Can’t a sudden fright or hearing very bad news cause shock?
Does this have the same dangerous effect on the body?
True shock is always caused by a serious shortage of blood supply to the brain, usually due to the kind of emergencies . However, severe fright, extreme pain, a horrifying sight, or other violent emotional experience can cause a kind of shock. Known as nerve shock, this usually causes fainting, due to an impairment of the nervous system, but it may result in many of the symptoms of shock already described. In nerve shock, blood tends to pool in the blood vessels, so that there is less blood available for general circulation. The big difference between this kind of emotional shock and serious physical shock, however, is that nerve shock can almost always be quickly and simply relieved by treating the patient for fainting. In this case, too, it will do no harm to give the patient a warm, sweetened drink—but not alcohol—once he is conscious and has started to recover. However, it is vital to remember that these measures apply only where the cause of shock is purely emotional, and can be dangerously time-wasting if the patient is suffering from true shock following some medical emergency.
