Are you look for hypnotherapy for needle phobia? An extreme fear of needles is also known as belonephobia. Similar to other phobias, this can be very distressing, with a level of high anxiety, in particular when getting a vaccination or injection. Sometimes people feel a stronger anxiety when giving blood rather than something being injected into them. If just reading this now is raising your levels of anxiety, help is here. I provide in London hypnotherapy for needle phobia and can help you also.
Hypnotherapy for needle phobia treatment
Anxiety and disgust are common feeling experienced when a person has a needle phobia. Someone might even have a panic attack when giving blood or going for a medical procedure. In this way it operates just like when anyone thinks about, sees or comes into close contact with the object of fear.
If you are a needle phobia sufferer, you will know all too well that your emotional responses are strong and it can feel that you are unable to control the symptoms that overwhelm you. This is where hypnotherapy for needle phobia can help you feel calmer and be able to have various tests or medical procedures that right now may be anxiety provoking.
Needle phobia treatment: Confronting avoidance
Avoidance is a common way of coping with a needle phobia. Yes, this strategy keeps you safe in the short term. Inevitably though, your fear of needles (or the situation that accompanies it) may come in conflict with other goals, such as travelling, health treatments or even demands from your work situation. Often when a real necessity arises, people get in touch to see how hypnotherapy for needle phobias can help. I feel real satisfaction hearing that hypnotherapy has helped someone do something, which a few weeks before, felt impossible.
Sometimes it can be years before someone is ready to challenge their phobia. During this time, your phobia can transform from being a simple phobia into being a complex one. Meaning it can sometimes grow to encompass other areas of life that the subconscious feels is similar.
Needle phobia treatment: Needle phobia associated situations
Identifying precisely what you fear is an important part of your needle phobia treatment. Sometimes the anxiety relates to the specific object. Yet in the majority of cases, it’s the situation in which the needle is being used, concern about the body being harmed or other fears that bring to the situation that heightened anxiety and makes the situation so difficult to manage.
Other fears which can add anxiety include being disgusted with the sight of blood, coping with expected pain, a fear of contamination, trusting the medical staff, a fear of fainting and wider issues like coping with embarrassment of panicking in front of strangers.
Here is a list of situations commonly associated with a fear of needles:
- A fear of medical procedures (trypanophobia) including injections, vaccinations (jabs or shots), blood tests, use of local and general anaesthetic etc.
- A general fear of sharp objects (aichmophobia and enetophobia) including pins, scissors, pens, pencils etc.
- A fear of blood (haemophobia), in particularly during a blood test.
- A fear of pain (algophobia or algiophobia).
- A fear of germs or contamination (misophobia), should a needle or foreign materials entering the body be infected. This is common with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).
- A fear of dental procedures (dentophobia).
- A fear of becoming ill (nosophobia) from the procedure or from any side effects. This is common with hypochondriasis or health anxiety.
- A fear of death (thanotophobia), that something will go catastrophically wrong.
- A social phobia (fear of embarrassment); you can feel embarrassed because you are unable to cope with the medical procedure.
- Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces or being unable to escape a situation) when you need an extended medical procedure in a hospital as an in-patient.
- Panic disorder (fear of fear) in which you have numerous fears and phobias, and experiences random panic attacks.
Hypnotherapy for needle phobia: Living with a needle phobia
It is estimated that up to 10% of the population experience a needle phobia. Pain could be a factor as is sometimes a feeling that its just not natural to remove blood or anything else from the body. The anticipation of pain then can become another feature of a fear of needles.
The anticipation of these feared experiences can be learned directly or vicariously (through significant adult authority figures). They can also be learned indirectly from a friend’s account of their negative experiences and from media sources. With the latter, children especially can be easily convinced by television medical dramas. They often portray medical traumas so realistically that children can associate pain, blood, medical errors, distrust etc. into the anticipation of their next medical procedure. It’s not surprising that some children cite what they have seen on television as a partial cause of their fear of needles.
Hypnotherapy for needle phobia and children
But it’s not just medical and dental situations that are affected by a needle phobia. Children with a fear of needles can miss out on school trips or family holidays abroad, since there are many countries that require proof of vaccination before being able to enter the country.
During teenage years social anxiety (social phobia) tends to dominate a teenager’s choices, usually avoiding attention and embarrassment where possible. For a teen, a fear of needles can be difficult to admit to, out of fear it might provoke ridicule from them. But then without the confidence to admit a fear of needles and face the possible taunting, a teenager with social anxiety may try to suppress their anxiety. The suppression of emotions can cause them to come to the surface when you least want them to be released. Risking a panic attack in the queue leading in to the school medical room or school hall will draw lots of curious, negative attention from your peers. You then risk being labelled by those insensitive members. But there are alternatives. Fortunately, when social anxiety adds to the general anxiety experienced with a fear of needles, the vaccination may be possible at your local GP surgery.
Certain career choices can be limited without confronting a needle phobia. When joining the military services, vaccinations will be needed when being deployed abroad. Or if you choose a career in medicine, the ability to perform medical procedures is essential unless you choose a non-clinical medical career.
In adulthood, a needle phobia can continue to affect your personal life. If you avoid vaccinations, it will restrict some holidays abroad. It can also cause unnecessary worry when certain medical conditions need blood tests to be fully diagnosed or treated.
In summary, without you seeking an effective needle phobia treatment, living with a needle phobia will restrict your life in many medical and health-related situations. Being open about your needle phobia can be a limited way of coping with it. When healthcare providers know that you have a fear of needles, they can offer you some short term assistance to get you through the procedure. I provide in London hypnotherapy for needle phobia. I have helped many people with this phobia, and maybe I can help you also.
Hypnotherapy for needle phobia: Managing symptoms
For many needle phobia sufferers, once the needle phobia has developed however, it’s the anticipation and other connecting fears that make the medical procedure so distressing. An untreated needle phobia can associate claustrophobia, fear of blood and injury, panic disorder, agoraphobia into the complex experience. So even when a medical procedure is completed, the experience is not considered an emotional achievement. Instead, it serves as yet another anxious trauma and a setback to your confidence.
You view the situation as something that you survived “with no other choice” and would still prefer to avoid these situations when you do have a choice. Very few people “want” to have an injection or a blood test, but when you can focus on the benefits and freedom that it offers you, a medical procedure with a needle can become something that you gradually accept and learn to manage.
Needle phobia treatment: Causes of a needle phobia
Direct learning from personal traumas is considered to be one of the main causes of a needle phobia. Vicarious learning from authority figures and media sources can also contribute to external factors that cause a needle phobia.
London hypnotherapy for needle phobia treatment: symptoms
The symptoms of a needle phobia can be intense and debilitating, often similar to anxiety symptoms common with a panic attack. These can include a rapid heart rate, strained breathing, profuse sweating, trembling, severe muscle tension, pounding heart, fainting, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, clamminess etc. Some needle phobia sufferer’s reaction is related to the emotion of disgust.
How does hypnotherapy for needle phobia work?
Hypnotherapy can treat your needle phobia since in most cases people with phobias tend to be highly receptive to hypnosis. I have had high success treating needles phobias a t my London clinic. A hypnotherapy needle phobia treatment will use a combined approach including controlled exposure, visualisation, hypnosis, hypno-analysis, anxiety control and regression to remove the “cause” of your needle phobia.
If you would like to book London sessions for hypnotherapy for needle phobia, get in touch today.
