Squeamishness may refer to either a mild feeling of nausea or the quality of being easily disgusted or upset. May also cause feeling faint or general uneasiness.

Causes

The sight of blood

Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....

, insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s, worm

Worm

The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...

s, slugs and sometimes the texture of fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 can make someone feel squeamish. Sometimes certain words

Profanity

Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

 can unsettle people. The smell or sight of decayed or rotting flesh is upsetting to many people. Being in hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

s can generally upset people. One can also experience squeamishness in relation to being asked to undertake an immoral or illegal action or activity. This is especially true in instances where the risk of being caught in the activity is high.

Symptoms

When someone is feeling squeamish they may twitch

Twitch

- Physiology :* Muscle contraction and relaxation** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation, resulting in uncontrolled shaking** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction...

 or shiver. Twitching is very rare when people feel squeamish. If something really unsettles them, people may lose consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...

 (pass out). Before this they may feel dizzy

Dizzy

Dizzy may refer to:* Dizziness, the state of being off balance-Nickname:* Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz trumpet player and composer* Johnny Moore , American rhythm and blues singer* Dizzy Reed, Guns N' Roses keyboardist...

. Some may display visible skin pallor

Pallor

Pallor is a reduced amount of oxyhaemoglobin in skin or mucous membrane, a pale color which can be caused by illness, emotional shock or stress, stimulant use, lack of exposure to sunlight, anaemia or genetics....

.

Recovery

People

People

People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:* as the plural of person or a group of people People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:*...

 can easily recover

Recovery model

The Recovery Model as it applies to mental health is an approach to mental disorder or substance dependence that emphasizes and supports each individual's potential for recovery...

 from squeamishness. One of the best ways is for people to try to overcome the thing that causes

Causes

Causes, or causality, is the relationship between one event and another. It may also refer to:* Cause , a term used in law* Causes , an online company...

 them to be squeamish. Most people tend generally to recover from it anyway.

Public reaction

Squeamishness may be seen as a sign of mental or physical weakness. Those who display it in public are sometimes chided for it. People who are squeamish can be urged not to join the medical profession or serve in the military because of the risk of involvement with triggers, such as blood and violence.

Etymology

• Discussion of the unclear etymology of squeamish