Hemophobia—sometimes also called blood injury injection (BII) phobia—is the fear of blood, physical injury, needles, and injections. This type of fear occurs in about 4% of people, causing symptoms like dizziness at the site of blood or nausea before receiving an injection. Unlike other phobias, which may cause a racing heart, hemophobia actually causes lower blood pressure and increases the risk of fainting.
While researchers are not clear on what causes hemophobia, this fear is more common in people assigned female at birth and tends to run in families. The good news is that several types of therapies and some medications can mitigate this phobia and overcome your fear.
One of the most notable symptoms of hemophobia is fainting (medically known as vasovagal syncope) at the sight of blood. Other common symptoms of this phobia include:
- Dizziness
- Low blood pressure
- Nausea
- Stomach pain
- Excessive sweating
- Shaking or trembling
However, hemophobia can also affect your behavior. Many people with this fear experience anxiety before getting their blood drawn or undergoing procedures. They may also avoid healthcare settings and getting important vaccinations. Being unable to help someone who is bleeding or bandaging your own wounds is also common with hemophobia.
Causes and Risk Factors
Researchers note that it’s hard to determine the exact cause of hemophobia, but some evidence suggests that people with a family history of this type of fear have a higher risk of experiencing hemophobia themselves.
However, there are other factors that may increase your risk of developing hemophobia, such as:
- Being assigned female at birth
- Experiencing a blood-related trauma in early childhood
- Living with mental health conditions such as depression
More than 19 million people in the United States have some type of phobia. While some people may not want to talk about their phobia, if you're experiencing severe fear that's affecting your daily life, it may be beneficial to see a healthcare provider, such as a mental health professional.
Everyone needs support sometimes, and there's no shame in getting the care you need. That said, knowing what to expect during an appointment can help ease your worries.
To be diagnosed with a specific phobia (such as hemophobia), a mental health professional will ask you a series of questions. These questions are designed to uncover the significance of your fear and determine whether or not it classifies as a phobia. They also help rule out other mental health conditions that may be causing your symptoms. Your provider will be looking to see if you meet the following criteria for hemophobia:
- Unreasonable fear of blood, needles, or injections
- Avoidance of getting injections, donating blood, or having blood work done
- Fear that has persisted for a long period
- Extreme stress when you're exposed to blood or needles
- Significant effect on your quality of life
Mental health professionals also may use tools like the Severity Measure for Specific Phobia questionnaire to determine the severity of your phobia. This helps them determine possibly effective treatment options.
Treatments for Hemophobia
When treating hemophobia, mental health professionals may employ several treatment options that will depend on the intensity of your phobia, your tolerance for different treatment methods, and how you respond to therapy.
The goal is to teach you how to manage your reactions so that you can have procedures that involve needles, injections, or blood. Your provider may recommend one or more of the following therapies:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): Teaches you how to limit panic reactions, regain control of your emotions, and implement strategies like visualization, relaxation, and deep breathing to calm your anxiety
- Exposure therapy: Gradually exposes you to blood, injections, or needles to slowly reduce your fear and teach you how to manage your emotions when exposed to these triggers
- Applied tension: Offers guidance on how to apply tension to your muscles to increase your blood pressure to limit symptoms like fainting and hypotension (low blood pressure)
In some cases, your mental health provider may also recommend medications. It's worth noting that there is no medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat phobias like hemophobia. Instead, healthcare providers will prescribe anxiety medications alongside therapy to help reduce symptoms.
While it may not be completely possible to prevent hemophobia, it may be possible for parents to lower their risk of passing on this fear to their children. This can happen if they learn how to cope with their symptoms and manage their fear well.
Studies also show that learning certain parenting styles can also reduce the likelihood of a child developing a phobia. People with overprotective or overly critical parents may be more likely to experience phobias.
Additionally, children who see a reactive response to the sight of blood or injections may internalize these reactions and feel scared when they see blood again. Implementing a less judgmental parenting style and monitoring your reactions may help your children feel at ease even in the face of something scary.
Complications
Having hemophobia can result in a number of health consequences. These include:
- Avoiding seeing healthcare providers for regular checkups
- Refraining from getting medical care or procedures done when they're injured or ill
- Dodging important vaccinations
- Not getting bloodwork done
- Refusing to take medications they may need
- Restricting how often they see the dentist, which may cause dental problems
- Sustaining injuries from fainting
- Experiencing high levels of anxiety, especially if hemophobia is left untreated
- Limiting employment options or overseas travel if immunizations are required
Hemophobia is a fear of blood, needles, and injections that causes symptoms like fainting, nausea, or anxiety when seeing these triggers. Having any phobia can significantly impair your quality of life, but living with hemophobia can pose complications like not getting medical care when you need it or undergoing blood tests that can help diagnose health conditions.
Treatments like exposure or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you manage this fear well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can hemophobia be cured?
In theory, phobias like hemophobia can be cured with the appropriate treatment, but research shows that only about 25% of people with phobias receive treatment. That said, treatments can help manage hemophobia well if you continue practicing the strategies you're taught in therapy.
Is it normal to feel sick when you see blood?
It's not uncommon to feel sick when you see blood. Research shows that 1-5% of blood donors feel sick to their stomachs when they see blood. Experts believe this response is a vasovagal response, a nervous system reaction that can cause nausea, dizziness, sweating, and a change in blood pressure and heart rate.
How common is fainting at the sight of blood?
In people who have hemophobia, as many as 80% faint at the sight of blood. But in people without the phobia, fainting is far less common. One study found that 1 in 81 people fainted while giving blood (or 1.23%).
