Nosocomephobia is the extreme fear of hospitals. It is a fairly common phobia; many people (including US President Richard Nixon) are known to suffer from it. Nixon’s remark that “If I go to a hospital, I’m fairly sure I won’t come out of it alive” is quite well known.
Nosocomephobia is derived from Greek and Latin words. Greek ‘nosos’ stands for diseases while ‘comes’ is Latin for consequences or companion. Nosokomein is also the Greek word for hospital. Phobias closely related to Nosocomephobia include: Hemophobia or the ‘fear of blood’ or Iatrophobia –the fear of doctors, Mysophobia-the fear of germs, Thanatophobia-fear of death and trypanophobia-the fear of needles.
To an extent, we are all afraid of hospitals, especially the emergency rooms. Not only do hospitals mean illness, pain, blood, disease or death; they even usually result in huge expenses. Visiting a hospital means having to deal with sickness: yours, or someone else’s.
Normally, we all find a way of dealing with this anxiety that comes with visiting a hospital. Most people understand that it is a medical necessity and that one does not have a choice but to get over with it. In case of Nosocomephobia though, the patient simply refuses to go to a hospital and this often results in some very negative consequences including death especially in case of major life threatening conditions/events. A Nosocomephobe experiences a full blown panic attack at the sight or even thought of visiting a hospital as a result of which he/she simply refuses to step inside one. While most realize that their fear is irrational, they feel quite powerless to overcome it.
Causes of Nosocomephobia
- The fear of hospitals phobia usually has its roots in the phobic’s past. A negative or traumatic event associated with hospitals is the most likely reason behind this phobia. Death, news of passing away of a loved one, diagnosis of a fatal disease of self or loved one might have occurred in hospitals and could have been traumatic to the phobic. His brain then conditions the same response over and over each time he has to deal with a hospital.
- Hospitals are also known to be ‘germy’ places: people are coughing, sneezing, vomiting etc. Mysophobes- people who have the extreme fear of germs or acquiring contagious diseases- tend to fear hospitals due to this reason.
- Hospitals are often vivid reminders that life is short and that every one dies at one point or another. This can be a scary and ‘hard-to-deal with’ prospect for some people.
- The fear of hospitals could also be related to more prosaic issues: they usually have a particular antiseptic smell; there are bedpans, backless hospital gowns, and sick roommates and so on. Often one is out of control and completely at the mercy of doctors and nurses. One might have felt humiliated or ‘undignified’ in a hospital. The nurses and doctors keep coming and going at odd hours. These may be some minor issues that can still strengthen one’s fear of hospitals.
- News, media reports or TV/Movies about hospital mishaps are also likely to lead to the phobia. Unfortunately, this concern is not totally without basis- today medical malpractice and errors have become fairly routine occurrences. Even advanced countries are known to have mistakenly administered wrong drugs/treatments/procedures despite their best efforts. For people with nervous mindsets or adrenal insufficiency or those already suffering from other phobias, such reports can induce a permanent fear of hospitals.
Symptoms of Nosocomephobia
The symptoms of the fear of hospitals phobia vary depending upon the intensity of fear. Most people experience the following physical and emotional symptoms:
- Full blow panic attack- running away, shaking, shivering, trembling
- Feeling nauseated
- Experiencing elevated heart rate, shallow and rapid breathing
- Excessive sweating
- Avoidance behavior- refusing to go to the hospital- this can often lead to very serious consequences.
- Feeling uncontrollable anxiety -the phobic might feel detached from reality or feel like he is going completely crazy.
Treating Fear of Hospitals
Much like the treatment of other phobias, Nosocomephobia is also treated using a combination of medicines, psychotherapy and self-help techniques.
To overcome the extreme anxiety related to fear of hospitals, doctors might prescribe some anti-anxiety medication- but this is not recommended for long term use.
Hypnotherapy and talk therapy are other proven measures of overcoming the phobia. These help get to the root of the fear and also help the phobic rationalize it. Energy Psychology or “needle-less acupuncture” is a modern therapy used for overcoming Nosocomephobia. It helps the patient feel more in control and change his response to the fear.
Other mentionable treatments to overcome Nosocomephobia include NLP or neuro-linguistic reprogramming, and systematic desensitization therapies. Self help techniques like Yoga and meditation can also be used alongside these therapies to overcome the fear of hospitals once and for all.
jane says
I hate hospitals big time I can go in them but as soon as anyone say you have to stay I always end up discharging myself when they don’t want me to but I know its because I have been treated so badly in them by people that now I hate them big time and yep they are full of very bad bugs I should know since I have one they are trying to treat outside of hospital because I will not go in and they gave it too me !! now they want to cut the bug out of my wrist !! nope .. what so they can give me another bug no thanks
Mark Win says
I have fainted a fair few times when i was a teenager having the usual injections and now at 40 years old i cant even visit someone in hospital without feeling faint.
I just had my first hospital appointment for the first time in my life as my left eye was blurry. I got referred to the eye dept and while waiting i almost fainted. It ended up being nothing and I was sent home with no medication but this really is worrying me now that i get in such a panic. My whole body felt like it was in a massive cold sweat, my heart was over 90bpm (iWatch), i felt sick and dizzy. I had to go to the toilet and bend my head to the floor to get the blood back in my brain which stopped me from fainting. Really need to sort this out.
Deleana Marie Ellis says
I hate hospitals, I will go to the emergency room, but the second they want to admit me I start to panic and get scared and i go AMA . This just start several year’s ago, but since then I thought I only had the fear of spider’s but I am developing more phobias.
Bob says
What types of People does Nosocomephobia effect? Like what ages.
Joanna says
I am horrified of hospitals,clinics, anything that has to do with dr.s everytime i vist an e.r or clinic i panic and start to sweat, shake and feel shortness of breath and my hearts beats overly that i can see it over my shirt, my pressure rises up and i get more paranoid, this been going on since ive miscarried my 1st pregnacy on may of 2012 i hate this feeling i just feel so unnormal and that one day im just gonna pass away and die bcus i get so paranoid and cant control it 😭
Jesse says
Hi Joanna, I have the same exact fear and spend countless time thinking about when I have to go see my doctor every year for a physical and the anxiety kicks in. I have been suffering with this for about 10 years. I’m sorry you are dealing with this as well but glad to know I’m not the only one. Stay strong!!
-Jesse
Kimberly says
I hate the hospital I never went but I’m scared to go to the hospital because the big machines and when I first enter I think I’m going to see a whole bunch of handicap people and people with prosthetic legs and stuff how can you help me to stop being so scared of this stuff.
raven says
I’m scared of the machines and the rooms and just thinking about how people are hooked up to wires and things just scares me. The handicap thing is probably triggered by something that happened in your past.
Nadine says
I don’t really think I have this phobia. But, everytime I went to hospital I felt dizzy. And even fainted. Do I have this phobia?
Ron says
For years I’ve had problems when attending hospitals. I was there yesterday for an appointment with a doctor and during the waiting period my face was burning, palms of hands were sweating, under my arms were in a sweat and I know for a fact, as it always is at hospitals, my blood pressure was up. When I leave the hospital the symptoms gradually disappear and I get back to my normal self. This fear has gone on for years and at last I found a name for it (Nosocomephobia). I’m not afraid of needles or doctors etc. but as soon as I come to the entrance of hospitals it starts.
How can you direct me with this problem?
Wilhelmina says
I wonder how it is called when you don’t experience so much fear when visiting a doctor, I don’t mind injections (had so many times blood taken without a problem) but as soon as medical procedures have to be done or they prescribe me medication I freak out. I remember I broke a finger once and they had to drag me inside again, because I was petrified of being treated for it. Tomorrow I got an operation coming up. I feel anxiety, I feel sick, my mind yells: “Flee, while you can!”. I want to get it over and done with. The idea it can become cancer is just as great, but no matter how many people tell me there are so many of these operations, small procedure, they know someone who bladibla… and became old with it, I had an operation before which went perfectly, but it just doesn’t help. The fear is there, it’s real and it’s intense. I can’t even pin point what exactly makes me feel so terrified.
Mary says
I get physically sick at home to avoid visiting friends in the hospital! The mere thought of having to go stresses me so much that I get headaches, stomach upsets, and finally extreme fatigue! The idea of walking into a hospital, unless it is for emergency care, arouses horrific fearful memories of the multiple times I was there when my husband was hospitalized prior to his death! I feel so selfish and guilty for not being emotionally stable enough to support my friend! What can I do?