fainting at routine doctor's appointment due to medical phobia

[Stagestruck]

I'm trying to get help for my teenage (18) daughter, not myself. She's always been very squeamish since being a very small child. Several times, when children have been injured at school, the teachers had to ring me to pick her up because she got so distressed, even though the injured child had recovered and gone back to playing.

She tells me that she remembers being in infant school and having to put her pencil down and her head on the desk because of feeling funny and faint just because someone mentioned the word blood in the conversation. She says reading the word 'blood' makes her go funny.

She's fainted in history lessons (being taught about vaccinations in the history of medicine) at the Thackray Medical Museum, and during a first aid course at school. At 15 she was found to have hypothyroidism, which involves annual blood tests, at which she completely freaks out.

The situation now seems to have reached a point where she passes out in any medical situation. For instance she had a routine appointment a couple of weeks ago for some spot cream (she has very mild acne), got halfway through the appointment and suddenly slid out of her chair on to the floor in a faint. No threats of injections, no blood, just a discussion about spot cream with a doctor.

I have booked her in with a hypnotherapist next week, who was recommended to me by a friend who had a frog phobia. He sounds confident that he will be able to help her, but otherwise I am at a loss to know what to do. It has reached the point where she might put herself in danger by fainting in the street or something, just because she passes someone ill or injured and receiving treatment. She is upset and embarrassed about it and I am worried because she can't avoid everything medical for ever.

Just wondered if anyone else has experienced anything like this, if they managed to overcome it and how.

[Davit]

I'm going to guess that she is intelligent, has good imagination, fast reflexes and is artistic, probably sees in three dimension but is not autistic. And very very frustrated.

If so it is because she can access associated memory very fast and has likely a shorter path between associated memory and both the hippocampus fear area and hypothalamus control area. It works like this, even though episodic memory has a logical answer she still draws one or more out of associated memory and if they are negative they set off hippocampus fear area that tells hypothalamus to react. It does what it has learned to do from past experience and she faints. In people that don't have this they would get close to fainting but have a fight or flight panic attack instead. I know of one other person here that can access associated memory fast besides me, she sees in three dimension also. Neither of us is autistic.

[AnxietyDJ]

To a certain extent (although not as extreme), this sounds a lot like me, although I think some of my issues were triggered by experiences rather than them just being 'the way it is'.

Ever since I can remember I have been very uncomfortable with needles - especially when they go into someone else and especially when it is related to drug taking (illegal). There were many occasions during educational anti-drug classes at school where I had to rest my head on the desk, or leave the room, due to feeling extremely unwell and lightheaded (even now typing this, I am starting to feel a little off).

Also, since an episode where I passed out during a blood test at about 16 years old, I've been absolutely terrified of any needles going into me, in case it happens again (it's strange because I am not actually afraid of the needle or the pain it causes, just the effect it will have on me feeling unwell and/or fainting).

Your daughter really isn't alone here and there are many people who share in her fears and reactions to medical situations.

I really hope she can find some help and starts to conquer these issues soon

[Stagestruck]

I'm going to guess that she is intelligent, has good imagination, fast reflexes and is artistic, probably sees in three dimension but is not autistic. And very very frustrated.

You're absolutely spot on. She's an A grade student, now studying drama at a top university, so artistic, but not in an 'art' sort of way. I'm sure she does have a good imagination, but I'm not quite sure what you mean about seeing in three dimensions

She was trying to earn some extra money the other day by role playing with medical students. She was confident she'd be fine, the role play was a psychiatric one, no talk of blood or needles and I went through it with her several times to try and ensure she was used to discussing the content. She fainted towards the end of the first student to work with her, with absolutely no warning whatever, and no discussion of anything except emotional and psychiatric issues. She tried again after a break, but it started happening again so she had to leave. She was SO upset and embarrassed and although money isn't the important issue here, she lost out on the opportunity of earning money and had been looking forward to doing a proper working day for the first time. That - together with the fainting at the consultation about the spot cream - is why we think the phobia has expanded to anything remotely medical.

Really hoping that the hypnotherapist is going to help. Thank you for your replies.

[Stagestruck]

A quick update. She spent two hours with a hypnotherapist yesterday. It was established that the root of the phobia was blood and other fears such as fear of needles and other medical situations stemmed from this. It's early days and we won't know she's completely sorted until some kind of medical situation arises, but by the end of the session she was looking at and touching pictures of bags of blood, people having blood tests, even gory vampire pictures. I know she would have run a mile previously as even seeing the printed word 'blood' used to make her feel faint.

Hopefully things will get better for her now.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Wow, thats amazing!

Her response seemed quite severe from reading your earlier post so this must be a great comfort.

Perhaps the hypnotherapist really did find the root and alter her perception of it? I've heard hypnotherapy can be very useful with phobias but I've never really heard much beyond the things you see & read.

Is she having further sessions to explore greater levels of exposure or has she got to try that from here on? If the latter, perhaps following the ERP route of a hierarchy might be a useful way to plan it out?

[AnxietyDJ]

That's amazing news... So happy for you and your daughter. As you said, it is early days, but hopefully progress can continue along the same lines - I will keep my fingers crossed for you both.

Let us know how everything goes in the future

[Stagestruck]

Thanks for the replies and good wishes. Not much more to report at the moment, she's gone back to University until the end of May and has exams. Medical/blood situations aren't the ones you come across every day, so it's difficult to be sure at the moment how well it's worked. She did send me a text telling me a friend of hers was in hospital and had put a picture on facebook of all the cannulas, needles and drips coming out of her arm. My daughter saw this photo on facebook without warning and she said it had no adverse on her whatsover (except for feeling sympathy with her friend of course) - she reckoned that in the past she would have freaked out and stayed off facebook for at least two hours, for fear of seeing it again.

We're planning to go back to the Medical Museum in Leeds when she's back home for the summer.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Sounds like she is doing very well. I've always heard people like Paul McKenna say that phobias can often be quickly addressed and this sounds like a good case for hypnotherapy.

I hope she continues to experience the same success as you introduce new triggers.