How to use hypnosis to overcome a needle phobia.
Bad news, there’s a pandemic.
Good news, there’s a cure.
Terrible news, you’re phobic about needles.
Seriously though! What a time to have a phobia about needles. Having the ‘jab’ could protect you and your family from getting COVID. If only you felt better about having the injection!
Well, good news again – hypnotherapy can really help you to overcome your fears and get the protection you need and deserve.
What will I learn in this blog?
• That needle phobia really can be cured
• You can feel good about getting your COVID vaccine
• Mental Calmness and Physical Relaxation are the key
• That hypnosis can help you get a better perspective
What causes my fear of needles?
Actually, it has a name: Trypanophobia. It is an extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles.
Children are especially afraid of needles because they’re unused to the sensation of their skin being pricked by something sharp. By the time most people reach adulthood, they can tolerate needles much more easily.
But for some, a fear of needles stays with them into adulthood. Sometimes this fear can be extremely intense.
According to Healthline, doctors aren’t exactly sure why some people develop phobias and others don’t. Certain factors that lead to development of this phobia include:
• Negative life experiences or previous trauma brought on by a specific object or situation
• Relatives who’ve had phobias (which may be suggesting genetic or learned behaviour)
• Changes in brain chemistry
• Childhood phobias that have appeared by age 10
• A sensitive, inhibitive, or negative temperament
• Learning about negative information or experiences
In the case of trypanophobia, certain aspects of needles often cause the phobia. This may include:
• Fainting or severe dizziness as a result of having a reaction when pricked by a needle
• Bad memories and anxiety, such as memories of painful injections.
• Medically related fears or hypochondria
• Sensitivity to pain, which tends to be genetic and causes high anxiety, blood pressure, or heart rate during medical procedures involving a needle
What are the symptoms?
The symptoms of trypanophobia can greatly interfere with a person’s quality of life. These symptoms can be so intense that they can be debilitating. Symptoms are present when a person sees needles or is told they will have to undergo a procedure that involves needles. Symptoms include:
Dizziness
Fainting
Anxiety
Insomnia
Panic attacks
High blood pressure
Racing heart rate
Feeling emotionally or physically violent
Avoiding or running away from medical care
What treatments are available?
The goal of treatment for trypanophobia is to address the underlying cause of your phobia. So your treatment may be different from someone else’s.
Most people with trypanophobia are recommended some kind of psychotherapy as their treatment. This could include:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This involves exploring your fear of needles in therapy sessions and learning techniques to cope with it. Your therapist will help you learn different ways to think about your fears and how they affect you. In the end, you should walk away feeling a confidence or mastery over your thoughts and feelings.
Exposure therapy. This is similar to CBT in that it’s focused on changing your mental and physical response to your fear of needles. Your therapist will expose you to needles and the related thoughts they trigger. For example, your therapist might first show you photos of a needle. They might next have you stand next to a needle, hold a needle, and then perhaps imagine getting injected with a needle.
Medication is necessary when a person is so stressed that they’re unreceptive to psychotherapy. Antianxiety and sedative medications can relax your body and brain enough to reduce your symptoms. Medications can also be used during a blood test or vaccination, if it helps to reduce your stress.
Clinical Hypnotherapy. This extremely effective treatment can help to desensitise a patient by increasing a sense of calmness, relaxation and confidence during the procedure. It also uses triggers to help flood you with a real sense of safety and well being, whilst allowing your body to feel relaxed and safe.
Is there anything I can do to help myself?
According to the NHS, there are a number of things you can do to help overcome your fear.
Tell the person who is coordinating your care, giving you your injection or doing a blood test about your worries. They may be able to answer any specific questions you have, and help you cope with the procedure, for example by chatting to distract you. Don’t worry, staff looking after you will not be annoyed or think you are a wimp when you tell them – they would like to know so that they can help to make it easier for you.
Think about whether there has been anything which has helped you to cope with needles in the past. Can you use something like this to help you again?
If your fear is linked to fainting, or feeling faint, you can learn an applied tension technique (see the next section for more information).
If you feel panicky (for example your heart races, your chest feels tight and your stomach churns), but you do not feel faint, you can learn a breathing for relaxation exercise.These exercises are safe in pregnancy and with most medical conditions.
Remember, the needle will not be unbearably painful. It may sting a little but there are things you can do to help with feeling anxious, such as distracting your thoughts and using relaxation techniques.
Ok – sounds great – now tell me about how hypnosis can help me!
At The Hypnosis Clinic, we do a lot of great work with people who have phobic responses. You see, hypnosis is all about helping you to see things in their true perspective and not to get things out of proportion.
Take a fear of flying for example, you’re far safer on an airplane than you are in a car, so see things are they really are. What about a fear of spiders? Well, OK, not many people actively like spiders. They aren’t very … cuddly, but they pose you very little or no threat! (Even in Australia!), so see things in a better perspective.
It’s the same with needles, in reality, you’ll only feel a sharp scratch, nothing you won’t be able to deal with. It’s the fear of the procedure that can get way out ofproportion.
We work in helping to reset your fears and put them into better proportion to reality. These are some of the key ingredients you will need to have a more balanced emotional response to whatever is scaring you:
– Increase mental calmness so that you can experience things correctly
– Feel more physically relaxed and at ease during your procedure.
– Have bags of confidence in your safety and ability to cope
– Be better at seeing a true perspective
We can even make a unique self hypnosis recording for you to use. It really will change the way you look at things and gradually get you used to accepting what was unacceptable before.
Of course, each person has different expectations and challenges, so each treatment is individual to you. In addition to your regular hypnosis sessions, we keep in touch in-between to make sure that you are managing to conquer your fears and feel more calm and relaxed.
What did I learn here?
That a needle phobia is generally a result of a lesson incorrectly learned, and can be corrected in a few sessions.
Generally you should expect to have 3 to 4 sessions and and have a custom-made recording to get yourself in tune for a more balanced viewpoint.
The NHS offers excellent guidance into the treatment of all kinds of phobias here.
If you’d like to find out more about how hypnosis can help you, have a look at our website,
We offer a free initial consultation, either by a Telehealth video link or at our clinic right in the heart of London’s Regent Street.
Or if you fancy a chat, just give us a call.