One in ten of the population has a specific fear of needles. But never before has getting an injection been so commonplace and so necessary. Are you one of those whose fear could be stopping you getting vaccinated for Coronavirus? Failing to tackle this could place you at risk of getting Covid-19 and being hospitalised. Ironically, this might mean having to have even more injections in hospital to help save your life.
What is needle phobia?
Needle phobia, known scientifically as Trypanophobia, can in more extreme cases, cause fainting, either before or after an injection. Like many phobias, just the thought of having an injection can be enough to trigger a vasovagal event, as it’s known in medical circles.
A vasovagal event works like this: seeing or thinking about an injection or needle causes your heart rate to increase and your blood pressure goes up. This can cause sweating, nausea, stomach cramps or panic attacks. At the point of injection, or sometimes before, your blood pressure drops, causing dizziness or fainting. Having this happen to you is unpleasant in itself, so people can start fearing the reaction to having an injection, as well as the injection itself.
How to beat your fear of injections
If you suffer from needle phobia, you are not alone. You may have avoided having injections up until now, but perhaps you’re thinking about having the covid vaccination. There’s good news: a needle phobia is very treatable with hypnotherapy, combined with a simple relaxation and tension method which you can easily learn.
If you’d like to talk to someone who understands how you might be feeling, knows about phobias and can get you on the path to dealing with your fears, get in touch with me now through the contact form or give me a call.
How to support someone else with a needle phobia
- Mind your language! Sometimes a phobia can be made worse by the words you use such as jab or jag. Use more neutral language like vaccination or inoculation, which emphasises the benefits.
- Distraction can be helpful. A chat about something else, like what you’re doing later may be just enough to take the person’s focus away.
- Don’t make a big deal of it. Using phrases beforehand like “be brave” or “it’ll be over soon” can increase anxiety. Having a vaccination is an ordinary event. Treat it as such in the way you speak about it, like a trip to the supermarket.
- If they’ve had hypnotherapy you may be able to help them with a trigger word to calm them.
Contact us now for a session to get help