A fear of needles, injections or sharp objects such as pins is extremely common and it is estimated by Anxiety UK that up to 10% of the UK population suffer from this condition. The problem with this phobia is that injections are commonplace and are used for everything from holiday jabs to blood tests and immunisation so they are hard to avoid. Since the Coronavirus pandemic began it has become more important than ever to overcome needle phobia as the vaccination is a lifesaver.*

Avoidance of Injections

Anxiety causes a part of your brain to avoid what it considers to be a threat. Your brain will trigger extreme fear to remove you from situations that it considers to be harmful. Yet injections are not life-threatening and in most cases barely hurt at all.

Whilst you may be able to avoid their trigger for a limited period of time eventually, a situation will arise where you can’t avoid the injections. Perhaps you may have an infected tooth and find yourself in extreme pain and urgently need dental treatment. Alternatively, you may decide that you want a baby but in order to do that, you may need to undergo blood tests.

The more you avoid the situation you fear the bigger your anxiety becomes until it becomes an overwhelming fear. Hypnotherapy for fear of needles helps you to confront your fear and assists in calming the emotional responses so that you feel more in control. Generally, hypnosis for a fear of injections is a relatively fast treatment involving between 2 to 4 sessions.*

What Causes a Fear of Injections?

A fear of needles is generally triggered in childhood when you were giving inoculations or tests. Perhaps you were forcibly held down by your parents or doctor and this made you even more fearful of the procedure. In some incidences, the phobia begins because the child sees someone else in distress when they are having an injection and their subconscious tries to protect them by making sure they don’t have to suffer the same fate.

Yet the worry about pain is not the only reason why needle phobia sufferers may have their problem as indirect links can also be behind the anxiety.

The Vasovagal Response

Medical conditions linked to the problem can be inherited and cause a problem with fainting at the sight of a needle. The person having the injection sees the person moving towards them to give them an injection and this triggers the vagus nerve. This slows your heart down, lowers your blood pressure and makes you feel faint. Clearly, if this has happened a few times then most people with this problem are going to be unwilling to have another injection.

If you have this particular issue we are able to show you a simple technique to halt the drop in blood pressure so you are able to manage injections.

Worry About Not Having Control

Another indirect reason for a fear of needles is our clients worry about the fact that they may not be in control when they are confronted with a medical professional. This may be linked to an experience they had as a child with a doctor or dentist or because of general fears and worries about not being safe unless they are in charge.

Hypnosis for a fear of needles can help you to find the root causes of your problem so that you understand where your fear is coming from. Once this is established it is possible to aim our needle phobia treatment at the exact problem.

Claustrophobia

We also know that a person’s life can be impacted by other fears and phobias which can trigger problems. Claustrophobia for example is a fear of confined spaces and that can make our clients worry about being stuck in a small area when they are getting their injections.

Alternatively, a fear of being trapped can also make our clients worry about vaccinations or blood tests. They worry that once they are in the room they are stuck and are unable to get out. This is usually linked to previous memories of a situation that you felt you couldn’t escape from.

Hospitals and Medical Buildings

Hospitals and medical buildings can also feel scary for some of our clients. This is usually because they have had a problematic experience in one or they have a family member who has had a bad experience in a medical setting.

Learning to detach the old memories from our client’s current situation with hypnotherapy for fear of injections can help to lessen the fear.

Social Anxiety

Finally, social anxiety disorder which is a fear of being judged by others or a fear of embarrassment can also cause a fear of medical procedures such as injections. Our clients worry that they will start to panic and look foolish in the room so they avoid the situation completely.

When we work with this particular issue we try and address the root causes of the social phobia as that helps to collapse the needle phobia.

Needle Phobia Symptoms

Having a needle phobia can impact your mental health and also give you strong physical symptoms. Just some of the feelings that our clients experience include:

• Anxiety
• Fainting
• Trembling
• Sweating
• Shaking
• Panic Attacks
• Feeling Like Running Away
• Fear of Pain
• Irrational Fear

In some cases, this fear can become so problematic that their health may be threatened by the condition because they are unwilling to undergo medical procedures.

Our needle phobia treatment helps to calm down the anxiety response and has major benefits as it is a relatively fast form of therapy which is important when our clients need to resolve the problem quickly so that they can be helped by medical professionals.

Hypnotherapy for Needle Phobia

Hypnotherapy for needle phobia can help because it desensitises you to your fear. When you are in hypnosis you are in a deep state of relaxation and therefore your anxiety response to your triggers is significantly less.

Our needle phobia hypnosis sessions help in a number of different ways. Firstly all forms of hypnosis are relatively calming and relaxing which helps to make you feel calmer and more in control. Whilst you are in a trance like state a hypnotherapist can help deliver positive suggestions and help you visualise better outcomes.

We also can use exposure therapy to help reduce the anxiety response. This involves introducing you to your triggers in small doses so that you get used to the idea of needles. This process may involve looking at pictures or videos of needles to help lower the fear. Systematic desensitisation is one of the most popular ways to help a needle phobia.

Finally, hypnosis for needle phobias can help you to understand the root cause of your problem which isn’t always directly linked with injections or even medical procedures. Dealing with the underlying cause is often the best approach to removing a fear or phobia and helping improve your mental health.*

Fear of Coronavirus Injection 

As the mass coronavirus vaccination gets underway people with a fear of needles and injections are actually dreading their turn. Yet this life-saving vaccination may save your life!

We were asked by the Daily Telegraph to discuss how we could help their readers with needle phobias overcome the fear.

Read our interview in The Telegraph where we discuss how we are helping people with a fear of the coronavirus injection.

Booking Your Needle Phobia Treatment

If you have a problem with a fear of injections or would like to speak to us about Hypnotherapy for Fear of Needles in Nottingham or by online sessions then please give us a call on:

01636 650 521

Disclaimer*Please note that as this is a form of therapy we are unable to guarantee results that may vary from person to person.