The world of phobias always entails very specific problems that, despite affecting very few people, can turn into real nightmares. The case of epistaxiophobia is an example of this, since in it, what produces intense fear is something that is not usually among our usual concerns, nosebleeds, or nosebleeds.

In this article we will see what is epistaxiophobia , what are its symptoms and causes, and how psychologists intervene in this kind of disorders through psychotherapy.

What is epistaxiophobia?

As we have seen in advance, epistaxiophobia can be summarized as an extreme fear of nosebleeds, usually of its own .

However, for this to be a real phobia, the disturbance has to be intense and persistent enough to significantly damage the quality of the person who suffers from this kind of experience. How is this determined? The person living through these fear or anxiety crises can decide whether or not the experience makes him or her more unhappy, but ultimately it is the mental health professionals who make the diagnosis.

On the other hand, in the diagnosis this type of experience does not have an official name, given that there is a practically unlimited amount of phobias , and that is why many of them are included under the concept of specific phobia. This is also the case with epistaxiophobia.

Symptoms

Phobias are a class of anxiety disorders, which is why most of the symptoms of epistaxiophobia are linked to this phenomenon. These symptoms can be divided into three types: physiological, cognitive and behavioral .

Among the physiological ones, the acceleration of the respiratory rate , the increase in blood pressure, tremors, nausea and dizziness , cold sweat and pallor stand out.

On the other hand, cognitive symptoms include the idea of catastrophes (imagining the worst possible scenario), the impossibility of directing attention away from what is frightening, and the belief that one is helpless in the face of danger.

Finally, the behavioural symptoms of epistaxiophobia include escape and avoidance behaviours , that is, actions aimed at avoiding the risk of a nosebleed or exposing oneself to other people.

Causes

As with all anxiety disorders of this type, epistaxiophobia does not have a single cause that is present in all patients with this phobia, but rather there are a multiplicity of factors that can lead to the development of this disorder .

It is very common for it to appear as a result of one or more traumatic experiences, lived with special intensity and which may have left an important mark on people’s emotional memory.

It is also possible that on a relatively large proportion of the occasions when you have had a nosebleed, something bad has happened, which contributes to these experiences not being seen as neutral beyond the inconvenience of losing blood through the nose for a moment.

On the other hand, social pressure and the possible loss of acceptance by others may be overestimated and constitute the main source of fear.

In any case, in this as in the rest of phobias, one of the aggravating factors of the anxiety crises experienced by this disorder is the anticipation that the symptoms of the phobia will manifest themselves. That is to say, that the existence of the disorder feeds itself , creating a vicious circle capable of making everything remain the same no matter how many years go by.

Treatment of this disorder

Epistaxiophobia has no specific treatment, but the same procedures used in most phobias are applied: exposure, systematic desensitization and cognitive restructuring . However, in this case it is complicated to cause real bleeding, so they are simulated (or worked with exposure through imagination).

The idea is to get the person used to being exposed to what they are afraid of in a controlled environment, under the supervision of the therapist and following an upward curve of difficulty that avoids the patient becoming frustrated. In this way, the person becomes more and more accustomed to facing what he or she is afraid of, and when he or she sees that nothing is wrong as it is a controlled situation and a level of difficulty that can be assumed , progress is made.

At the end of the treatment, the symptoms will have significantly decreased, and although they probably won’t disappear completely, they will no longer be a major problem that prevents you from leading a normal life.

Bibliographic references:

  • Bados, A. (2005). Specific phobias. Faculty of Psychology. Departamento de Personalitat, Avaluació i Tractament Psicològics. University of Barcelona.
  • Bourne, E. J. (2005). The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook. New Harbinger Publications.