I stopped because of this and I am back to try again

Graded exposure over about three months got me there. Slowly, in small steps, with somebody who knew what they were doing, and none of it was dramatic.

My GP took it seriously the moment I described the fainting rather than the fear. The physical detail was what got me the referral.

I could not be in the room with the box for the first fortnight. That is where I started and I now do this weekly without difficulty.

A phobia is a different thing from being nervous, and I spent a year being told to just get on with it before somebody used the right word for what I had.

Mine has a fainting response attached, which meant the advice aimed at anxiety did not work at all. Lying down first was what changed it.

I would have written the same thing a year ago, word for word.

Nothing useful, just that I have been exactly here.

What I would say is that this is not the same as squeamishness and you do not need to justify it as more than that.

Applied tension helped my fainting more than anything else. It was taught to me properly, it is a specific technique, and it is worth asking about by name.

Nobody in this circle is going to tell you it is only a small needle. That sentence has never helped anybody with an actual phobia.

Mine came from a childhood hospital experience I had not connected to any of this until a therapist asked, and that connection was most of the work.

I practised with the pen without doing anything, several times a day, for two weeks. Getting used to holding it was a real step and I nearly skipped it.

I had one bad experience in the first month that set me back weeks, and rebuilding from it was slower than starting had been. Be gentle with yourself if that happens.

Lying down changed everything for me. My nurse suggested it in about ten seconds and it solved a problem I had had for twenty years.