by 105 student
Yesterday, after being told by health services that I would have to go to the emergency room due to an allergic reaction, I immediately started to get nervous and cry and I started to have a panic attack. I could see that my heart rate was drastically increasing because I was hooked up to a monitor at the time. As someone who suffers from Panic Disorder, having panic attacks are not that uncommon. However, due to the fact that I take klonopin to prevent panic attacks, I was surprised by how quickly the onset of my panic attack was at the mere mention of a hospital. It was as though the idea of a hospital was a trigger.
Once I got home, I decided to research what had caused my panic attack. It turns out that there is a specific phobia called Nosocomephobia which is a fear of hospitals. It is a specific phobia, which is particularly difficult given that one would already be upset about their illness or injury which is causing them to go to the hospital in the first place. Nosocomephobia can induce panic attacks which, include symptoms such as shortness of breath, a pounding heart, dizziness, nausea, a feeling of being disconnected from the world and from oneself, and generally a dread that one is losing control and is going to die. [For more about panic attacks, see the post Be afraid, be very afraid.]
While researching I came across the point that most likely, the fear of hospitals is actually a protective mechanism for the individual because of some traumatic event in ones past that involved a hospital. I then realized that, ironically, the last time I had been hospitalized was for my most intense panic attack! At that time, I had no idea what was wrong with me and no doctor had even entertained the idea that what I had was panic disorder. They had assumed that I was feeling these symptoms because of low blood sugar and stress. Clearly, not knowing what was going on with me caused even more anxiety, as one of the main problems for people who suffer from panic disorder is a general need to feel in control, though not necessarily to actually be in control.
I’ve concluded that the panic attack I experienced yesterday was most likely due to nosocomephobia. I associate hospitals with panic attacks, and for people with panic disorder, it is quite often the fear of having a panic attack that will actually cause a panic attack. My fear of hospitals, while it may seem counterproductive, is actually my body trying to avoid a negative situation. It is as if it is saying, “I’ll attach a fear to hospitals in order to steer clear of bad situations and to be safe.”
For me, I believe that I can overcome my fear of hospitals by continuing to take klonopin and to address this issue with my psychiatrist. Many people are prescribed benzodiazepines such as klonopin for their specific phobias. However, there is a variety of other treatment options for those who suffer from nosocomephobia. One such treatment is Systematic Desensitization. Patients are desensitized to their specific fear through the use of virtual reality or imagery exercises. Another treatment is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This also involves a gradual desensitization to one’s fear. In this type of therapy, the patient learns to understand his or her pattern of negative thoughts, and ways to break this cycle. A third option is Hypnotherapy. Hynotherapy tries to reprogram the parts of your subconscious associated with your fear. Hypnotherapy is part of study or practice known as Neuro-Linguistic Practice, or NLP. It is the study of how we create our reality, and holds the viewpoint that a phobia is the result of malfunctioning “programs” that you have created in your brain. NLP finds and “re-programs” these constructs. Through hypnotherapy and NLP, Nosocomephobia can often be greatly reduced or even eliminated.
I know that phobias are caused by experiencing traumatic events. For example, getting stuck in an elevator might cause Clautophobia, having a panic attack in a plane could lead to Aviophobia or having an extremely bad or near fatal incident in a hospital may cause Nosocomephobia. However, I have always wondered how other, slightly obscure phobias such as Genuphobia(fear of knees), Cathisophobia(fear of sitting) or Barophobia(fear of gravity) are developed. I can’t even begin to comprehend how they come about. For more information on phobias and their causes, check out this link, http://allpsych.com/journal/phobias.html, and for a full list of all phobias go to http://phobialist.com/.
Comment by Nii Yeboah — May 12, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
While reading this post I was reminded of the example we were given in class of cancer patients who learn to associate a certain food with nausea if given to them previous to a chemotherapy session; much in the same manner that people with nosocomephobia learn to associate a negative situation with the hospital. Although the author’s case was somewhat complex I feel that, generally, one of the ways which we learn fear is through classical conditioning. More specifically fear conditioning is the method by which organisms learn to fear new stimuli, in this case being the hospital.
As I kept reading I found it really interesting that the author says that “the fear of hospitals is actually a protective mechanism for the individual because of some traumatic event in ones past that involved a hospital”. When thinking in evolutionary terms, it makes a lot of sense for individuals to learn associations that help them to adapt to their environment. Believing that the hospital is full of life-threatening situations might after all just be our brains tapping on our survival instincts.
Comment by Cecilia Solis — April 12, 2009 @ 5:15 pm
While reading about anxiety disorders in our psychology textbook, I thought the section that explained the development of fears in terms of biology was particularly interesting. While humans seem biologically primed to fear certain things that could have posed threats to their ancestors, such as snakes or heights, people tend not to learn fears of other things. The example used was how during World War II air raids didn’t produce lasting phobias, as if evolution didn’t prepare people to be scared of bombs falling from the sky, since our ancestors, with more limited technology, didn’t face such threats in the past. In the case of this author, it definitely seems as though the phobia has an evolutionary component to it. ‘“I’ll attach a fear to hospitals in order to steer clear of bad situations and to be safe.”’ In this way, the she can increase her chances of survival by staying away from a situation that she perceives to be life threatening. However, like with most issues in psychology, the causes of phobias seem to be a combination of many factors that can be explained through various psychological perspectives, not just biology. Learning, for example, does seem to play a role here in the development of her fear; although it doesn’t seem to be the result of classical conditioning like that of Little Albert, as she didn’t describe repeated pairings of the hospital with the panic attacks, but rather one traumatic situation brought about the association. So if that single bad experience had such a big impact on the development of a fear, are we more prone to acquiring phobias than we think?
Comment by Aleksandra Kolanko — April 19, 2009 @ 7:46 pm