My spouse does it and I look at the wall

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

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.

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.

Adding a name to the list of people this helped.

Grateful you posted rather than kept it to yourself.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

This is why I read the boring weeks. Thank you for the boring weeks.

I found the anticipation ran for two days beforehand, which meant a weekly thing was taking up two sevenths of my life. Reducing the anticipation was the whole project.

What helped was having a plan for if it went wrong. Knowing what I would do if I fainted meant I stopped being frightened of fainting.

My partner learned to do it, which I resisted because I felt it was my responsibility, and which was the right answer for about eight months.