If you have been delaying your coronavirus vaccine date due to having a fear of needles, I have some good news for you. In fact, even if you have been putting off any other medical procedures involving injections! You can go ahead and book that date because help with hypnotherapy for phobias is here.
Being able to even tolerate needles may have been something that you have struggled with but you don’t need to anymore. Yes, even those big hypodermic needles will be a doddle.
Having years of experience in helping people with very specific phobias including needles, I can tell you that most people are free from their fear in just one session.
What is Fear of Needles Called?
The proper term for it is trypanophobia. Just trying to say the word might give you some anxiety. Not as much as if you were sitting in the doctor’s office looking at a syringe wondering when it is going to be injected into you.
Trypanophobia is more common than you might think. I have worked with a lot of people over the years for needle phobia. If you are having to put off any medical treatment you may need, such as blood tests, you can relax now.
How Do People Get Trypanophobia?
There are a few situations where people tend to get trypanophobia from in my experience. Here are some examples.
Trypanophobia from Childhood Bad Experience
Sometimes when we are young and having our early age vaccines, we feel some injection pain. This pain as we are young can be magnified to a level higher than it really was. One thing the subconscious mind will do is move you towards pleasure and keep you away from pain. If it has decided that the experience was too painful for you, it will try its best to keep you away from needles.
This is part of your inner protection mechanism kicking in to help you. One of the issues is that every time you come across a similar experience to the initial one, it will take you back to being that age. If you were 4 years old the first time you will have the coping mechanisms and ability to deal with the situation as you did at 4 dealing with the previous trauma.
Hypnotherapy can really help you with this. What I do is help you to “upgrade your system” to your current age. Then needles are no longer scary and you are able to get the medical care that you need.
Learned Behaviour Around Needles
Sometimes we will see or hear parents, siblings or friends go through their own fears or talk about them to us. We then tune into their feelings and take that fear on as our own. Even though we haven’t had a negative experience of our own these stories can still affect us.
We tend to embellish these stories about the big scary needle until it becomes a real issue for us. This is why you can have multiple positive experiences with needles and then all of a sudden the fear takes over and we focus on that instead.
One day you can be going for a blood test and out of nowhere you suddenly have a fear of needles. Hypnotherapy is a great solution to help you to clear your fear of needles.
Having General Anxiety
If you are someone that identifies as an anxious person or you have been diagnosed as having an anxiety disorder, this can affect you around needles. Some people will try to use an anti-anxiety medication in order to reduce anxiety. While this works for some people, others will find they are still triggered when seeing a needle or even just thinking about one.
If you experience mild symptoms of anxiety you can utilise techniques such as deep breathing to help you. This will help to relax your body and mind as well as lower your blood pressure. All relaxation techniques will help you lower your blood pressure as well as other positive effects that help people cope.
Symptoms of Extreme Fear of Needles
In extreme cases, you may feel unable to even hear the word needle or book an appointment for an injection. An extreme fear can even lead to fainting or just feeling faint. If you experience these symptoms it is important that you have a friend or family member with you to support you.
Some people will use sedative medications in order to have their coronavirus vaccination. Some users report feelings of severe dizziness from using these so I would recommend getting a doctor to provide medical advice if you want to go down the medications route.
Panic Attacks from Needle Phobia
Panic attacks can be common for those with an extreme fear of needles. This is generally a physical response created by your subconscious mind in order to protect you from re-experiencing a previous trauma or another reason listed previously.
If anxiety is running your life and stopping you from being able to do things that you want or need to do I would highly recommend coming for some hypnotherapy sessions for anxiety first.
By getting treatment for anxiety first, it helps you to better control your own breathing and heart rate. This in turn helps you to be less afraid than you would have previously been.
Does Exposure Therapy Work for Needle Phobia?
Exposure therapy is something that I honestly do not support for most people. Whilst there may be some circumstances in which it can be useful, on the whole, I find exposure therapy to be a cruel method. If your symptoms are very mild it could be useful for you. If you are reading this article, the chances are that you do not fit into that bracket.
Best Therapy for Needle Phobia
I find therapy for a phobia of needles is hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is head and shoulders above other therapies such as counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) when it comes to fears and phobias.
If you have a needle phobia, you need more than just having an understanding of where it came from. Rationalising about how a needle stick isn’t dangerous when in the hands of a doctor, nurse or trained professional isn’t going to cut it. You can already do that yourself. You also don’t need distraction techniques as when you see that needle, you aren’t going to be able to think of anything else.
You need and deserve a needle phobia therapy that actually works!
Hypnotherapy for Fear of Needles / Trypanophobia
If you have a needle phobia (trypanophobia) it’s time to look at hypnotherapy as a solution to your fear of needles.
The Leeds Hypnotherapist has years of experience in working with people face to face and online all around the world. If you would like to be freed from your fear of needles you can call me on 0113 460 1204 or you can use the contact page to message me.
