Fear of doctors: How to deal with the fear of doctors?

Fear of doctors; How to fight? For what reasons does it arise, and how does it appear? Strategies for treating anxiety of doctors in children and adults. Fear of doctors is one of the types of social phobia, increased tension, and fear of doctors. Symptoms develop already at the stage of planning a visit for medical advice. Interestingly, earlier, this phenomenon was associated with the color of the clothes. But later, it became clear that despite the new uniform of doctors (changed from white coats to colored clothes), the fear of doctors remained.

Description and mechanism of action of fear of doctors

Phobias do not develop out of the blue; for them to appear, hereditary factors that cause increased stimulation of the nervous system or damaging trauma are required.

Phobias appear in people who have already faced harmful effects on their bodies from threatening factors. The inability to control one’s health and passivity during operations are accompanied by pain and cause fear of doctors. The possibility of developing a phobia is exacerbated by innate skepticism, suspicion, and lack of trust.

The cause of the phobia is a kind of anchor and is delivered at the level of the hypothalamus. The less self-confident you are, the deeper the problem.

A phobia is not a fear. Fear is the body’s natural defense response as the brain signals to release adrenaline. This hormone speeds up the reaction. A person runs away, freezes, and quickly calculates possible situations that will help him escape from danger.

With a phobia, the same system is activated – adrenaline is released with a signal from the central nervous system. But since the situation is imaginary, the risk is exaggerated, and the body cannot use this adrenaline. Due to an excess of anxiety hormone, symptoms appear that hurt the health and cause a significant deterioration of the condition due to disturbances in the cardiovascular system, respiratory system, and intestines.

It already requires treatment. However, with crime phobia, medical assistance is seen as a threat, and thus the situation worsens. A vicious cycle occurs: the need to see a doctor causes a worsening condition, and the need for treatment leads to deteriorating health.

Causes of fear of doctors

Getting rid of doctors’ fear in each case can only be understood after the cause of the phobia has been identified. You can do it yourself if you activate your strength, focus on your feelings, and apply introspection methods. When just the thought of facing drugs makes you panic, you should consult a psychologist to deal with your fears. It is advisable to work with a private doctor who handles the appointment in his office and does not have a traditional dress code.

Causes of fear of doctors in children

It is impossible to explain crying and heightened mood when they visit medical institutions in children under 1, 5-2 years old with criminal addiction. At this age, children are often simply afraid of strangers and unfamiliar surroundings; this can explain changes in behavior.

In older children, fear of doctors can develop for the following reasons:

• The child “absorbs” the fear of “white coats” from adults. In the subconscious, family conversations about how much they don’t want treatment voiced reluctance to visit the dentist are explained by pain, parents’ nervousness before injections, or a visit to the clinic.
• Unique signs of personality development. If the child is afraid of blood and does not like the touch of strangers – especially those who seem intrusive – even a routine medical examination can cause panic.
• Low pain threshold – in this case, each treatment causes pain that has been remembered for a long time. After one vaccination, it is difficult to get such children to go to the clinic in the future, even if they need to do simple fluoroscopy.
• Children are afraid of all the unknown; they are used to affection. An impersonal attitude and a lack of information can make them panic.

In most cases, it is the parents themselves who are to blame for children’s criminal addiction. If the mother behaves insecurely when the child is examined, “suffers” with the child, and does not try to explain the need for this or that treatment, the child feels defenseless. In the future, under such circumstances, he may panic.

Causes of fear of doctors in adults

Fear of doctors in adults cannot be explained solely by childhood fears. There are other reasons for doctors’ fear.

Let’s consider them in more detail:

• Adults are used to controlling the situation, and when they fall into the hands of the Aesculapians, nothing depends on them. This situation causes fear because you must trust those you don’t know.
• Medical errors that the patient does not necessarily have to deal with. It may be that someone you know has suffered or just told you about a similar situation. For overly impressionable people, stories have a frightening effect.
• A lot of negative information – movies about the killers of doctors, programs where they talk about doctors’ mistakes. Even if the plots are not confirmed by anything, the data is stored at the level of the subcortical brain.
• Inferiority. You are ashamed of your body, imagining how repulsive it looks in the eyes of a doctor. It seems to him that, in this respect, they are beginning to treat him negatively.
• Bad habits – alcoholism, drugs, overeating. The patient understands that doctors will talk about the harmfulness of such a lifestyle and begin to avoid contact with official medicine, first consciously and then subconsciously.
• Fear of Pain – Unfortunately, most medical procedures involve pain or discomfort and are avoided.
• Fear of death. The patient is afraid of death on the operating table due to drug allergies in the hospital ward and does not trust the doctors; he is sure he cannot avoid death anyway. Treatment, in this case, is considered an approach to a fatal outcome.
• Impersonal attitudes to patients, negligence of doctors, rudeness, and rudeness in the hospital – all form a persistent negative attitude towards “people in white coats.”

Modern private clinics try to create conditions where patients feel comfortable and treat people “like human beings,” which allows them to cope with mental trauma. Unfortunately, the goal of many private clinics is profit – patients are given non-existent diagnoses and forced to undergo unnecessary tests, which in the future can also cause fear of medicine.

All the unpleasant feelings in the entanglement of medical treatment and doctors’ attitudes can cause mental retardation.

Manifestations in anthropophobia

While in children, the symptoms of psychophobia are often limited to increased moodiness, hysteria, and crying, in adults, the signs of fear of doctors are much more severe. In these cases, symptoms similar to a panic attack may develop in adults.

Appears:

• Headache and dizziness;
• Nausea and vomiting;
• Intestinal cramps and diarrhea
• Muscle tension, up to convulsions;
• Shaky knees;
• Speech disorder;
• Increased blood pressure;
• Gossip before eyes or blinking flies.

Potential patients develop hypochondria, insomnia, and impaired perception of information, making it difficult for them to concentrate on work.

Patients fear doctors delay treatment until they are in a difficult situation. Fearing dentists, they bring the oral cavity to complete tooth decay, fearing medicine; they seek medical attention when the pain becomes unbearable and cannot treat cancer.

A particularly severe type of phobia can cause death in a patient.

Ways to deal with the fear of doctors

Suggestions on overcoming doctors’ fear depend on the patient’s age and the state of the soul. She must perform medication if she is so upset that no argument will work.

Parental interventions to combat crime phobia in a child

Parents of children who are afraid of people in white coats should be serious about what is happening and never make fun of their behavior.

Features of children’s behavior correction:

• It is necessary to tell the children what will happen in the doctor’s office and how important it is. You should not deceive the child by saying, “it will not hurt.” Delusion will hurt the psychological state of the future patient. If young children understand the importance of procedures, they will not oppose them.
• Before visiting the doctor’s office, you should talk to the child, let him express his fears, answer any questions and give the correct information.
• In a children’s hospital, you must create a comfortable environment. Children should know that in the queue, if they want to eat and drink, their parents will give them to drink, that there is a toilet in the hospital that you can always visit.
• It would help if you talked to a doctor with dignity. The child must see that the parents are talking to him equally. Mom is not afraid – the baby is comfortable.
• You can visit the doctor in advance and leave “gifts” for the child. If, after the examination, the child receives a mirror, a nice bar of soap, or even a piece of candy, he will even wait for the next visit to the hospital.
• In no case should you scare the child with injections, call the doctor and say that if he “does not take medicine at home, he will be sent to the hospital.”
• It is advisable to plan a visit to the doctor so that the child asks his questions and addresses any concerns.

Suppose you do not scare the child with the hospital, playing at home as a doctor and patient, handling toys – animals and cars. In that case, it is possible to overcome the doctor’s fear.

Fighting the fear of doctors on your own

To stop being afraid of a doctor, you need to believe that the goal of every doctor is to create a situation where contact cannot reduce the patient to a minimum. And this is possible only if the patient gets better.

The doctor. To do this, you need to find a specialist whose Should trust actions will not cause rejection. Currently, all conditions have been created for this – you can read reviews about a particular specialist’s work on websites and ask relatives and friends. Patients can choose a medical facility that will serve them as they please.

In private clinics, you can not only find your specialist but also choose an appointment, creating all the conditions for comfortable treatment.

It would help if you learned to trust yourself. The doctor should be informed about the available information about the disease, talk about his feelings and ask questions correctly. Collaboration between doctor and patient is the best way to overcome anaphylaxis and speed recovery.

It would help if you prepared for the hospital in advance. Think about what to do if you want to go to the toilet or eat, and take everything you need. To avoid being anxious in the queue in the corridor, it is worth preparing an exciting book, electronic media with games, and knitting.

During your stay in the hospital, you need to take familiar things from home – pillows and blankets. It is advisable to buy earplugs and an eye mask – at night, they can put a new roommate in the room and turn on the light if someone gets sick. Sudden awakening hurts the nervous system and does not allow you to sleep. If the patient rests well at night, he is less anxious during the day.

Help experts in the fight against the fear of doctors

Suppose you cannot cope with fear on your own, and you understand that therapy is necessary. In that case, you should contact a psychologist who works in a private office.

In this case, it can apply hypnotic effects to reduce fear and help to master the self-training method. An honest conversation with a specialist will help determine the cause of the anxiety and eliminate it.

Patients who fear doctors often have some illness that is quite difficult to treat. Consultation with a psychologist can help to get rid of these diseases. They may not need the help of official drugs.

In some cases, using sedatives will help maintain the stability of the nervous system. They have the right to appoint a psychologist, psychiatrist, or neurologist – some drugs for general operations can be bought and taken by the patient in recommended doses.

With increased anxiety, which causes cardiovascular system disorders, insomnia, and symptoms of panic, it is recommended to take light sedatives: tincture of valerian, motherwort, peony, Persen, Note, Gerbion drops, Phytorelax tablets, Afobazol, Glycine.

Suppose treatment is necessary, and each visit to the doctor causes the condition to worsen. In that case, the doctor prescribes a prescription for sedatives and antidepressants.

Treatment of Hate Crime with Folk Medicine

In the range of traditional medicine, you can make enough recipes for sedatives at home.

These include:

• Tea is made from valerian, chamomile, mint, and linden flower. They are brewed in the following proportions – a tablespoon of organic ingredients in a glass of boiling water.
• A tincture of equal amounts of chamomile, mint, valerian root, fennel, and caraway seeds. They are brewed according to the same recipe.
• Tea brewed according to the following recipe has an immediate calming effect: take 1 part of St. John’s wort and burdock, 2 parts of black tea, and 2 pieces of green tea. Brew 2 tablespoons of the herbal mixture with half a liter of water, infuse until intensely colored and add honey.
• The recipe for another soothing decoction – combine 1 bay leaf, 1 clove, a small piece of ginger, and a teaspoon of cumin. Pour the organic ingredients with boiling water, bring to a boil and cook for 5-7 minutes, then add a teaspoon of black tea, insist.

It would help if you took a soothing tincture 3-4 days before you visit the doctor in the morning and the evening, 1/2 cup each. On the day of your visit to the hospital, you should take half a glass of the sedative immediately before leaving the apartment.

Your fears should not lead you. Seaweed can be overcome by finding out the cause. Once you eliminate the fear of doctors, you can live fully and not be afraid of your health.

Despite the fear of official medicine, if you beat the 55-60-year-old mark, then the phobia of headaches will become obsolete. However, the state of health can already become so threatening, and the quality of life will decrease so much that every day there will be physical suffering.

Conclusion

Treatment for crime phobia should begin at the stage when the condition is still invisible to others. In this case, it will be possible to get rid of it in a short time without harming your health.