia.
The average age of onset of hemophobia is 9.3 years for boys and 7.5 years for girls (scientific source).
