Meltdowns at the doctors office

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Im 15 and I still freak out like a little kid at the doctors office. Its worse though because Im stronger then a little kid. Last time I was at the doctor I hid under a sink and refused to come out. The time before that I had to get my blood drawn and I screamed and cried and tried to run away. It took 3 nurses and my mom to hold me down. I dont want to be sent to the nut house for it when Im an adult. I have no control over it, its like when I get there I totally loose my mind. What should I do? I have a feeling I am going to end up at the doctor soon. I am getting sick after I eat like any thing! My muscules hurt and anyway Im pretty sick right now. My mom is going to take me to the doctor at some piont soon. I dont want to go!! Help!

I have always just kind of shut down at the doctors office. its been a few years since I have been to the doctors though.

Hi Kaelynn
I was a lot like you when I was a kid. Nurses and my mom had to hold me down if needles were going to be involved. When I got into my teenage years I guess I came to the understanding that this was something that had to get done so I best put my mind somewhere else and do what needs to be done.
As an adult, I still feel faint when I find out a shot is due. Just last week I had to have my 10 year tetnis booster shot. I told the nurse "I know this sounds weird but I'm a real baby when it comes to needles so I'm going to look away and think about other things until your done." She thought it was a little weird but said ok. I will usually sing a simple song in my head like the ABC song or something.

PS- If you don't feel good, you really need to express/discribe the pains to the doctor so that he/she can help you.

Hope this was helpful

The fact of the matter is, if one does not wish to make a fool out of ones self, one must eventually learn how to control themselves and take responsibility for their actions. You may not control your emotions but you do not have to let your emotions control your actions.

If I were you, I would try to determine what it is about visits to the doctor's office that upsets you so. They usually aren't very unpredictable. Most visits go something like this.

1. Check in.
2. Wait.
3. Get called back.
4. The nurse weighs you.
5. You are directed into a room.
6. The nurse takes your blood pressure and temperature.
7. The nurse asks the reason for your visit.
8. You may be told to put a gown on.
9. The nurse leaves.
10. Wait.
11. The doctor enters the room.
12. The doctor says hello and asks why you have come in today.
13. The doctor looks at your chart and asks a few questions.
15. The doctor examines you: May check ears, nose throat, lymph glands, heart beat, sound of lungs, abdomen.
16. The doctor makes a diagnosis or orders tests.
17. The doctor may write a prescription.

And then the appointment is over. Most doctor appointments don't last more than 15 minutes.
Concerning blood tests, they're generally over quickly. Perhaps you would find the appointments more tolerable if the doctor told you everything he/she was about to do and explained why?

You can get some prescription meds to help you relax during your appointments. Some anti-anxiety stuff work really fast. You can take one when you leave the house, and by the time you get there it would already work. They're easily overused, though. So let your mother keep it and only take one before seeing doctors.

Being afraid of needles is pretty common, just that alone won't send you to nuthouse. I've even met someone who fainted at the sight of needle (for vaccine). She later became a police officer. It's important to figure out ways to overcome your fears and manage your life.

I realized that this thread was started a while back, but decided to see what I can find about doctors here. I sure could have used some anti anxiety medicine, because I really got upset when I was asked to sit up on the examination table in my new doctor's office with no support for my back and my feet just dangling. I was always seated in a chair which is where I should have been today. I got a really high blood pressure reading with the doctor going on how accurate their equipment is over my own equipment. This new doctor didn't believe that one medicine he was wanting to describe to me caused high blood pressure until he checked it out on the Internet on a laptop he had in the room. He never mentioned again. The other doctor that I had must have gotten his diploma out of a cracker jack box. Those doctors in the same office got rid of him once before and needs to be gotten rid of again. So I decided to go to one of the other doctors in that same office who copped an attitude throwing my exrays around ranting and raving. And that was the final straw, because all those doctors wanted to do is plugged new meds for the pharmacuetical companies. Because I was beginning to have a home pharmacy in my own house I started researching on the Internet to find out why I was in so much pain, had high blood pressure and a host of other problems. I quit taking all of those meds and now I'm pain free and feel so much better.

Also the nurse of the new doc checked my height with my shoes on and according to their measure I had shrunk almost 2 inches. I wasn't going to take that lying down either. When I got home I very carefully marked on the wall using a yard stick and a tape measure at 63" and at 64" and the added 1/2". I used an L shaped ruler making sure it was level with a small carpenters level. And depending on what shoes I had on I stood at 64 1/2" with one pair and 64 1/4" with the shoes I had on at the doctors office. So I completely lost my trust in the new doctor and unless things change and the doctor stop knowing everything there is about me though he has never seen me before today I will be moving on. I was so traumatized by my old doctor that I hadn't been to one for 3 years. Red flags went up all over the place for me today.

At 19 I still have moments like this. My last meltdown at the doctor's office involved my mother and a nurse holding me down on the table while I lay there kicking and screaming like a child. I felt like I was going to strangle my doctor if I got the chance. Appointments still put me under a high level of stress, but since that incident I have been taking anti-anxiety pills when I have to go and I have seen a large improvement.

I had that same problem when I was 9, the trick to never having any more meltdowns is to have an extremely painful traumatic experience. I had a lot of medical issues when I was younger, and now I have at least 4 scars that will haunt me for life...

When I was that age I refused most things doctors would want to do to me. They then just couldn't do them. I'd consider it assault if they tried to hold you down and force you as an adult. You have a right to refuse although then they might be unwilling or unable to treat you. Once as a minor a doctor asked my mother if she wanted them to hold me down to do something (I think a throat culture which I still have never had done) and she said no.

If they act like you are weird for not liking needles then they are the weird ones. Fear of needles is a common phobia and they should be doing what they can to make you comfortable, not make you feel weird. I always look away when a needle is going in or out of me.

Man, you're lucky, I just had to end up accepting it.

It probably helped that my mother wouldn't have went along with it. I also was poor and had no insurance growing up so my only doctor visits were mostly only occasional trips to the emergency room when I was sick. I quit going to the dentist when I was 7. By then I was uncooperative enough that they would have had to knock me out to do anything and we probably couldn't afford it anyways.

I had the same problem with the dentist. My big problem was that I was hospitalized for weeks and had a lot of surgeries, that were extremely painful, I don't want to be rude, but it seems you people are whining over shots or taking blood.

A lot of the things they wanted to do while not a big deal to some bothered me a lot so I refused them.

Lately I did have surgery, radiation, and chemo and they did a lot of awful things to me that I had to consent to just to get treated. Unless it's something life threatening I just don't find it worth it to let them do things to me that are uncomfortable, painful, or make me feel violated.

Honestly, I think making yourself uncomfortable helps you cope with things. For example, when your toes feel funny in your socks/shoes, and you want to take them off, you should just deal with it, and then you'll get used to it.

That's great if that works for you but it doesn't for me. Forcing myself to do or submit to uncomfortable things just makes me hate and avoid them even more.

There's some really good advice in this thread. Here's my contribution:

I'm switching doctors, because I want one who understands me better. I'm going to try out going to where I already see a therapist, because I like her, and because she says the doctor there is good and is very familiar with ASD. My current doctor is a good one, I think, and a nice person, but she's not a very good doctor for me. She doesn't "get" me and doesn't give me the impression that she can adjust very well to what's going on with me following my Asperger's diagnosis - or with my Asperger's in general.

I have much more difficulty with waiting rooms and filling out forms than I'd ever admitted to myself pre-diagnosis. I now know to ask for assistance with the forms, and this helps me greatly. I feel much more relaxed if I don't have to struggle with them. This is an adult issue, because kids have their forms filled out by their parents. So, if you're still a kid, be on the lookout to see if this is an issue for you when you reach adulthood. If it is, be bold, and ask for the help you need. I'm really glad I did.

As for waiting rooms, I now know to take in something soft to help me cope. I don't have much trouble with shots and having blood drawn, but I would rely on my blanket or other soft item to help me if I did. A soft item can be small and neutral looking, such as a scarf or a swatch of fabric with stitching around the edges, which keeps the fabric from fraying. So, you don't have to be self-conscious about bringing in something large or that you fear would make you look childish. I'm bringing a blanket, though, because the new doctor won't react badly to that, and neither will anyone else there. I already bring the blanket in when I see my therapist, and everybody's cool about it. When I go elsewhere, to other places for other things, I hope to have my small fabric swatches ready. I'll simply carry one in my pocket and get it out to hold in my hand whenever I need it. Then it'll be easy to tuck away when I don't need it or don't want it to be seen.

I took a great deal of pleasure in going to the fabric store and feeling different materials in order to pick out a few, btw. Maybe that activity would also help, if you knew it was going to make doctor visits easier. It's a good mental connection. Have fun picking one or more fabrics out, while recalling that it's to help you cope with difficult things, then recall the fun of picking out the fabrics while playing with them, as part of the mental distraction and self-soothing during medical procedures.

I hope this helps.