Traumaphobia (fear of being hurt): symptoms, causes and treatments

The experimentation of physical pain is something that is not usually pleasant or attractive but that, sooner or later, happens to us. Either due to an accident or carelessness, or due to some intervention or surgical operation.

However, there are a number of people for whom this possibility generates exaggerated fear and extremely high levels of anxiety. We talk about the people who suffer trauma phobia, a specific phobia that we will talk about throughout this article.

• Related article: "Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders"

What is traumatophobia?

According to the classification of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), trauma is a specific phobia classified within anxiety disorders in which the person experiences an abnormal and pathological fear of injuring himself, hurting himself or suffering any harm or physical injury.

The root of its name comes from the Greek terms "trauma" translated as wound, together with "phobos" which can be literally understood as fear. Therefore, traumaphobia is understood as

experiencing an exacerbated, irrational, and uncontrollable fear of being physically hurt or harmed.

One of the main characteristics of trauma phobia is that when the person suffering from it is exposed to the blood, to a injury or even an injection, they begin to experience feelings of extreme anxiety caused by fear of this stimulus phobic.

As a consequence of this irrational and excessive anxiety, trauma patients manifest a constant desire to avoid specific objects and situations in which there is the possibility of being injured; going to the point of avoiding potentially healing medical procedures.

However, really serious cases of trauma have been described in which any activity or situation is cause for panic. Tasks and exercises such as running, cooking, driving, hiking or any type of sport can be a complete torture for the person, who will look for all kinds of reasons and excuses not to have to take them to cape; being the final and most serious consequence of this phobia fear of leaving home.

This causes people with trauma to experience great difficulties to develop their day to day normally. Which means that this condition can interfere both in the workplace, as well as in the social and personal aspects of the subject.

• You may be interested: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

But it is normal to be afraid of pain, right?

Of course yes. The experience of physical pain in any of its forms or degrees is not something that is usually pleasant or attractive (removing, of course, any paraphilia related to pain). The aversion and avoidance of pain is a logical reaction in anyone who does not like to suffer; however, there are profound differences between this type of aversion and a phobic fear typical of trauma.

The main distinctive features that differentiate a normal fear from a pathological fear are:

• The fear response is excessive and disproportionate compared to the real threat posed by the situation.
• Fear is irrational, reaching the point that the person is not able to find a reasonable explanation for her feeling of fear.
• It is uncontrollable. This means that the person is completely unable to control the sensations that he experiences.
• Causes avoidance and escape behaviors.
• Fear is constantly present over time and through feared situations.

What symptoms does it present?

Since trauma is part of a diagnostic classification of anxiety disorders, this It is composed of a series of symptoms and presents the same clinical picture as the rest of phobias specific.

The first and main symptom is one's own feeling scared at the possibility of hurting or injuring yourself, but there are many other symptoms that accompany it. Although they do not have to present in the same way in all people, the clinical symptoms of trauma include physical symptoms, cognitive symptoms, and behavioral symptoms.

1. Physical symptoms

Physical symptoms appear as a consequence of an overactivation of the nervous system in response to the appearance of the phobic stimulus and are usually the first symptoms that the person experiences consciously.

• Increased heart rate and palpitations.
• Increased respiratory rate.
• Feeling of suffocation or shortness of breath.
• Muscle tension.
• Increased sweating
• Headaches.
• Gastric disorders such as stomach pain and / or diarrhea.
• Dizziness or feeling dizzy.
• Nausea and / or vomiting.
• Fades.

2. Cognitive symptoms

In addition to the physical symptoms, traumatofobia is distinguished by also presenting a series of cognitive symptoms that which form the basis of this specific phobia and in turn feed it, making it increasingly stable and strong.

This cognitive symptomatology manifests itself through distorted thoughts and irrational ideas about physical injuries and injuries. These ideas are also characterized by being intrusive and uncontrollable and are often accompanied by mental images with catastrophic content in relation to the possible dangers or threats of this phobic stimulus.

3. Behavioral symptoms

Finally, the third group of symptoms is the one that includes the altered behavior patterns of the person with trauma. These tend to interfere with the person's daily life, modifying the way it behaves and generating two different types of responses: avoidance behaviors and escape behaviors.

Avoidant behaviors include all those behaviors that the subject with traumatofobia carries out with the aim of avoiding the phobic situation or object. For example, avoid doing a risky sport.

On the other hand, escape behaviors originate when the person has not been able to avoid confronting the feared situation, which will trigger all kinds of acts or behaviors that allow you to escape from said situation as soon as possible.

What are the causes?

There are a large number of factors that can influence when developing a specific phobia. However, the experience of a highly traumatic experience related to the phobic stimulus is usually the most frequent of all.

Although it is difficult to find the specific causes that have caused a person to develop a phobia, since sometimes not even she is aware of what events may have caused her.

Among the rest of the element or risk factors that can enhance the development of a phobia are:

• Genetic conditioning factors.
• Personality patterns.
• Cognitive styles.
• Direct conditioning.
• Vicarious learning or by imitation.

Is there a treatment?

Although not all people who suffer from a phobia usually request help, in the specific case of trauma it is can become highly disabling, so its treatment is necessary.

With the development of therapies and treatments for anxiety disorders, a series of protocols for action have been created o treatment guidelines that can help reduce the symptoms of the phobia and allow the person to lead a rhythm and lifestyle normal.

Traditionally, the treatment of phobias has been based on psychological intervention. Which has turned out to be the most effective and with the most stable results. In it a cognitive restructuring to eliminate distorted thoughts, accompanied by in vivo exposure or systematic desensitization techniques (DS).

These techniques consist of gradual exposure to situations related to the phobia, either live or through imagination. Along with this, training is carried out in relaxation techniques that allow to reduce the level of physical symptoms of anxiety.