I’m severely scared of needles, and nobody believes me. Now, I’m facing two two-year license suspension because I refused the chemical test, and I need someone to believe me.

Same.

I have severe trypanophobia, and it ™s like a heavy weight on my shoulders all the time. But my parents don ™t realize it; they just think I ™m childish.

Yeah, a couple of years ago, I was going to get a yearly flu shot, and when the time came, my dad was holding me back, and I was so scared I ran out of his arms and around the office. My doctor came in and let me look at his paperwork (it barely helped), but it made me feel a bit better. But maybe a year later, I had to get two shots, and I squeezed my father’s hand. It helped a bit better, but I am still terrified, so I hope I don’t get flustered this time.

For the past few years, I’ve been trying to lessen my anxiety when it comes to needles and injections. In January of this year, I actually built up the courage to participate in a blood drive of all things. I still consider trypanophobia to be my strongest phobia, with acrophobia being a close second, but at least I’m improving a little.

There are two things that help me overcome the times I am poked at the doctor. The first and most predictable of the two are me telling myself that this will help me or someone else, or that I don’t have a say in the matter anyway (looking at you Dr. Banisch, with your constant blood drawing requests to check medication levels in my body).
The second one is something I request to every person who pokes me, and it’s very abnormal for a person with this fear. One, I need a countdown, which is pretty normal; and two, I HAVE to watch it go in. I need to do this because even with a countdown, if I can’t physically see it go in, I’m not fully prepared. I want to know for sure the exact moment it goes in so I’m not caught off guard.

Now that I’m done with this not-so-mini-essay, I actually feel calmer than when I started typing. So just in case you don’t think it does, exposure therapy works.

As a trypanophobiac, this sounds much nicer.

Maybe – my fear stems from my inability to control my response. I’m less afraid of the pain and more afraid of not being able to be in control of my panic attack response. I’m afraid I will flail my arm with a needle inside and break it off or jab myself worse. I had a bad orthodontist experience as a kid – injection in the joint of my jaw. I could hear the muscles cracking, wanted so badly to bite my mouth shut. Scarred for life. Now every needle comes with hyperventilation and panic attack. I can’t sit still and need to flee as soon as I see the doc reaching for the needle.