10 Phobias that Can Really Make You Sick

Are you afraid of blood, needles, or the dentist?
Are you afraid of blood, needles, or the dentist?

By Janet Kim, Everyday Health

Who isn't a little uneasy before seeing a doctor? While most of us keep our fear in check, others are so unreasonably distressed that they're incapacitated by the fear and avoid medical attention, risking their health in the process.

Health phobias - like other debilitating fears - are anxiety disorders, which affect people of all races and ages, but tend to be found in more women than men. About 75 percent of people with phobias are fearful of more than one thing. For many, the only way to cope is active avoidance.

Treatment - specifically exposure therapy, a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy - can help you overcome a health phobia. Without therapy, the following 10 medical and health phobias could jeopardize your health and even your life.

1. Tomophobia: Fear of Surgery or Invasive Medical Procedures

Let's face it - surgery is scary. Potential risks include infections, unexpected outcomes or complications, even death. But for some people, fear of surgery or other invasive medical procedures can be downright terrifying. Called tomophobia, this fear can develop out of a negative experience with surgery, anxiety about being anesthetized, or possible harms from an invasive procedure.

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The DSM-V, the manual used to diagnose mental disorders, categorizes tomophobia as a specific phobia of the blood-injection-injury type. These phobias affect 3 to 4.5 percent of the population and more younger than older people. Someone with this anxiety disorder may refuse to have surgery even though it might save her life.

2. Iatrophobia: Fear of Going to the Doctor

Nervousness and worry about seeing a doctor is common - usually because we fear bad health news. But for some people, the thought of an upcoming medical appointment can cause unreasonable distress. This fear of going to the doctor is called iatrophobia, and it can be triggered by a traumatic experience with a medical provider.

According to Simon Rego, PsyD, Director of Psychology Training at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, a cycle of avoidance can develop that negatively reinforces the phobia; people are less likely to get checkups or treatment, their health deteriorates, they become more anxious, and they avoid the doctor even more. Eventually, a simple procedure becomes more complicated or a benign condition worsens because the person has waited too long.

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Treatment for iatrophobia can be especially challenging because the psychiatrists or psychologists who can help may also be objects of the person's fear. People with iatrophobia might find it helpful to have a family member or friend go with them to a therapy appointment, or see if initial therapy could be done by phone.

3. Dentophobia: Fear of Dentists and Dental Procedures

When dentists appear in movies, they're often scary. Remember Steve Martin's sadistic Orin Scrivello, D.D.S., in the 1986 film, "Little Shop of Horrors?" It's enough to make almost anyone dread their next dental appointment.

For some, the terror is compounded by a past traumatic dental experience, the sound of the drill, noxious office smells, anesthesia needles, painful procedures, and the potential for gagging. This fear of dentists and dental procedures is called dentophobia, and it affects 2 to 4 percent of the population.

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According to Dr. Rego, evolution could explain dentophobia: "There's a part of the brain that says don't let someone stick metal objects, drill around in your mouth, and mess around with your teeth," he said, because "we need our teeth to chew and we need our mouths to be able to ingest food." If you're ready to confront your dentophobia, start by consulting a dentist who specializes in dental anxiety.

4. Belonephobia and Trypanophobia: Fear of Needles and Injections

Nearly everyone dislikes being poked with sharp objects like needles, but for some, just the thought of needles makes the heart rate and blood pressure swing up and down, and they may even pass out.

A traumatic event involving needles or hypersensitivity to pain can cause this fear, called belonephobia, which may be inherited in some people. It affects up to 10 percent of the population, including actor and martial artist Jackie Chan, who revealed to The Guardian that this is his biggest fear. Related is fear of injections, or trypanophobia.

Given that needles are an everyday part of healthcare used to draw blood, immunize, or treat by I.V. or injection, these phobias have serious health implications. Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help, or you and your doctor could try to limit the number of procedures requiring needles.

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If that's not possible, ask your doctor to apply a topical anesthetic at the site of the injection or use a special tool to obscure the needle or minimize injection pain. You could also try behavioral techniques to distract or de-stress yourself, or take anti-anxiety medication if you know you'll be confronting needles.

5. Traumatophobia: Fear of Being Injured

Some people have an irrational or excessive fear of being injured, called traumatophobia, causing them to avoid objects, situations, places, or activities where there's injury potential. Elderly people who fear falling, for example, may cope by making extreme alterations to their lives, which can severely limit their mobility, curb their social life, increase isolation, and diminish quality of life.

Traumatophobia causes symptoms different from the rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing, and increased nerves or shakiness typical of non-blood-injection-injury type of specific phobias. Instead, it may cause heart rate and blood pressure to fall suddenly after an initial rise, which could cause some people to faint.

6. Nosocomephobia: Fear of Hospitals

Hospitals are intimidating places. "Although they're associated with medical care…that's where sick people are, that's where disease is, that's where illness is contained, that's where germs are," said Dr. Rego. And of course, they're also places where people die.

An abnormal fear of hospitals is called nosocomephobia. Those affected feel helpless and out of control in hospitals, and worry that checking in may mean not checking out - a fear that President Richard Nixon had. Nosocomephobia also prevents people from visiting hospitalized loved ones.

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You're more likely to develop nosocomephobia after hospitalization for a serious health condition, or if you have related phobias - like fear of doctors, disease, or surgery.

People with nosocomephobia may need therapy if the problem causes "so much disruption that they say, okay, I recognize now that my life is being impacted so much that I really need to get help, or a family member, friend, or loved one says you really need to go see someone for this because the way you're reacting is not normal," said Rego.

7. Nosophobia: Fear of Getting a Disease

Nosophobia, also known as pathophobia, is an irrational fear of getting a specific disease like cancer, heart disease, or a sexually transmitted infection. You may confuse nosophobia with hypochondriasis, which is a preoccupation with perceived symptoms of a serious illness that has yet to be diagnosed. People with hypochondria obsessively seek medical care and are rarely satisfied with what the doctor finds, whereas people with nosophobia avoid medical care at all costs due to fear of being diagnosed with a disease.

8. Tocophobia: Fear of Pregnancy or Childbirth

Some women have an intense fear of pregnancy and childbirth known as tocophobia (also spelled tokophobia). First described in medical literature in 2000, tocophobia can develop after traumatic labor and delivery, hearing other women's horror stories about birth, having a history of sexual abuse, or out of fear of labor pain or bodily injury from vaginal delivery. In a 2007 interview, actress Helen Mirren revealed that she developed this phobia after watching an explicit childbirth video as a 13-year-old student.

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Women with tocophobia delay or avoid childbirth; some may use multiple forms of contraception to ensure they don't conceive. A woman with tocophobia who becomes pregnant may deny she's pregnant, terminate the pregnancy, endure overwhelming fear throughout her pregnancy, or request an elective C-section. It's critical that women with tocophobia have support from their loved ones and also work with a medical team that is sensitive to the condition.

9. Hemophobia: Fear of Blood

Who isn't a bit squeamish at the sight of blood? But some people respond so strongly to the sight of blood - their own, someone else's, or even fictional blood depicted in a movie - that they panic, feel faint, or actually faint. A negative or traumatic experience involving blood may cause hemophobia, and it's sometimes linked to other phobias, such as fear of needles, injury, disease, or medical or dental procedures. Consequently, people with hemophobia tend to limit or avoid activities that could cause injury and the potential for bleeding.

Not everyone with hemophobia faints, but those who do require a specific treatment. "Along with exposure therapy, you teach people something called applied tension," said Dr. Rego, which is a technique that teaches someone to boost their blood pressure or maintain it at the first signal of potentially passing out. Keeping your blood pressure up keeps you from passing out.

10. Algophobia: Fear of Pain

Anticipation of, or hypersensitivity to, pain can be overwhelming, and result in algophobia, an unreasonable, intense, or constant fear of pain. Seniors may develop this condition after they hear countless stories about peers or loved ones who suffer aches and pains that impair quality of life. People with algophobia avoid activities or situations that could cause any kind of pain or discomfort, which can be incredibly disabling and isolating. Routine activities, such as walking at night or carrying heavy items, are perceived as threatening.

According to Dr. Rego, people with algophobia can benefit from working with a psychologist or psychiatrist on exposure therapy. "Exposure therapy basically prescribes the opposite to avoidance…an opportunity to confront the triggers and correct your beliefs about what could happen," he said. "You build a positive cycle where you're no longer afraid, so there's no need to avoid anymore."

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This article originally appeared on EverydayHealth.com: 10 Phobias That Can Really Make You Sick