The problem of how to stop being afraid of blood worries many modern people today. This is a special phobia, which belongs to obsessive states and is characterized by terrible fear at the sight of blood not only on one’s body, but also in other people. As a rule, accompanied by trembling, pallor, palpitations, comes to a loss of consciousness. Moreover, hemophobia affects not only weak, but also quite strong, apparently healthy people. It is known that the last Russian emperor Nicholas II suffered from hemophobia. This was due to the illness of his son, who had a bleeding disorder. The causes of the manifestation of the disease are always psychological.
What causes hemophobia?
In order to understand how to stop being afraid of blood, you need to understand the causes of this phenomenon. People are often afraid of blood, and some are afraid of their own blood flowing from a wound, while others are only strangers.
Psychologists characterize this fear as irrational, that is, there is no real reason for it, but at the same time the individual is panicked.
Understanding the question of how to stop being afraid to donate blood, one should distinguish the fear of blood from hostility at its sight. In principle, it is unpleasant for a person to look at blood, but most of them are not afraid, but simply try to avoid such situations. When blood is taken for analysis, many turn away not out of fear, but because it is unpleasant for them to see themselves as "wounded."
In psychology, there is an opposite disorder that is associated with a person’s love for the type of blood. If you like to watch how it flows out of a wound, then this is also a pathological disorder that needs to be treated, like normal fear. Some may even reach vampirism when they begin to taste human blood.
The concept of hemophobia
Many people encounter this problem during the usual trip to the doctor, a visit to the office may be a problem to take tests, so you have to figure out how to stop being afraid to donate blood. With hemophobia, the patient has a panic attack, all his actions are aimed only at not seeing more blood, and by any means evading a situation in which this can happen.
Like any phobia, it must be overcome. Fear fetters actions and thoughts. Especially women and children are affected. If you encounter this problem, you should immediately contact a specialist who can provide qualified assistance. After all, hemophobia brings a large number of inconveniences in ordinary life, people cannot understand how to stop being afraid of blood from a finger and will not be able to pass an elementary analysis.
Dislike or fear?
Hemophobia can develop in particularly susceptible people who, like most, do not like the look of blood. But because of their impressionability and emotionality, they begin to draw in their imagination everything that may be associated with blood.
Many of the fears and concerns of modern people are simply fictitious. Fear itself is a natural reaction of a person to what can threaten him with death; it arises at a time when you are in real danger. This is a normal reaction. The nature of many strange fears of modern man is associated with experiences that have arisen as a result of films, books or someone else's stories. Another person may be afraid of what will happen to him in the future.
Types of hemophobia
Previously, it was believed that hemophobia is a hereditary disease, but experiments conducted on identical twins proved that this is not so, one of them could have such fear, and the second did not.
Therefore, the researchers came to the conclusion that the point is exclusively in the human psyche. It is psychological factors that have a decisive influence on the appearance of this fear. Only an experienced psychotherapist can help cope with it, tell how to stop being afraid of blood.
Hemophobia itself can be of several types. Scientists distinguish between:
- fear of seeing your own blood;
- fear of seeing someone else's blood;
- fear of blood in animals;
- fear of blood in general.
Because of their phobia, some refuse to eat meat, as they always remember that it contains blood. Others prefer to be treated with herbs and folk remedies, instead of seeking the help of a doctor. And this can lead to sad consequences.
Causes of fear
The causes of this disease are very diverse:
- negative experiences from the past, for example, once a person donated blood, he became ill, now he does not know how to stop being afraid to donate blood from a finger;
- childhood injury (blood flowed from the wound, and the mother was very scared or scolded the child);
- the belief that blood loss always poses a threat to life, because great blood loss leads to death;
- impression from a large number of seen cruel and realistic films;
- the influence of the media, which regularly demonstrate the consequences of wars, disasters, accidents, people lying in the blood.
It is noteworthy that hemophobia can occur even in cases where no blood is shed. This phobia is largely based on our imagination, a person can imagine too painfully and realistically a pain that only hypothetically can be experienced by himself or someone whose blood is spilled. Moreover, in this case he is not afraid of the very sight of blood, but of pain, the state that a person experiences, losing blood.
Symptoms of the disease
To find out how to stop being afraid of blood, you need to establish whether you have all the symptoms inherent in this disease. After all, hemophobia is accompanied not only by panic attacks, but also by other symptoms that are caused by psychosomatics. This is trembling, blanching, horror manifested in the eyes, surges in pressure, loss of consciousness, a sharp change in heart rate.
In some cases, a patient with hemophobia may complain of chills, suffocation, blurred consciousness, numbness of the extremities, nausea, decreased thinking.
Most often, a panic attack that occurs with a person takes a little time and quickly passes. The short duration of this condition is a positive property, because for a long time a person cannot constantly be in fear.
The psychological side of fear
Fears often prevent us from living, so it is important to understand them in order to step over them. For example, the fear of experiencing a breakup with your loved one again may cause you to refuse to start dating someone, the fear of being misunderstood prevents you from making new friends or acquaintances, and showing yourself in the company for the better. The main disadvantage of hemophobia, in addition to the unpleasant symptoms themselves, is the inability to donate blood for analysis, which is often necessary when making a diagnosis.
Therefore, it is important to understand how to stop being afraid of a blood test from a vein or from a finger in order to live on in comfort. The fear that binds you with phobias makes you give up desires and constrains your thinking. You begin to be afraid that something in life may happen the same way as with other people, while remembering only the worst options. This can really happen if you do not change your actions and actions, your views on the world around you. If you behave the same way as in all previous situations, you will inevitably get a similar result.
At the same time, it is often very difficult to change the behavior, because fears often make you remember that unpleasant negative experience again and again, provoking the commission of previous mistakes.
Hemophobia treatment
Hemophobia as a serious mental disorder is quite rare. Most often, we are talking about exaggerated fear, which is complemented by vivid pictures from the imagination. In order to cope with this problem, to understand how to stop being afraid of blood from a vein, the help of a professional psychotherapist is needed. The doctor, even if it does not help to completely eliminate fear, must definitely lower the level of fear itself.
You should be aware that fears themselves do not disappear. A person can finally defeat them only if he understands the causes of their occurrence and changes his behavior model.
Moreover, often their own fears are greatly exaggerated, they may not have any basis under themselves, and at the same time cause serious discomfort to a person. With all these subtleties the psychotherapist will also help to understand.
How to help hemophobia?
If a panic attack has begun in front of your eyes, for example, he does not know how to stop being afraid to donate blood from a vein, then you need to know how he can be quickly helped. There are some tips to help you deal with the problem. First of all, tilt the head of a person with a panic attack to his knees to manually increase his blood pressure, in this position he needs to help normalize his breathing.
There are several exercises that will help you quickly recover. Tighten your muscles, actively move your limbs to disperse the blood, this will help you quickly regain consciousness. To soothe breathing exercises.
When is specialist help needed?
Psychiatric help will be required only if fear of blood brings a person to a state of seclusion. If he begins to be afraid to leave the house, he seeks to make his home as safe as possible. In this case, mental abnormalities can begin to be traced to him, schizophrenia, manic psychosis can begin to develop. Hemophobia can lead to such consequences.
Sometimes a request to talk about how and why he is scared can be an effective way to help a hemophobe. If a person begins to complain and communicate his difficulties to a therapist or close acquaintance, then this is a very good sign, which means that the person is on the path to recovery. But it is important at this moment to treat him as sensitively as possible, listen carefully, and support him in every possible way.
Get used to blood
If every time you go to the office for procedures, you say to yourself: “I'm afraid!”, The blood from your finger scares you, that is another option to try to get used to its appearance.
To do this, you need to think through all your actions in advance when blood appears. The algorithm should be carefully rehearsed. For example, you can practice using red colored water. After that, the algorithm should be worked out in various real situations.
Getting rid of hemophobia
If you often say to yourself: “I'm afraid of blood,” what to do in such a situation, we will tell you in this article. You need to understand what type your fear belongs to.
It can be instinctive, manifest when human life is in danger. At the same time, your thoughts become automatic and spontaneous, aimed solely at trying to save your life. Such cases are quite rare. More often than not, far-fetched fear arises. People for various reasons are often afraid of certain events, the reactions of others, the results of their actions and actions.
Feeling fear is nothing special. Even brave people are afraid, this is a natural reaction of the body. Only a courageous person is pushed by fear to go forward, helps to concentrate, quickly find solutions in the most difficult situations.
Be thankful
If fear prevents you from living, you must find an effective way to overcome it. For example, contrasting with darkness is light, if you get into a dark room, then you immediately know what to do: press the switch. The same thing with fear, in order to overcome it, he needs to oppose another, more powerful quality.
What kind of quality will it be? Many may assume courage. But in reality, even a brave man is afraid, fear simply does not allow him to stop. Therefore, gratitude will be a more effective quality, the opposite of fear. As soon as unwanted fear arises, remember five things you are thankful for. For example, thank the parents who raised you, because it is gratitude to another person that dispels fear.
If you regularly remember that you are grateful to many people around you for what you have in life and what you have achieved, then there will simply be no place for fear in your life.
Remember, if fear prevents you from living happily and fully, you need to do something about it. The sooner you begin to contact specialists and find out the causes of the phobia, the faster you will deal with it.