The fear of needles, or needle phobia, can be a dangerous condition, often preventing the afflicted person from seeking medical attention when necessary, and can debilitate children and adults alike.
In some cases the phobia can extend to a range of pointed objects such as pencils, needles, knives, a pointing finger, or even the sharp end of an umbrella.
You may be suffering from needle phobia if:
• you have a marked, persistent, and excessive fear of needles.
• exposure to needles almost invariably provokes in you an immediate anxiety response.
• you recognise that this fear is excessive.
You know that, logically speaking, an injection is only a momentary and mild discomfort. But intense fear simply takes over even as you think about it. This feeling is not logical. It is emotional and it is automatic. It just happens.
This tells us something very important. This fear, this phobia (like all phobias), is triggered and powered from within the subconscious mind. It is not consciously and logically driven. No amount of logic will therefore overcome needle phobia. You have to find a way to get into the workings of your subconscious mind to find those phobia triggers and relieve them.
Hypnosis provides an ideal method to do just this as it focuses on dealing with the root cause of the problem, which in the case of fear of needles usually has very little or nothing to do with the injection itself.
In using hypnotherapy to treat fear of needles, I work with your subconscious to uncover the original causes of the fear and then help your subconscious to understand that having an injection does not pose a threat at all.