My phobia started with a childhood blood test

Started 19 November 2025 · 16 replies · 121 hearts · read 999 times

BassCoventry, UK · 19 November 2025

8 months ago

Something I have been sitting with: My phobia started with a childhood blood test Not looking for advice so much as other people's experience.

I have avoided asking about this for six weeks out of pure embarrassment.

I would like to hear timescales more than remedies. Knowing how long other people's lasted would turn this from an open-ended thing into a bounded one.

The physical part is manageable. What is wearing me down is the constant low-level monitoring of it, and I would like to stop doing that.

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

Thanks in advance. Even a one-line "yes, me too" would help more than you would think.

BessLouth, UK

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.

Ollie OPeterhead, UK

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

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.

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada

Facilitator note: if any of this has landed close to home while you were reading, our support resources page lists the kinds of service worth finding.

13me too 3

WinkleWeymouth, UK

This is the honest version, and the honest version is harder to write.

PerrineStrasbourg, FR

Building on what Ollie O wrote rather than answering the original question.

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.

BronLincoln, UK

What worked for me was somebody else being calm. Not encouraging, not enthusiastic. Calm. That was the whole ingredient.

DelythBala, UK

The thing I did not expect was how much better it got once I stopped fighting the fear and started planning around it.

Bryn MNeath, UK

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

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.

TavitaApia, WS

You have described the bit that nobody warns you about.

BramwellRipon, UK

#10

Mine is still there. I have a set of things I do that make it manageable, and the fear itself has not gone, and that is an honest description of where I am.

7me too 5

IslaOban, UK

#11

Bramwell — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

I would say to anybody starting: tell your prescriber the actual word. I described mine as being a bit nervous and got advice for being a bit nervous.

TaaviTallinn, EE

#12

Distraction did nothing for me and preparation did everything. I have watched other people here find the exact opposite.

PietPretoria, ZA

#13

I have read this twice now. Thank you for writing it.

BassCoventry, UK

#14

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

Somebody in this circle described their phobia as a body response rather than a thought, and that distinction got me to the right kind of help.

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada

#15

Slowing this down for a moment. The question asked was whether this is ordinary. That is not the same as asking what to do about it and we have answered the second one.

Ollie OPeterhead, UK

#16

Picking up Esi’s point rather than starting a new one.

Please do not let anybody, clinical or otherwise, make you feel unreasonable about this. Mine was dismissed twice before it was taken seriously and the delay cost me a year.