My other issue lays with the fact that other licensing authorities directly address phobias as an issue, such as the FAA which states
phobias associated with some aspect of flying, are considered significant
CASA also states that
CASA may grant aeromedical certification where an applicant’s specific phobia is unrelated to the aviation environment or is unlikely to affect aviation safety adversely
This however is not the case in Europe. At no point in EASA Part-MED are phobias addressed as an issue.
The difference with my phobia is that I faint, however I have significant warning prior to this happening which the CAA is using as the main reason to stop me flying, that I don't have any warning. But the whole idea of the medical is for flight safety, when is anyone ever going to inject me/put me on a drip/take my blood whilst flying. If it ever gets to that point, a greater issue must've occurred in the first place. I even made it clear to the CAA, I only faint because of my phobia of people using syringes on me. If it was on others, I couldn't care less.
My phobia is classed as a type of a Blood-Injection-Injury phobia, the only family of phobias in which fainting can directly occur as a stimuli. As the fainting occurs due to a stimuli, in my case it is just being on the receiving end of a syringe, it is a vasovagal syncope. Due to the infrequency of being round needles, it is not recurrent. The CAA are saying it is as they only have procedures for recurrent vasovagal syncope. Phobias are not categorised under Psychiatry or Psychology.
Vasovagal syncope can also be caused by many other things: standing up for too long, pain, emotional stress, sight of blood, changes in the surrounding magnetic field. For these issues, it could be classed as recurrent as they are exposed to the stimuli frequently, unlike my case. To the CAA this is a Cardiovascular issue, to which I had an exam from a cardiologist and he deemed me fit to a Class 1 standard. Even when I am receiving injections or having blood taken, I do not always lose consciousness as I use applied tension before hand and during I listen to music, have something to squeeze in my other hand and wear a blindfold. In total, consciousness has only ever been lost twice since I was born.