Traumatophobia

Traumatophobia, also called injury phobia, is an abnormal, pathological fear of having an injury, classified in the DSM-IV as a specific phobia of blood, injection, injury type and closely associated with blood-injection-injury phobia. Sufferers exhibit irrational or excessive anxiety and a desire to avoid feared objects and situations, to the point of avoiding potentially life-saving medical procedures, and the condition is most common in females; when exposed to blood, an injury or an injection, a person with traumatophobia experiences extreme sensations of terror, including breathlessness, excessive sweating, dry mouth, shaking, heart palpitations, an inability to speak or think clearly, fear of dying or losing control, and a sensation of detachment from reality. Treatment is mostly behavioral and cognitive, most commonly repeated exposure to the feared stimuli until the reaction lessens, along with hypnotherapy as an option.