Catherine Austen
Creative Writing
Who’s Afraid of Blood? (Fearless February Day 7)
Hemophobia. Fear of blood.
Hemophobics are easy to spot in grade school: they’re the ones screaming and crying when the nurse comes around.
They simply cannot stand the sight of blood — their own or anyone else’s. Like most phobics, they experience anxiety, dread and panic at the thought of what they fear. Even worse, hemophobics often faint when they’re face to face with that fear, making them vulnerable to injury, mockery, and – here’s that vicious circle again – bleeding.
If you have an uneasy feeling at the sight of blood, no worries. Just stay away from horror movies – your life will probably be better for it.
But if you run away screaming when your little sister steps on a nail, or you sneak out of the hospital upon hearing the words “blood test,” you have a phobia with potentially dangerous consequences. Unless you want to be known as an unreliable wuss all your life, you should get help in facing this fear.
I suspect that hemophobia is a modern mental illness, flourishing in our lives of comfort. Back in great-great-great-great-grandmother’s time, hemophobics wouldn’t last a day. Life is bloody, from birth to death, and you gotta deal with it. Even in our sanitized industrialized society, blood seeps in every now and then. (Every 28 days or so for half of us.) This is a fear worth slaying.
To overcome your fear of blood, once again it’s exposure therapy to the rescue. Begin with photographs: look at them, then touch them (no, you don’t ever have to taste them). Then expose yourself to a drop of your own blood. (Stay away from other people’s blood. It’s germy.) When you’re okay with that, it’s time to book that backlog of blood tests. Go slow, take a deep breath, and remind yourself of all the awesome things blood does for you – like keep you alive. That’s pretty important stuff.
Don’t take the therapy too far, though. You don’t want to develop a fondness for blood. If you can get to the point of sitting still to donate a pint, you’re a hero compared to most of us. (That’ll take a long time, lots of positive affirmations, and an empathetic nurse.)
If you’re afraid of blood and not afraid to admit it, leave a comment on this blog during Fearless February and maybe you’ll win a copy of 28 Tricks for a Fearless Grade 6.
(Thanks again to FreeDigitalPhotos.net for the free images: the blood cells are by Victor Habbick, and the bloody hand is by Salvatore Vuono.)
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Catherine Austen writes books for kids and teens, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec.
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Catherine Austen 
No thanks to my unwise decision to watch “Sweeney Todd” (NEVER AGAIN), I don’t have much of a problem with blood, in reasonable quantities. If I ever stumble upon the remains of a brutal murder victim, that may change. Or I might finally get the chance to try my hand at becoming an amateur sleuth! 😀
That decision was unwise indeed. Too much blood, for sure, and they just wouldn’t stop singing. Yuck.
I would like to be an amateur sleuth, too! (I started a detective agency with a friend in high school, I think – we got as far as making badges.) But I might stick to cases of lost books and missing persons – no brutal murders for me.