Autoinjector versus a syringe for an anxious person

Started 21 September 2024 · 19 replies · 217 hearts · read 3.2k times

IslaOban, UK · 21 September 2024

1.8 years ago

Starting a thread on this because it keeps coming up in ones and twos: Autoinjector versus a syringe for an anxious person

Before anyone says it: yes, I have an appointment booked. I would still like to hear from people who have had this.

I am not looking for reassurance particularly. I am looking for somebody to say either that they had exactly this, or that they did not, because both would help.

Nobody warned me about this specifically and I am starting to think that is because it is common enough that everybody assumed I knew.

No advice needed if you would rather not. Recognition is genuinely enough.

OrlaithDonegal, IE

The dread built through the day and peaked about an hour before, so I moved mine to first thing in the morning and cut the anticipation to ten minutes.

11me too 1

OttaviaBologna, IT

Isla, I have been where you are and I would rather say so than stay quiet.

Counting down out loud sounds silly and was the only thing that stopped me hovering. Three, two, one, done, and the hovering was where all the fear lived.

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada

Before anyone offers a remedy: what has been described in this thread is on the list of things that need a clinician today rather than a thread. I am going to be firm about that, kindly.

DelythBala, UK

I did the first four in the bathroom sitting on the floor. There is no correct place and nobody is watching.

CatoAntwerp, BE

Have you got anyone who can be in the room? It made an enormous difference to me and I felt ridiculous asking, and I would ask sooner if I could do it again.

NadirCasablanca, MA

Mine was never about pain. It was about doing something deliberate to myself, and once I understood that, all the advice about pain was beside the point.

GaelanInverurie, UK

Sitting with you on this one.

ZoëHackney, UK

Building on what Cato wrote rather than answering the original question.

The two hours before were always worse than the thing itself, every single time, for about four months. Naming that pattern was the beginning of it getting better.

12me too 2

PerrineStrasbourg, FR

Nadir said something I want to sit with for a second.

Mine is now genuinely uneventful and I remember very clearly that it was not, and I would not want anybody to think it was uneventful from the start.

BrodyDunfermline, UK

#10

Please do not white-knuckle this for months in silence. There are practical things people can help with and none of them require you to be brave.

GavinDundee, UK

#11

I was three days late twice because I could not face it, and I want to say that here because I felt like the only person that had ever happened to.

SaraOslo, NO

#12

What worked for me was a ritual. Same place, same order, same music, and about six weeks of that turned it from an event into a routine.

TedIpswich, UK

#13

Reading Gavin, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

My nurse talked me through the first one on the phone and stayed on the line, and I have never been more grateful for nine minutes of somebody's time.

OmarAmman, JO

#14

What helped was letting it be a big deal at first rather than insisting it was not. Pretending it was nothing made it worse for about two months.

NylaNairobi, KE

#15

Reading this properly rather than skimming, which is all I have to offer today.

13me too 6

IvesPenzance, UK

#16

Coming back to what Ted wrote further up, because it is the bit I keep thinking about.

Coming back to say that the dread went. Not immediately, not tidily, but it went, and I have not thought about it in over a year.

GwynforLlanidloes, UK

#17

Cold hands made mine worse. Warming up for a minute beforehand genuinely changed the experience and I found that out by accident.

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada

#18

Speaking plainly as a facilitator: none of this is medical advice, none of us is qualified to give any, and that limit is what makes the rest of what we do honest.

SableCape Town, ZA

#19

Reading Ives, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

What I got wrong was doing it last thing at night when I was tired and low. Moving it to a Saturday morning changed it completely.