Sometimes people are scared by completely harmless things - flowers or images of children, but phenomena that potentially pose a threat can also act as an irritant: water, fire, height. Fear of blood is in fourth place in terms of prevalence, and many suffer from it to one degree or another.
Fear of blood, like many other modern terms, got its name from the Hellenic language. In ancient Greek, "heme" means "blood", and "phobos" means "fear." Today, the scientific community refers to a state of panic caused by a type of blood, hemophobia, or hematophobia. The first name is more common. Hemophobia has long been known, and many famous people have suffered from this mental condition. For example, Emperor Nicholas II was very sensitive to the sight of blood.
Nicholas II also suffered from hemophilia - blood clotting, which, most likely, led to a pronounced phobia.
However, panic at the sight of a dropping blood drop can occur not only in a person suffering from hemophobia. A similar reaction in the same situation will be observed in those who are afraid of medical needles and related procedures, as well as those who are afraid of injuries. Therefore, American psychiatrists even combined these three phobias into one category.
Signs of hemophobia
The vast majority of people experience unpleasant emotions when they see blood. As a rule, this is anxiety, fear, disgust, disgust. However, the intensity of emotions directly depends on the situation - the appearance of a bloodied person after an accident causes much stronger feelings than a palm scratched by a cat. With people suffering from fear of blood, the situation is different. No matter how extensive the bleeding is revealed to their eyes, they experience the same symptoms - dizziness, nausea, a panic attack, and a heartbeat. In the most severe cases, a person may even lose consciousness. The intensity of the manifestation of phobia does not depend on gender, age or character traits - both a fragile girl and a self-confident man can faint when they see a cut finger.
Unlike a person who does not suffer from hemophobia, the patient is not able in emergency situations to take control of his fear and escape or provide first aid.