Blood, illness and injury phobias
Becoming more aware
The information will show you a safe way of stopping a faint. You will learn to stop your blood pressure from dropping. We do this by tensing muscles in the body. It is quick and easy to use and can be used in almost any situation.
Like all skills it takes time to pull it off. It is best to practise and slowly increase your confidence before you try it in your most feared situation. Once you can do this technique you can practise putting yourself in the situation that used to make you faint. We do this step by step to make sure that you can work at your own pace to build your confidence in the technique. This also helps you to spot your early warning signs of a drop in blood pressure so that you know when and how to apply the technique in the future.
You can become less scared of things if you repeatedly put yourself in the scary situation and use the technique to avoid fainting. This is probably because you will see that you are not in danger. The chance of fainting also seems to reduce over time. Just like new doctors and nurses we seem to get used to blood and injury. The technique can also be used after you have seen a needle, blood or an injury to help reduce the unpleasant after effects of a faint or near faint. So by applying the technique in more and more tough situations you can get better at spotting early warning signs. The more you use the technique to prevent a faint, the more you will trust your control over fainting and the more confident you will feel.
Practise 'applied tension'
The technique is called 'applied tension' and involves learning to tense the muscles in your body, arms and legs. The easiest way to do this is to imagine you are a bodybuilder. Like any skill the more you practise the better you get. We recommend that you have five practise sessions a day each lasting around five minutes. You can practise in most places but it might help at first to not have distractions like the television in the background. This will help you to concentrate on making sure your muscles are tense.
Visit the panic section of the site to learn how to control your breathing during these exercises.
- Make sure you are sitting down in a chair that supports you well.
- Try to keep a normal breathing rate throughout the exercise.
- Sit back in the chair but lean your body forward slightly.
- Clench your fists, feel the tension in your hands and forearm.
- At the same time bend your arms at the elbow, tense your biceps and push forward with your chest muscles. As if you were a body builder showing off your muscles or you were hugging something really tightly.
- Feel the tension in your hands, your forearms, your upper arms, chest and shoulders.
- Also push the heels of your feet hard against the floor.
- Feel the tightness in your calf, thigh and buttock muscles.
- Remember to keep breathing normally.
- Tense all of these muscles as much as you can without causing pain and hold the tension for 15-20 seconds.
- Keep tensing for long enough to feel the warmth rising in your face.
- Now, release the tension and go back to normal but do not relax your muscles.
- Do not let yourself slump into the chair, do not let your arms drop by your sides.
- Wait for 30 seconds and then repeat the exercise.
- Repeat the routine five times in a session, tensing and then releasing five times in a row.
You can also do the exercise lying down. If you are lying down do exactly the same exercises but lift your shoulders and keep your lower back on the floor. As if you were starting to do a sit up. Push the back of your heels down towards the floor.
 |  |
| Sit comfortably in your chair | Tense your muscles as above |
Problems with the exercises
A few people get a headache or sore muscles after tensing. This happens if your tensing has been too strong and/or too often. If this happens then just reduce the amount you tense or the number of times you tense.
Face the situation
You can use the technique to increase your confidence with objects and pictures that make you feel faint. It is best to start with something that only makes you feel a little faint. If you take on the most feared situation too soon you might feel that the technique does not work.
Make sure you are sitting or lying down and are well supported so that you cannot fall if you faint.
Look at the object or image (in a picture or on a television screen) that makes you feel faint.
Scan your body for the very first signs of fainting. These vary from person to person but can include:
| A feeling or warmth around the head and neck | Cold sweat on the forehead |
| Feeling light-headed | A queasy sensation in the stomach |
| Feeling sick | Changes to hearing or vision |
When you notice these symptoms, start tensing your muscles just like you practised for 15-20 seconds.
Break for around 20 seconds. Start tensing again if you can still notice symptoms.
Keep tensing and releasing until the feelings have gone away or you are feeling too tired.
Applying the technique when blood is being taken
Tensing your arm can interfere with blood being taken. If you need to have a blood test then start by doing the tensing as normal. When your muscles are tense let the arm from which blood will be taken relax. You might have to reduce the tension level in your other muscles a bit to let you do this. Open the fist in the relaxed arm. Straighten it out until the muscles are loose and there is only a small bend at the elbow. Let your elbow rest on the bed or a table/desk and let your shoulder drop and relax. Once the blood has been taken you can tense both arms to help reduce any symptoms linked to fainting.
Reducing after effects
Applied tension can be used to reduce the after-effects of feeling faint. It can also help with any symptoms that might remain after you have seen something that makes you feel faint. Simply follow the same procedure described above. Tense the muscles of the body, arms and legs for 15-20 seconds at a time with breaks of 30 seconds in between tensing. This should reduce the length of time that you experience after-effects.
Taking the skill forward
Most people rarely have to deal with blood, injury or needles. It can be very useful to set up situations where you will get a chance to practise your skills. Some clinics will allow you to make an appointment with the practise nurse to allow you to look at needles and practise using the technique in the room where you would have blood taken.
This can help you to remember what to do and keep up your confidence in your ability to cope. Some people choose to become blood donors so that they get a chance to practise the skills that they have learned after therapy. Others watch television programmes about hospitals or use pictures of blood or injury.
Whatever you choose, if you practise quite regularly at first, maybe two to three times a month, you are more likely to increase your confidence.
Come up with a 'Big Challenge Thought'
A big challenge thought is one that you can use to fight the negative thoughts. Uses this thought along with breathing exercises whenever you are in a difficult situation.
| Write down your worrying thoughts | How much do I believe it? | |
|---|---|---|
| If I know I need a blood test I think 'I will faint'. | 10 |
Challenge the thought :
| Try and find a more balanced thought | Ask yourself what reasons you have for the thought | Ask yourself what reasons you have against the thought |
|---|---|---|
It might help if you think of:
| Last time I had blood taken I fainted and the nurse wouldn't let me leave the surgery for an hour afterwards to see that I was ok. | If I learn how to cope with having blood taken then that won't happen again. |
Come up with another way of looking at it :
| Big Challenge Thought | New rating of worry (1 - 10) |
|---|---|
| I can learn to deal with this. | 3 |
