Symptom Focus: Trypanophobia - A Fear of Needles

 

How do you feel about the idea of having a blood test?

 

How about the thought of the upcoming Covid-19 vaccination?

For someone who has an extreme fear of needles in a medical setting (trypanophobia) answering those two questions would, most likely, have produced feelings of mild fear even though they there are no needles near them.

The phobia may have begun as aichophobia, the fear of sharp objects, but has substituted to focus on medical procedures and needles in particular.

Like all phobias, trypanophobia is an irrational fear. The person suffering from the fear knows that it is irrational. Nevertheless, the fear, panic and a feeling of being out of control happens whether they try to suppress it or not. In fact, if they do try and suppress it then the extreme panic is usually stronger in intensity.

Long-Term Effects

Being unable to have an injection, for example, means they are going to be unwilling to seek medical help for other problems, just in case they have to have an injection and/or a blood test.

Women may fear becoming pregnant as this will mean lots of medical appointments, blood test and other procedures that may use a needle.

Like all anxiety/phobias it begins to take over more and more of an individual’s life. The restriction placed upon their life increases over time, and remember this is irrational so it will also take over other seemingly unrelated aspects of their life.

Like all anxiety related symptoms, phobias constantly change. The person who is under greater life stress will find that the phobia increases in intensity. Where once they experienced fear and panic when they actually had an injection, now just talking about it can lead to beginnings of a panic attack. 

Trigger Event or a Cause?

Clients with a phobia will often relate to me an incident which they believe is the cause of the problem. Sometimes it will be a medical procedure they had which made them particularly anxious, this may be very recent or it can be from many years ago. The important thing to consider is that even though they know there is nothing to be scared of the fear remains.

What if that incident wasn’t the CAUSE of the phobia? What if it was the TRIGGER for an underlying anxiety? 

What if the phobia was an outward expression of an unconscious anxiety?

In my experience, a phobia is a symbolic representation of an inner anxiety. The person is quite likely to have had an experience in the formative years (not necessarily related to needles) and the emotion related to that incident is now being symbolic represented as their needle phobia.

Sometimes the person may already consciously know what the experience is, but they haven’t processed (thought it through) properly because at the time they were particularly emotional and/or they were just too young to understand the experience.

An example is needed…

Jane was a quiet and somewhat shy girl. At infant school she was diligent and eager to do well, but found the loud and boisterous behaviour of some of the boys in her class unsettling. She had become an easy target for the boy’s teasing.

One day in particular, she had been teased a lot and understandably was feeling sad and a little fearful of them. During an afternoon maths lesson, a particular boy sat behind her in the class and took it upon himself to take his compass and poke Jane hard through the gap in the back of her chair.

Jane shrieked and the pain and shock made her jump up. If this wasn’t embarrassing enough she ‘had an accident’. The rest of class seeing the puddle on the floor stared at her and she could hear a few sniggers. Jane’s shame and embarrassment continued as left the classroom and rush to the bathroom, and was intensified when at the end of the day the teacher handed a bag containing the wet underpants to Jane’s mother.

Let’s imagine that she felt so embarrassed and shameful that she put it out of thoughts and ‘forgot about it’ over the next few weeks. This was a useful way for her mind to deal with it, after all if she didn’t remember it then she wouldn’t feel the shame and embarrassment again; but the emotion remains locked up inside her.

Let’s move forward a few years… Jane is now at secondary school and it is time for the TB vaccinations. She is standing in line listening to the silly scary stories from the other children. Could it be true, she thinks, that they use six needles? Surely, not…but waiting in line, Jane cannot help but feel a little nervous.

As she sit’s down next to the smiling nurse and rolls her sleeve up she hears the girl in the next cubical crying. Jane begins to feel panicky. She feels hot and sweaty, the room looks fuzzy and as she faints she has the strange thought: ‘don’t wet yourself…’

So when Jane sits in front of me as an adult seeking help for her trypanophobia, she tells me how she knows when her phobia started… it was when she had her vaccination at school. She will even explain how embarrassed and ashamed she feels to be so scared when she has previously forced herself to have a blood test or injection of some kind.

She is unlikely to make the connection between fainting while having her vaccination and the experience she had in infant school. One experience was a trigger for the other because is was a near-miss.

Some What If’s

What if Jane were able to remember and think through that experience from infant school, but this time as an adult? 

What if she was able to see it for what it was, an experience that wasn’t her fault and something she doesn’t have to feel embarrassed about? 

What if Jane was able to feel the emotions she felt at the time once more and extinguish them?

What if she could understanding where her phobia really came from?

Do you think she would still be afraid of needles?

Hypnoanalysis is a treatment that works to answer those ‘what if’s’

Hypnoanalysis

Hypnoanalysis is a type of analytical therapy which works through and resolves the emotional build up which cause phobias. The therapy works under the principal of cause and effect. For every effect (phobia) there has to be a cause; a reason why this person suffers in the way they do.

Rather than managing symptoms, the aim is to remove the psychological cause of the phobia. The person will be able to dispense with the management strategies they use to control their phobia, because the phobia no longer exists; without the possibility of symptom substitution.

The process does not have to be a long drawn out process either. Most people are able to complete their therapy within 6 to 8 sessions.

There really is no reason to put up with a phobia that is negatively impacting your life. Imagine what your life would be like if your were free from that fear which has been an obstacle for so long.


Find out more and book a free initial consultation at www.ketteringhypnotherapy.com or give me a call on 01536 350328