PHOBIA to the BLOOD: name, symptoms, causes and treatment

Blood phobia, also known as hemophobia, is an irrational fear of blood and everything related to it: wounds, scratches, needles... It is a fairly common phobia that, in general, is usually accepted and not tried to overcome it. However, like the other phobias, it has a possible treatment.

Hematophobia can cause great discomfort in those who suffer it and be very limiting. In addition, the fact that they are afraid of aspects related to blood, can make those who have hematophobia avoid certain situations necessary for their health, such as a blood test. That is, it can cause damage to physical health. Keep reading Piscología-Online to see the different symptoms, possible causes of blood phobia and the treatment that would be applied to a person suffering from hematophobia.

Index

1. Symptoms of blood phobia
2. Causes of hematophobia
3. Treatment of blood phobia

The symptoms of hematophobia are those of a person with a phobia. In the following article, you will find information about

Cognitive

Cognitive symptoms refer to the person's thoughts and emotions. It is quite common to have feelings of fear and intrusive thoughts on anticipating a catastrophic future. An example of this is thinking that if you bleed, you will pass out. With this example, what we see is that, in general, the fear is not of the blood itself, but of the feeling of fear of the blood and the possibility of suffering the following symptoms that we will see.

Physiological

Physiological symptoms correspond to symptoms of anxiety, since phobias are anxiety disorders. Typical physiological symptoms of blood phobia are:

• Sweating
• Increased heart rate
• Increased breathing rate (hyperventilation)
• Tremors
• Pallor
• Sickness
• Fainting

Behavioral

For their part, these symptoms refer, above all, to avoidance behaviors in feared situations. As we mentioned in the introduction, it is quite common to avoid taking blood samples, getting vaccinated or going to the doctor in general, as long as avoid blood-related situations. Also sometimes potentially dangerous situations are avoided for fear of, for example, falling, and therefore having an injury.

Why do I have a blood phobia? The causes of blood phobia, like the symptoms, can be divided into three groups or types:

• Genetics. On many occasions, the fact of developing a phobia is due to a genetic predisposition to it. For example, if a family member has this or another phobia, it is more likely that at some point in your life you will develop it.
• Learning. If from a young age they teach you how dangerous it is to bleed and wrap you in a bubble of overprotection and excessive anxiety about dangers, you may end up developing this type of phobia of blood.
• Experiences. The fact of having lived, or knowing someone who has lived a traumatic experience related to the blood, can cause trauma to the person and, thus, end up developing this type of phobia.

How to overcome blood phobia? Let's see how to treat blood phobia:

• Exposition. For this type of phobias, it is quite common and effective to apply a exposure psychological therapy. This technique consists of establishing a list of the different stimuli related to the blood that produce some fear or anxiety. Subsequently, the person would face each stimulus, one by one, starting with the one that produces the least anxiety. The exposure would last until the anxiety completely disappeared.
• Cognitive restructuring. On the other hand, irrational thoughts that cause such fear can also be worked on together. Together, a controlled tension therapy is applied in order to learn to avoid fainting associated with this phobia.
• Values ​​and commitment. Finally, it is effective to work on the clarification and achievement of the person's values. That is, if being healthy is important to her, why does she allow her phobia not to allow her to be consistent with the value of health and to go to the recommended medical check-ups?
• EMDR. There are other types of therapies and psychological techniques for this type of problem, such as EMDR therapy, which, however, have not shown the same efficacy as exposure therapy. In this article we explain what is and what does EMDR therapy consist of?.

In any case, it is recommended that all this be done under the supervision of a professional since if not, the phobia could become entrenched making it more difficult for the sufferer to recover.

Below, you can watch a video to learn about other rare, but very interesting phobias.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Blood phobia: name, symptoms, causes and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

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• Borda Mas, M. D. L. M., Rodríguez Franco, L., Antequera Jurado, R., & Blanco Picabia, I. (1999). Prediction of results: severity of hematophobia, personality variables and therapeutic success. Behavior Analysis and Modification, 25 (103), 703-733.
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