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Needle phobia

Practising with the training device

Started 23 December 2024 · 22 replies · 243 hearts · read 4.6k times

Ollie OPeterhead, UK · 23 December 2024
1.6 years ago

Something I have been sitting with: Practising with the training device 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 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.

This started at the same time as two other things, which is why I cannot attribute it to anything with any confidence.

My pharmacist has been helpful and my question has now outgrown what she can answer at a counter, so I am asking here while I wait for an appointment.

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

81

HéloïseGeneva, CH
#1

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.

12

TaaviTallinn, EE
#2

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

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.

10

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada
#3

I want to say that the honesty in this thread is exactly what makes this circle worth having, including the parts nobody enjoyed writing.

28

DelythBala, UK
#4

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

8me too 3

BronLincoln, UK
#5

Taavi, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

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.

9

Bryn MNeath, UK
#6

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.

11

TavitaApia, WS
#7

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.

7me too 7

PietPretoria, ZA
#8

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

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.

11

BessLouth, UK
#9

Building on what Bryn M 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.

9

PerrineStrasbourg, FR
#10

Not a solution, just company.

14

BramwellRipon, UK
#11

Perrine, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

Coming back to say I did it alone, calmly, last Tuesday, and then sat down and cried a bit. Both parts are the update.

8

IslaOban, UK
#12

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.

10me too 7

WinkleWeymouth, UK
#13

I keep a small written plan of my own steps and I still read it sometimes, eighteen months in. It costs me nothing and it steadies me.

6

Ollie OPeterhead, UK
#14

Isla has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

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.

9

HéloïseGeneva, CH
#15

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.

9

TaaviTallinn, EE
#16

Sitting with you on this one.

12

BassCoventry, UK
#17

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.

7

DelythBala, UK
#18

I worked with someone for six sessions, specifically on this, and it was the best thing I did that year. It is a treatable thing and it does not have to be endured.

13

BronLincoln, UK
#19

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

11

Bryn MNeath, UK
#20

Delyth has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

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.

11

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada
#21

Closing note: this stays linked from the circle landing page. If you have arrived here late and want to add your version, you are welcome to.

16me too 8

PietPretoria, ZA
#22

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

12