How not to faint at the sight of blood

[halfmileharry]

A girl made me do it. I'll leave it at that.

Rep'd for that one. I understand

 

[rhino]

A girl made me do it. I'll leave it at that.

Understood.

Yet another example of what pathetic retards all of us are when Under the Influence.

 

[7.62]

Any tips?
Looking forward to Rhino's thoughts

Seriously... been putting of med training because I really struggle with this. I can watch horror movies all day long. But if it's the real deal, or anything with 'fixing' broken human body stuff, I tend to get anxious easily... I don't really pass out, but I get all flustered and cannot think straight. Embarrassing to say the least. Any 12 step programs out there or other tips to become less anxious when dealing with all things trauma? Maybe 'think about baseball' or something?

Move to the east side of Indy for a few months and I'm sure you will get desensitized to it! Lol

 

[Leo]

I always worried about that until I was in the situation. As part of work, I took all the National Safety Council First aid training every year as well as the Red Cross CPR stuff.

I was first on scene at 2 industrial accidents. One was a nearly severed leg due to a crush when a heavily loaded truck rolled back. I was able to keep pressure on the artery while medics were getting there. There was a lot of damage and raw flesh but I did keep it together to keep the person from bleeding out. After the medics left I cleaned up and sat in the office for a while, upset and unable to pull it together for a while. I guess I was coming down from adrenaline. The second one was a clean cut on a premask tape cutter. (think 14 inch spinning razor blade). Huge cut, LOTS of blood, the woman had already passed out. I made a tourniquet and when another guy got there, we wrapped her arm in premask tape to try to keep her blood inside. Tape does not stick to blood. We did not know what to do so we did CPR type breathing when we could not tell if she was breathing of not. Same thing, I was ok until it was over. I would guess that A medic or a Doctor gets more used to it.

 

[CavMedic]

Come ride out on an ambulance. You can experience it and yet be detached from it as it is not associated with someone that you know. We can go through the ER and check stuff out. Honestly, to me the best way to get over it is to put yourself around it. Otherwise you are going to continuously play it in your head that you cannot handle it. As for me though, its vomit. I deal with it every day. I can handle it most of the time. But usually once a week there is someone who vomits and I have to quickly move myself away from it or there is going to be a chain reaction. But hey, if you wanna ride out sometime (Indianapolis) let me know, we can set it up and see how ya do.

 

[redpitbull44]

There, unfortunately, are sites such as morbid.com to help desensitize you.

Between those type of websites (rotten, morbid, faces of death) working on a hog farm, watching 10+ childbirths, killing lots of things and making them into food, watching men die, personal injuries and those of others, and having to put down a multitude of animals, I have seen enough to become desensitized to most everything gory or heebee jeebee nut pucker nasty. I've learned that when bad things happen I just REACT and try to make it better. It's instinct.

That being said, when I was young, I read a bunch of adult-audience books about Vietnam. I studied the specwar community specifically. I figured out I needed to desensitize myself to gore if I wanted to achieve my opinion of greatness. I sought out as much as I could. Medical books. I was always FASCINATED by medical books. That taught me what I needed regarding WHAT I was looking at, how it worked etc. I used to catch and dissect small animals. We processed deer and hogs at home. Heck man, I'd handled human placenta 3 times before my 12th birthday. And seen 3 childbirths from spitting distance.

What I'm getting at is it doesn't happen overnight. Go at it from a technical/ clinical angle. From head to toes. Look up types of injuries. Open a second page and go down the major body parts looking at types of injuries. "Arm avulsion" "arm compound fracture" etc. THEN jump into more... gruesome things.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Come ride out on an ambulance. You can experience it and yet be detached from it as it is not associated with someone that you know. We can go through the ER and check stuff out. Honestly, to me the best way to get over it is to put yourself around it. Otherwise you are going to continuously play it in your head that you cannot handle it. As for me though, its vomit. I deal with it every day. I can handle it most of the time. But usually once a week there is someone who vomits and I have to quickly move myself away from it or there is going to be a chain reaction. But hey, if you wanna ride out sometime (Indianapolis) let me know, we can set it up and see how ya do.

I may take you up on that! I spoke with a firefighter this evening, and we hashed out what many here have said. #1 adrenaline kicks in and you focus on the task at hand, and #2, repetition... the more you are exposed to it, the easier it gets. I want to get over my fears, as hard as that is, I'll do whatever it takes. Worst case scenario, I wind up right back where I am now.

 

[mbills2223]

Immersion therapy....seriously.

But honestly heat of the moment and the pressure is on you, fainting likely won't even be on your mind. For me it feels a bit like being in a mental zone

 

[1861navy]

My wife hates watching House with me because I'm always sitting there saying "ouch" and wincing.

I frequently did the same thing when I watched t.v. The beginning of the movie face/off made me hyperventilate.

I pierced mine myself, on my lunch hour. No blood, just lots of sweat, making it difficult to pinch the skin and continue pushing the needle through, and the skin was super tough trying to push out the other side.
But stuff like drawing blood, or arterial spray, and I start focusing on my own heart pumping blood, and it gets louder in my head, and I get weaker in the knees as I feel the pressure of the blood in the veins... grosses me out.

Wow! That took some serious commitment I bet.

 

[Snapdragon]

For starters, all you have to do is type "surgery" into YouTube and you can see all the blood and gore you want.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

I frequently did the same thing when I watched t.v. The beginning of the movie face/off made me hyperventilate.



Wow! That took some serious commitment I bet.

Honestly, I got halfway through, and there was just no turning back at that point. The sweating made it very difficult to pinch the skin in order to continue pushing the needle through. At that point, I was more determined than anything, to finish the job. The pain was mediocre throughout. Likely because I was more focused on finishing. If there had been any major bleeding, I likely would have stopped and/or passed out on the spot lol

 

[Denny347]

You must get exposed to it. Only with frequent contact will you be able to stomach it. Frequent enough exposure and even the most violent scenes, that put horror movies to shame, wont bother you. I speak from experience. Now that I think about it there is some PTSD involved when those things become ordinary...I think. So maybe go light on the exposure

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Not that I'm any better, but I finally got some basic trauma med training from CavMedic over at Parabellum today.
Great class, learned lots. It's good to know how to actually use a basic kit, and stop the bleeding until the pros arrive.
There were some pretty gruesome images during the pop quiz (how would you handle this scenario), and I didn't pass out! Got a little queasy during the discussions of arterial bleeding, areas arteries run, etc... Something about spurting still gets me anxious.

But I'm one small step closer... At least now I have some idea of what to do... Let's hope I never have to use these newfound skills though!

 

[rhino]

Not that I'm any better, but I finally got some basic trauma med training from CavMedic over at Parabellum today.
Great class, learned lots. It's good to know how to actually use a basic kit, and stop the bleeding until the pros arrive.
There were some pretty gruesome images during the pop quiz (how would you handle this scenario), and I didn't pass out! Got a little queasy during the discussions of arterial bleeding, areas arteries run, etc... Something about spurting still gets me anxious.

But I'm one small step closer... At least now I have some idea of what to do... Let's hope I never have to use these newfound skills though!

Excellent first step, sir!

 

[Ruffnek]

Something about spurting still gets me anxious.

Ditto.

 

[Cameramonkey]

You werent the only one concentrating on CavMedic's smiling face during that portion of the class...

 

[OkieGirl]

Keep on working on it. It's a real 'thing', and for the most part the desensitized approach is probably the most effective. Glad you did ok in today's class...I've worked in a world surrounded by healthcare folks for years and I still check out every time they get a needle anywhere near my vein. They always thought I was being over dramatic when I told them "stick that think in my arm and you will be picking me up off the floor". After checking out a few times, they've decided I'm no good to sit in a chair when doing a draw and will put me in a bed. There may be something to the suggestion to field dress a deer but I couldn't get myself to read thru those posts without getting squeamish...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_response

 

[spencer rifle]

Slicing up gutshot deer did it for me, I hope. Thorough training in first aid/lifeguard gets the skills ready, but actually squishing your hands around in warm, smelly guts? Closest I get is field dressing. It seems to be helping. That and years of allergy shots, both self-administered and given to family members. And donating blood. Necessity does wonders for motivation.

 

[Leadeye]

It's never the sight that bothers me, it's the smell. Deer guts in particular when you field dress is a smell I'll never get used to and in the chemical business I've gotten used to some bad smells.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Hmm. Fascinating thread. I realize I color outside the lines a bit, but I didn't know how many people have such issues, some of them seemingly inconsistent. I really don't have any, but I have a couple of advantages: my sense of smell is weak at best and so intermittent I mostly just don't smell anything, and my adrenal glands are in failure, so I get no fight flight or f*** reaction, no panic, no tunnel vision, nothing.

I had a knife close on a finger when I was about 12, and just looked at it... hmm, there's something not quite right here... oh, my whole finger should be on one side of the blade. Had to try to get to a bandaid without leaving a trail. I've scraped bone with xacto knives on numerous occasions. I sawed the print off my trigger finger, and once I'd looked at it and determined there was nothing for it, I just jammed it into my pants to keep it from leaking, went in, cleaned and dressed it, then went back out and finished my sawing. XGF asked me why I didn't go to the ER. "What would they do?" "Stitches?" "There wasn't anything to stitch."

I got to watch my wife's c-section. I was hanging over the Dr's shoulder fascinated, had to restrain myself from trying to get them to let me cut her (she was still conscious and I was in enough trouble as it was). She spiked 103° fever a couple days later, and I helped her squash the endless liters of infection out where the staple had failed. When I see blood I mostly want to eat it (thinkin I need more iron). Your belly piercing is cute. I shot myself in the wrist with one of those pet RFID transponders, because I wanted one. I'd keep my eye open for fresh roadkills, which I would use for skinning practice. I've cleaned a good bit of small game, and I want a deer this year.

I do wince when I see a video of someone doing something stupid that's going to get them hurt, but I think that's mostly from the stupid.