What is the fear of doctors called: symptoms and treatment of iatrophobia

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Visiting a doctor is not the most pleasant pastime, especially for a person who does not like to waste time on examinations without having any complaints. Other people understand that this is necessary for their health and calmly go to the hospital. But some individuals panic at the thought that they will have to visit such an establishment. This type of phobia is called fear of doctors, or yatrophobia.

Definition and Description

People often experience anxiety and worry before going to specialists in medical institutions, but this cannot be called pathological fear. The fear of doctors is called iatrophobia, or iatrophobia. The name consists of two Greek words: yatros - “doctor” and phobos - “fear”. In this disorder, a person experiences increased anxiety, which is why he chooses to postpone visiting medical professionals or refuses to go to the hospital.

Iatrophobia is quite dangerous as it greatly affects the health and general life of the person suffering from this fear. If a person constantly avoids going to the clinic, he can neglect the disease he has developed. Sometimes jatrophobes get to the point where a relative or friend of the patient has to call an ambulance for him.

Health care in well-developed countries is characterized by high quality. Specialists organize an environment in which it is easier for the patient to adapt and feel comfortable and cozy. Doctors treat patients not as objects of treatment, but as living people. They try to establish trusting relationships with clients. Unfortunately, this has not yet been observed in Russia. In our country, psychological comfort for patients is rarely taken care of, which aggravates the condition of people who try to avoid medical workers.

About 30% of the world's population suffers from iatrophobia. People who are not susceptible to phobias easily suppress their fear of visiting a hospital and do not mention it in conversations with friends. At the initial stage of iatrophobia, a person hides his inner feelings from others, but he will feel terrible on the way to the hospital and at the doctor’s appointment.

Jatrophobes are not able to overcome severe anxiety on their own, since they do not always understand the causes of unpleasant sensations. Fear of doctors and hospitals can be due to various factors. Only by identifying them will it be possible to cure a person of a phobia.

What is the fear of doctors called?

Iatrophobia is the name given to the fear of doctors. The name comes from the Greek word “iatros”, which translates as “doctor”. Quite often you can come across the term “iatrophobia”, which will also be correct, because the transcription of the Greek word has two options.

Jatrophobia is one of the most common types of phobia. In ICD-10 it is not classified as a separate disease, so it can be designated by two codes: F40.1 and F40.2. The first code hides social phobia and anthropophobia, or fear of people. In this case, iatrophobia is considered as a special case of anthropophobia or fear of people of a certain profession. The second code, F40.2, is used to designate isolated phobias, that is, disorders that manifest fear at the sight of just one object or object, in this case a doctor or health care worker.

Reasons for development

The death of loved ones due to the fault of doctors can lead to uncontrollable fear of them

Jatrophobia is a fairly simple and understandable disorder, the causes of which are obvious. It occurs in a person against the background of any traumatic situations associated with people in white coats. The most common causes of phobia development:

• medical negligence;
• rudeness and inattention on the part of medical personnel;
• features of upbringing;
• dissatisfaction with your body;
• fear of pain.

Quite often, iatrophobia appears in people who were forced to spend a long time in the hospital and encountered medical errors. In this case, there is a fear of repeating the same situation, which gradually transforms into a real phobia.

Another reason is rudeness on the part of medical staff. Unfortunately, not all doctors are tactful. Situations often occur when a patient simply encounters a doctor in a bad mood. Harshness in communication with a patient, rudeness or even ridicule on the part of a doctor - all this has a traumatic effect on the psyche of timid, fearful and insecure people. As a result, a person may withdraw into himself and refuse to visit medical institutions in the future due to fear.

Another fairly obvious reason is dissatisfaction with your body. If a person is ashamed of himself and experiences severe stress when undergoing an examination, and the doctor is not tactful enough, it is quite possible to develop a real phobia.

Reasons also include fear of pain. This often leads to fear of doctors of a certain profile - dentists, traumatologists, gynecologists. As a rule, a phobia occurs due to the fact that a person has previously experienced severe pain during an examination or any manipulation.

Signs and symptoms

Just the thought of going to the hospital can cause a person to experience a migraine.

Iatrophobia refers to simple phobias with typical symptoms of an anxiety disorder. The first signs become noticeable already while waiting for an appointment. A person does not find a place for himself, feels internal tension and anxiety. As soon as you enter the office, a real sign of panic arises - the patient wants to escape as soon as possible, feels an increase in the pulse rate and the sound of his own blood in his ears. At the same time, other bodily symptoms may appear, for example:

• dizziness;
• lack of air;
• tremor of fingers;
• pressing headache;
• nausea;
• stomach pain, etc.

At this time, a person feels a strong growing fear that prevents him from thinking soberly. Irrational panic can lead to the patient literally turning pale, running out of the office and urgently leaving the medical facility.

It is worth noting that anxiety while waiting for an appointment is normal, but only as long as the person is aware of his own actions and is able to control panic and anxiety. The emergence of an irrational, groundless fear that is uncontrollable and causes thoughts to become confused is a typical sign of a phobia.

Quite often, patients with a fear of doctors hide in panic from any person in a white coat. This leads to the fact that a person neglects his own health, trying to heal on his own. Often, patients with jatrophobia become adherents of traditional medicine and alternative methods of treatment (turning to healers and sorcerers). Thus, it can be argued that phobia is potentially dangerous to human health and requires urgent treatment.

Types of mental disorder

Jatrophobia is considered a collective name for several types of fear of hospitals. A person may not be afraid of all medical workers, but of a specific specialist. Sometimes this turns out to be better than the situation when the jatrophobe is afraid of all people in the medical field. In other cases, the individual is afraid of the medical manipulations performed by doctors, which easily leads to the appearance and development of a phobia.

Known types of jatrophobia:

• Dentophobia is the fear of dentists.
• Nosocomephobia is the fear of being in medical institutions.
• Tomophobia is a state of panic before surgery.
• Trypanophobia - fear of needles.
• Pharmacophobia is the fear of taking medications.

Most often, there are people who experience severe anxiety in front of dentists. They are usually more afraid of drills and painful dental treatment than of the specialist himself. This phobia is followed by a fear of surgeons and gynecologists.

My knees are shaking!

It happens that panic seizes the patient before leaving home or on the way to the clinic. In this case, relaxation exercises will help.

If your health allows, do exercises or cleaning - any physical activity reduces stress levels and gives an outlet for accumulated adrenaline. If there is no way to relieve tension in this way, then at least go to the doctor on foot, and not by bus.

Breathing with a long exhalation. This is a yoga exercise. Breathe so that the exhalation is 1.5 times longer than the inhalation. In just 2-3 minutes you will feel the tension go away and your heart rate normalize. When the heartbeat is disrupted, the body perceives this as a threat - and panic intensifies.

Smile or bare your teeth. You can take a pencil in your teeth so that it is parallel to your shoulders and stretch your lips. If the muscles that are involved in smiling are engaged, the muscles of the collar zone automatically relax. And when the neck and shoulders are not constrained, the person calms down.

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Causes

Jatrophobia develops on the basis of negative impressions experienced by a person from the first visits to a particular doctor. If they become fixed in memory, then it will be necessary to seek help from a psychotherapist. First, the specialist must determine why the person is afraid to go to the doctor.

Possible causes of iatrophobia:

• Fears from childhood. Usually, phobias begin to develop in childhood, when the child has repeatedly experienced unpleasant sensations when visiting hospitals. These could be painful procedures involving physical invasion of the body. Parents and doctors are not always able to calm the child and relieve him of emotional stress. Children are often lied to that they won’t get hurt from injections or vaccinations, and this is retained in their memory as a negative memory.
• Manipulations carried out during the reception. Diagnostic procedures are not pleasant. Needles, metal objects, and inspection of naked parts of the body can cause pain or discomfort, as well as shyness and awkwardness.
• Mistrust of the doctor. The patient has to trust his body and health to a stranger who will violate his personal space. Even a specialist recommended by acquaintances and friends will remain a stranger.
• Availability of uniform. The doctor's white coat acts as a kind of sign of authority. The patient feels vulnerable in the presence of someone who has greater knowledge and skills than himself. The medical worker will be perceived as a representative of the power structure, which causes discomfort.
• Cases of medical errors. Doctors also make mistakes, but people can remember the consequences of their actions all their lives. If a person's loved one has suffered or died due to a failed operation, misdiagnosis, or painful treatment, he or she can easily develop iatrophobia. Films or programs that show incorrect actions and uncertainty of medical personnel can also affect the psyche.
• Fear of diagnosis. People with chronic diseases are limited in some areas of life. If you have heart disease, heavy physical activity is not recommended, and problems with the gastrointestinal tract force you to go on a diet, giving up many delicious dishes. Jatrophobes are afraid to hear from a doctor a conclusion that dooms him to an inferior life or requires surgical intervention necessary to preserve health and life.

Some people experience discomfort in the sterile and strict environment of a medical facility, in which the smell of medicines and the clanking of metal instruments are constantly felt. It can also be unpleasant to realize that there are many sick people in the clinic premises from whom you can become infected.

What to do with health

Sometimes feeling unwell gives certain bonuses. Firstly, the patient is given more attention and freed from everyday problems, and secondly, anxiety about health fills the inner emptiness. It is beneficial for a person to be sick, since it gives indulgence to do nothing (I feel so bad), to be irresponsible (you have no right to demand when I am in this state), to be unsuccessful (if I were healthy, then, of course, I would and so...).

To get out of this situation, first think about what your illness gives you. Then ask yourself the question: “What will I do when I stop getting sick and worrying? What will I do when I feel good?” The question “Why be healthy?” It sounds almost absurd (obviously), but this is a really serious question that requires the most honest answer possible. Lying to yourself is an expensive pleasure. Maybe you could finally tidy up your summer cottage or take care of your grandchildren? Or maybe you have long been dreaming of a vacation in warmer climes? If the motivation is strong enough, the fear of going to the doctor will disappear by itself.

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Signs and symptoms

Jatrophobia manifests itself differently at different stages of development. Individuals suffering from this disorder do not visit doctors for a long time, so those around them do not notice any signs of phobia in them. When they decide to come for examination, then all the symptoms will be noticeable by their appearance.

The presence of iatrophobia is characterized by:

• Nervous trembling.
• Tension in the muscles.
• Spasms in the stomach and intestines.
• A sharp increase in pressure.
• Uncontrollable anxiety.
• Tremor.
• Nausea, shortness of breath.
• Dry mouth.
• Increased sweating.
• Inability to express thoughts clearly.

Children who are afraid of doctors usually scream, cry hysterically, try to escape and do not give in to any persuasion.

Since jatrophobes almost never visit hospitals, they try to be treated with traditional medicine, and purchase pharmaceutical drugs based on reviews from friends. But self-medication rarely gives positive results. Even ordinary herbs can worsen not only your mental, but also your physical condition. Therefore, iatrophobia should be treated by a specialist immediately when a person exhibits its symptoms.

Manifestations

Fear of medical personnel is expressed in a certain way. It is difficult not to notice these manifestations and remain indifferent to them. As a rule, this is how a person discovers an existing problem.

Symptoms in the body

When different people need to visit a doctor, they experience a lump in their throat, sweaty palms, nausea, and dizziness. Some people are literally haunted by the feeling of lack of air. This is how strong fear manifests itself, which a person cannot cope with using ordinary methods. In some cases, it becomes difficult to even leave the confines of your own apartment.

Trembling in the body

A panic attack is characterized by the appearance of certain symptoms in the body. In most cases, there is tremors that become difficult to control. The person begins to feel chills. This happens as if out of the blue. The mere thought of having to visit a doctor causes serious anxiety. A strong feeling of anxiety, apathy, and a feeling of fatigue, despair and hopelessness appears.

Avoiding medical offices

The need to conduct an examination becomes real torture for a person. Some people immediately, at the very thought, begin to have panic attacks. The individual really withdraws into himself and is afraid to think about future prospects. Whenever possible, he tries to minimize visits to doctors. Even if something really worries you about your health, most likely the individual will prefer to remain silent or try not to pay attention at all. At a clinic appointment, such people behave extremely constrained. They look taciturn, are constantly nervous and glance at their watches, as if they are in a hurry.

Treatment options

Jatrophobia greatly ruins a person’s life.
A jatrophobe needs to understand that doctors who have studied their profession for many years help others cope with various diseases. You cannot consider them a threat and follow the advice of friends or the Internet, which can negatively affect your health. The treatment method for iatrophobia depends on the stage of its development. In a state where a person is still in control of the situation and forces himself to go to the doctor, there is no need for psychotherapeutic treatment. But if he is afraid to go to the doctor and does not seek medical help, then he should be observed by a psychotherapist. Since this specialist is also a doctor, the jatrophobe should be brought to him by a close friend or relative.

Sometimes just one session is enough to completely get rid of fears, but usually this is only possible with a good specialist. The psychotherapist prescribes treatment after assessing the patient’s condition and finding out the main reasons for the manifestation of fear.

Methods for treating phobias:

• Cognitive therapy. This technique is aimed at changing erroneous judgments and thoughts of a person who must learn to find a way out of difficult situations.
• Behavioral psychotherapy. This technique eliminates unwanted behaviors and helps the patient develop the necessary skills.
• Gestalt therapy. The method helps the jatrophobe in developing self-awareness and ending any painful situation.
• Hypnosis. This method is also quite effective in combating phobias.

With psychoanalysis, it will be possible to identify what influenced the psyche of a person in childhood, who is afraid to visit doctors as an adult. Work with the client is carried out individually or in a group. To prevent ordinary fear from transforming into a mental disorder, it is necessary to consult a specialist in time.

The jatrophobe needs to understand that fear limits his freedom of decision-making, which is a real privilege of an adult. Only with a trusting relationship between the doctor and the patient can the desired result be achieved - maintaining health and life.

What if there is gangrene?

Any modern person knows that prevention is better than cure, that “twice a year is a must...”, however, most of us tend to delay a visit to a medical facility as long as possible. Even if you are not inclined to dramatize, suspecting you are having a heart attack as soon as you feel a pain in your chest, or seeing gangrene in any pimple, it is still scary. And the same person who knows everything about prevention and medical examination will rush not to the clinic, but to the computer: study the symptoms and make a diagnosis. You endlessly study the Internet in search of similar symptoms and, of course, find the very diagnosis that you fear most. Then planning a visit to the doctor turns into real torture.

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Tips and tricks

The fear that has arisen, which has not yet developed into a severe mental disorder, can be overcome independently. To suppress it, you need to realize that the person working with patients is the person with whom you are building a relationship.

A few tips to help reduce your fear of going to the hospital:

• The easiest way would be to trust a specialist who has good reviews from other patients. You can ask your friends which doctor they would recommend. Then the jatrophobe will be more comfortable at the appointment, since he will know that he has seen a competent worker.
• You need to learn to trust yourself. Personal anxiety and uncertainty become the reasons for distrust in the actions of medical personnel. A person suffering from iatrophobia should try to listen to his body and boldly tell the doctor about all the problems. You can share your fears about visiting hospitals with him to establish a partnership.
• It is recommended to look for information regarding the diseases that have arisen, but you need to use serious sources, and not amateur forums on the Internet. There are specialists who provide free online consultations. There is no need to concentrate on reviews from people who speak negatively about doctors. People rarely talk about positive impressions, but people will definitely write about bad experiences.
• Sometimes you need to wait a little before starting your appointment, but you can pleasantly while away 10-15 minutes by reading a magazine or listening to music on your player or phone. While waiting for your turn, you can keep yourself busy writing work or personal plans.

In addition, it is necessary to prevent the emergence of a feeling of helplessness. When following simple tips and therapeutic recommendations, one should not forget about activities that give positive emotions: communication with friends, creativity, social activity, sports, various types of hobbies. It should be remembered that making decisions on important issues makes a person the master of his life, body and soul. The more often the jatrophobe reminds himself of this, the faster his obsessive fears will leave him.

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And if still...

Unfortunately, fears for your health are not always unfounded. Many people have real reasons to worry. Don't push away heavy thoughts. Instead, imagine the worst-case scenario. Think through in detail what you will do if your nightmares come true, how your loved ones will behave. Do this once. And then tell yourself: “So, there is an action plan for the most extreme case, now I will consider less exotic options.”

After this, try to imagine how else your problem can be resolved, what possibilities, options, and outcomes exist. Now it’s no longer so scary to think about a plan of action, because the ultimate option has been worked out and put aside.

And then the horror that eats you from the inside will be replaced by specific actions. This means that you will be able to talk more calmly about what is happening to you and look for the best way out of difficult circumstances - sign up for consultations with different specialists, undergo additional examinations, try different treatment regimens. Once you take action, fear will go away.

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Fear of doctors. How can a psychologist help?

If you try to support yourself on your own, but it doesn’t work, you slide into childhood, resentment towards your parents grows, which means that a more detailed study of that traumatic experience is required. Then you will have to go deeper into the problem, look for a resource to cope with the situation today.

A psychologist can help you find the chain along which the fear of doctors develops and functions within your psyche.

• If this is drawing a picture where there is an expectation of pain, then you can draw another picture - where you can cope with this pain, how you can cope.
• If it is fear at the bodily level, you can work with the body. For this, breathing techniques can be used, for example: a short inhale, then exhale twice as slow, a short pause, and a short inhale again...
• If questions arise in your head: “what if...”, “what if...”, then you need to work with these thoughts. For example, is there really any reason to believe that what you thought could happen? And, of course, returning yourself from that childhood to the present.

Causes of iatrophobia in children

In children under two years of age, crying and moodiness are explained by fear of strangers, and not iatrophobia. This is a natural fear in early childhood and does not require treatment. Fear of strangers can drag on for a longer period if the baby has no experience communicating with strangers. For example, when a child is not sent to kindergarten, and other adults rarely come to visit their parents’ home.

Moreover, the meaning of medical procedures, often unpleasant and painful, is incomprehensible to young children. In addition, some babies may have a low pain threshold. This only increases the fear of people in white coats, and the words “today we are going to the clinic” inspire horror.

Parents themselves contribute to the development of a phobia, using the child’s fear of doctors for educational purposes. Threats of going to the clinic and receiving injections as punishment for disobedience contribute to the development of a persistent negative association in the child with medical staff.

It is possible that fear of doctors is passed on from mother to child. Observing the experiences of a person who should serve as a bulwark of safety, the child also begins to worry. And, of course, after a long, protracted illness with an abundance of injections and other painful procedures, the baby will experience panic for some time at the sight of doctors and hospital wards.

What can you do if the reason was parental educational measures?

How did you feel when your parents frightened you, for example, with a painful injection? Surely there was fear among doctors , helplessness, and the inability to change anything. But I wanted a different attitude towards myself – attention, care.

This is how it was in childhood. But you cannot return to childhood, but you can change the present. First of all, you should understand: now you are not that little child, you are already an adult, and your parents will no longer give you what you wanted as a child. Now you are responsible for yourself, which means you can give yourself what you want. You can tell yourself now what you would like to hear from your parents then.

For example, as a child you were sick and had to undergo painful procedures. And the parents then said: “Well, come on, it doesn’t hurt at all.” What did you want to hear? “What a great fellow you are, it was painful, but you did it!” Why not say these words to yourself now after an unpleasant procedure?

When going to see a doctor, you can prepare questions and ask them at the appointment, clarifying what is not clear. After all, you have the right to know about your health status. You can collect information about your disease from other sources - these could be encyclopedias, forums of people with the same disease. You can also consult several specialists.

In short, collecting as much information as possible can help you. The more information you have, the more you understand your problem, the less fear doctors have, since you understand what can be done with this disease and how. That is, your competence can help overcome fears: you imagine a problem, have information about it, fear decreases.

You can also find your own doctor, that is, one whom you will trust, with whom you will be more or less comfortable communicating. Why is it more or less comfortable? Because you still go to the doctor not for pleasant communication, but for quality treatment. It is better to have pleasant and comfortable communication in the company of friends.

But if the fear of doctors is so strong that you force yourself to go to see a specific doctor and have great difficulty withstanding his manner of communication, then the benefits of treatment may be outweighed by moral harm.

And no doctor can be more competent in your body than you: he will never be able to feel exactly the discomfort or pain that you feel. Therefore, the choice of a doctor and the treatment method he proposes is your choice.