Hey, it's good to meet someone else who suffers from this. Funny that it only developed for you in your mid-twenties - I've had it all my life. Not from the sight of my own blood, but from reading medical texts (such as the page you linked) or from having human biology explained to me.
One thing that I think people don't understand is that it's completely uncontrollable. I can prevent myself from fainting about a well as a person with a broken leg can just "walk it off". It's very weird to see this effect from a part of the brain that I apparently have no control over.
Have you looked into treatment options at all? I have looked around a bit, but I haven't found any studies into treatment of any kind. I've been considering regularly donating blood in the hopes that regular exposure to that environment would reduce effect.
That wikipedia page suggests that pschological triggers (eg sight of blood, medical details etc) can be treated via exposure therapy. I’d guess that the treatment is similar to that used (very effectively) for phobias: ie progressively increasing the exposure, but under the control of the patient so they have time to accustom themselves to each new level of stimulus & retrain their current stress response.
One thing that I think people don't understand is that it's completely uncontrollable. I can prevent myself from fainting about a well as a person with a broken leg can just "walk it off". It's very weird to see this effect from a part of the brain that I apparently have no control over.
Have you looked into treatment options at all? I have looked around a bit, but I haven't found any studies into treatment of any kind. I've been considering regularly donating blood in the hopes that regular exposure to that environment would reduce effect.