Squeamish

[iwbus]

Any tips to help with squeamishness please? Fear of people being sick / watching medical stuff on TV / hearing people talking about "body issues" are all a big problem for me

[Gnisy]

Dare I say.. increase the number of exposure towards those things? You just have to get used to it. That's how doctors, coroners, nurses, paramedics and crime scene investigators get over the 'squeamishness'. Or, if it is a phobia thing I'd suggest taking it a step at a time. I got a problem with heights but I won't hide away from a chance at a canopy walk... with parachutes, that is! Good luck iwbus.

[Drusilla]

Cognitive therapy techniques are used to help people overcome these problems and as Gnisy so rightly points out, the process requires gradual and increasing exposure to the 'problem'. There's a great book by Susan Jeffers called 'Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway' that helps improve confidence and turn fear and indecision into action. It's published by Vermilion books and costs �6.99.

[stoo_pid]

This might sound silly but you could investigate joining a First Aid Group. The reason I say that is, I used to be pretty squeamish (actually, to be honest I still am a bit) but had to become qualified in administering 1st Aid because of my job. I've had to attend a few incidents which were a little, er, messy, shall we say - nothing horrific but they were the sort of things that normally I would have frozen at or run away from! Because of the professional training I had received though, I found I was able to cope with each incident calmly & efficiently, (even saving someone's life in one case) almost as though I was just giving someone a sticking plaster for a little scratch.

[Hermia]

stoo-pid - Same here. I qualified as a first aider this year. My first incident was a women who had broken her leg. Her foot was facing the wrong way and I was really calm much to my surprise as it was pretty gross. I think life just gets rid of squeamishness in most people. Having a baby or nursing elderly relatives means you face things you thought you couldn't previously deal with.