Are there good avoidance or coping strategies for fainting at blood?

December 17, 2006 6:08 PM

I faint all too easily at blood/gore. How do I avoid or at least cope better?

I've got the whole vasovagal syncope thing in response to blood. I'll be watching a movie and see something particularly horrible and I'll have a couple seconds before I'm out. If I see it coming, I can get away and lie down/walk it off/etc, but the problem I'm increasingly facing is that I'm in situations - writing workshops, particularly - where someone will be reading along and drop some bloody scene in there and I'm charging out.

My problem is that I can make that clear going in, but no one seems to actually believe me, or they think the bar is way, way higher than it is. For instance, someone who writes goth horror will warn if there's extended gruesome torture, but a detailed description of a decapitation or two doesn't get them to think of warning me, and... you see where that's going.

On that front, I'm trying to be honest and specific about how bad it is, but what I'd really like to know is -- has anyone found good ways to not drop if a surprise is dropped on you ? Like in the middle of a movie where it's too far to the doors and there's nowhere to lay down?

Mitigation strategies? Anything?

posted by dmz to health & fitness (14 comments total)

I suffer this, too, and although my bar of resistance is higher than yours, I'm still so absurdly sensitive to suggestion that no one quite believes me until I'm unconscious.

For me, it's not so much gore per se as my empathetic response to it: if I see gore in a movie, or hear a vivid description of it, my first response is to imagine it happening to me, and then all goes black. If I am able to keep my empathetic imagination at bay, however, I can get through a lot of gore with no problem at all. I do not know if this is the case for you, so the following may not help much. But, basically, I've learned two maneuvers that keep me awake and vertical when I'm surprised by gore/graphic violence: 1) if it's in a work of fiction or a movie, it's helpful to remind myself over and over again that it isn't real. I mean literally, I think the phrase "It isn't real" to myself over and over. Even if I'm not 100% convinced, it helps to distract me. 2) Whether it's real-life gore (i.e., joe schmoe gets a really nasty cut in the kitchen) or fictional gore, I find it helpful to look at it as clinically as possible. This is a fallback if the "This isn't real" mantra isn't working. If it's in a movie, try to figure out how the special effect was rigged. If it's in real life, break the wound/whatever into discrete elements that you can analyze separately. This sometimes wards against the overwhelmed OMG BLOOD AHHHH response.

Then there are the usual strategies to avoid passing out: put your head between your legs; concentrate on taking deep, regular breaths; tell yourself over and over "I'm not going to pass out, I'm not going to pass out."

If everything fails, make sure you have a cushioned surface to fall back upon. I suffered a nasty concussion last summer...which I won't describe, because I want you to stay conscious.
posted by scarylarry at 6:35 PM on December 17, 2006

I consciously avoid exposing myself to that kind of stuff. I don't faint, but I don't get a lot of pleasure from watching/experiencing/imagining the pain of other people.

You can't plan for everthing, but if you go to places where this kind of stuff happens, get up and leave. It's a sign of a sensitive spirit, IMO, not something to be ashamed of.

"Friday the 13th" is not in the same league as "Psycho". Writing about gore is kind of the bathroom humor equivalent of suspense/thriller work, and Hitchcock proved nicely that horror need not be horrible. Aspire to higher ground and protect your kind spirit from this assault. Take ear plugs, sleeping eye-shields, listen to your iPod, whatever. Ignore it.

BTW, I am a former EMT and have seen a fair amount what we euphemistically call 'trauma'. It affects me. I like to avoid it, if possible. Context is important in doing so.
posted by FauxScot at 6:37 PM on December 17, 2006

The standard therapy for something like this is to introduce it gradually to the subject until their discomfort level increases.

So, if it's spiders*, you start with a rubber spider, on the other side of the room. What's your discomfort level, on a scale of one to ten? When it's down the other side of five, you move on to the next stage. So you would start by just hearing the word "blood" or whatever and try to get accustomed to that. Then you move on to, say, a still black and white photo with some blood in it and so on.

_{* But fear of spiders, of course is quite rational because they are the eight-legged spawn of satan. Why would you want to get less scared of them?}
posted by AmbroseChapel at 6:46 PM on December 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

Sorry that this isn't a productive answer, but ... holy cats. I've suffered from this most of my life and had no idea what it was called until reading this post.

A few years back, I was training to be an HIV educator as part of some LGBT youth outreach work I was doing. Needless to say, after stumbling clumsily out of a few too many conferences, I had to re-evaluate the aspects of my job that I was capable of performing.

(And on a symptomatic note, for me the effect was more like "going white" as opposed to going black, but I digress.)

Thank you, dmz!
posted by mykescipark at 7:34 PM on December 17, 2006

I used to have this but not as extreme as dmz and like mykescipark it was a whiteout. Not much help but I just sort of grew out of it. I think having more control over my life as I got older and cutting out weed helped. And knowing you are not alone may help.
posted by Iron Rat at 8:18 PM on December 17, 2006

AmbroseChapel has made an extremely pertinant suggestion with the de-sensitisation routine, but I'd also like to add that coupling this with hypnosis and councelling might be just the thing - the idea being that the hypnosis can wind the sensativity down enough to address the issue without the usual reaction occurring.

I've seen this method work well with someone who has an extreme phobia of flying (Disclaimer: I have no problem dealing with blood - mine, someone else's or horror movie etc and don't have a phobia per se)

Be brave, be smart and be persistant and you'll get there. Good luck, guys!
posted by ninazer0 at 10:25 PM on December 17, 2006

My husband has this problem. Over the years, he's gotten better able to deal with it through the gradual exposure method, something like what AmbroseChapel describes. It seems that every time he find himself in a situation that might make him feel faint, but he doesn't actually pass out, he gets a little more comfortable in future difficult situations.

Watching more movies at home (on a nice big TV) has helped, too, and makes him feel like he's in control of the situation. And I think that seeing the borderline stuff in a safe environment has made him a little more relaxed about going out to movies.

It's never completely gone away, but now we're at least able to go out to the theater more; when we first met, we rarely did. Interestingly, I've kind of "caught" it, because now I get a little more queasy when watching horror flicks (by myself!) than I used to.
posted by TochterAusElysium at 10:34 PM on December 17, 2006

My standard answer to things like this is NLP or hypnotherapy. The NLP approach to this is pretty much what AmbroseChapel said.
posted by chrissyboy at 5:20 AM on December 18, 2006

I still have this to a small extent but it used to be way worse. A few years ago I passed out in a first aid class - just where they were showing a video illustrating compound fractures in very bloody detail. The other students thought I was a plant for the upcoming section on fainting.

I'd echo the idea of gradual exposure. Get hold of something like a first aid manual. Study it but at the moment where you start to feel bad back off. Next time increase your exposure a little more until finally you are not bothered. It is all about developing a confidence that you are in control.

Personally I have always found the problem worst when I have had plenty of time to contemplate something gory. If I am in the real life situation of having to treat people then I am usually busy enough not to worry about it.
posted by rongorongo at 5:23 AM on December 18, 2006

This is a commom problem for surgical trainees, faced with actual gore. It may not have the same aetiology, but my strategy was to just concentrate really hard on not overbreathing. I'd be surprised if the problem is really being caused by a drop in heartbeat, I think a decrease in CO2 is more plausible.
posted by roofus at 9:27 AM on December 18, 2006

Two strategies. These may or may not work for you:

1. I am told that fighter pilots prevent themselves from blacking out during high-G maneuvers by sort of "grunting without grunting." That is, pressing the diaphragm upwards to expel air while keeping the throat closed to prevent air from escaping. If you try this now, you'll find it's pretty easy to make your face red and your veins stand out alarmingly. A little experimentation will show you how to do the same thing while still breathing. This technique may be enough to keep those black curtains from meeting in the middle.

2. Autogenic training has helped me with regard to nervousness or blackouts in medical or other bloody situations. The point of the training is to put your autonomic nervous system (breathing, heartbeat, circulation, and so on) under your control to a certain degree. When feel your heart starting to go nuts and your hands getting clammy, it's wonderful to be able to have some control over these symptoms.
posted by springo at 12:18 PM on December 18, 2006

On desensitization: I don't think it's a phobia in the traditional sense. In my case (and I read this is true of a fair portion of people who suffer this) it's inherited. My dad has always had this, possibly worse than I do, and has never improved. My brother and I both have it. Growing up watching Arnold movies, I got to the point where I have a tolerance for a certain level of cartoony/movie violence.

But my brother got really aggravated about passing out and went on a multi-year program of watching horror movies until he got somewhat better - but he's still fairly susceptible, which leads me to wonder how much of this we've inherited and how much can be conditioned out of us.

So I'm not sure how much therapy and hypnosis might help, though I'm open to trying them.
posted by dmz at 10:34 PM on December 19, 2006

I also think it may be possible that this is an inherited trait (my dad used to be bad) - but that does not preclude the possibility of conditioning it out.
posted by rongorongo at 2:11 AM on December 20, 2006

I also think it may be possible that this is an inherited trait (my dad used to be bad) - but that does not preclude the possibility of conditioning it out.

I agree - if it's possible for other human beings not to have this trait, then it's possible for you. Given that it's a psychosomatic type thing.
posted by chrissyboy at 5:58 PM on December 21, 2006