Trypanophobia - Anyone have it?

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I do. It sucks. No matter how many times I've had a vaccine, I still get s**t scared about the next one (even if nothing bad happened). I'm not afraid of the vaccine itself; just the needle penetrating my skin and the sensation of the fluid entering my body. I hate it and everyone thinks I'm a total wuss because of it.

I don't know exactly what caused it - I've always hated jags. However, I remember getting a school vaccine moments before lunch, felt totally awesome and then I felt awful when I entered the lunch queue... then I fainted. I did make a bit of a fuss when I got the jag and it was before lunch - maybe my blood sugar dropped or something. Anyway, I'm 21 now and still freak out around needles. I hate fainting. It's scary when you wake up and you have no clue what is happening around you.

Anyway, that was fun chatting about my petty issues - what about you guys?

I don't think that I have trypanophobia, exactly, but I do have a huge dislike/repulsion (not sure if it's a phobia) when it comes to imagining veins, arteries, capillaries, etc.

It's strange, but I'm not actually repulsed by blood. I'm repulsed by the concept of blood flowing through my body in vulnerable pipes. It freaks me out to imagine something like puncturing / cutting a vein... I'd better stop now before I throw up.

I have a HUGE fear of needles. Like, I'm a teenager, but I start hyperventilating and crying when I have to get a shot. Mine probably comes from when I was born, I was a premy (3 months early) and had to have numerous needles stuck in me, once, my dad said a nurse stabbed the needle right through my arm.-.- but, oddly, my (NT) twin sister is fine with them. Though I don't think it's related to aspurgers.

I looked it up on google. I don't think I'd go so far as to say I have it but I don't like needles. I can't stand watching them go in or come out. I also do not have any piercings because of my fear of needles.

Another thing that I think bothers me more than most people is when I see things on tv where a person wakes up in a hospital and they sit up and rip their iv out.

My 22yo construction worker NT son will pass out if you stick his finger in the doctors office. He threw up all over everyone when he got an IV started in the hospital when he was 21.

Oddly enough, he can cut his fingers really bad at work, or get another type of injury and it doesn't bother him. I've seen him cut himself badly working, bad enough where I wanted him to stop and go get stitches and just tear off a piece of his shirt, wrap it up in it, and tape it tightly with duct tape and go on about his business. It's the needles for him too.

BTW, when I say pass out, I mean literally faint. From a finger stick.

So no, I wouldn't call you a wuss over that.

I also pass out from needle sticks, but only about 1 out of every 5 times, nowadays. My dad also has that problem. It seems to help if I don't watch the needle go in. And my doctor has me sit down (after I fainted and fell on a nurse).

I was once prescribed a subcutaneously injected med. My hands would shake and I'd be sweating bullets when trying to stick the needle in, but fortunately, the med wasn't very helpful so I gave it up after a month. That experience increased my needle discomfort/dislike a lot, though. I''ll be screwed if I need someday to self-inject some other med.

I've always heard that fainting from needles is a psychological phenomenon, but it feels pretty autonomic to me -- sort of like how gagging when you stick a finger down your throat feels pretty non-psychologically caused.

I used to hate needles. Then I needed to start giving myself an intramuscular injection every week.

Now, I still dislike jabbing a 21 gage needle into my thigh every week, but I've been doing it weekly for almost 10 months now and I'm getting desensitized to it. When the nurse did it the first time, I thought there was no way I'd ever be able to do it myself. But I do.

That reminds me, I need to jab myself tonight.

I keep reading that as tyrannaphobia and it sounds like a fear of T-rexes.

Anyway answering the original question, I'm fine with needles and only have the same amount of apprehension as most people would. Just had to mention the T-rex thing...

Does the OP or anyone else who has the fear have problems watching anyone else get a shot, or even giving someone else a shot?

I have no problem with that, and I have given shots, drawn blood, etc. Put you put that needle anywhere near me and I will whine like a three year old. I'll try to avoid getting a shot in almost all circumstances. I get migraines and when I do I sometimes have to go to the ER and they give me two shots. Painkiller (varies according to who is on duty) and Phenergan. It hurts but it hurts much less than the headache.

The other circumstance when I don't mind a shot is when I'm sick with something and in addition to oral antibiotics, and other meds, I get a decadron shot. Now those hurt worse than any other shot I've ever had, and I've had plenty as a child. The trade off is worth it. Not only do you start feeling better from whatever bug it is the next day, but you feel GREAT! It's a steroid and I get a constant steroid "high" from it for a few days. Not a "buzz" type high, but lots of energy, positive outlook, etc. I do NOT get that from oral prednisone. From that I get insomnia, the shakes, moodiness. Although I do start feeling better from the illness sooner than without it. If they say they will give me a medrol pack, I always ask for a decadron shot instead. It has the same theraputic results, without the bad effects from the predinisone, and with the GREAT effects from the decadron.

Oh yes. Even seeing someone else receive a shot is upsetting. I usually look away or have to leave the room. It's a little easier to watch someone else, but it's still pretty awful. Honestly, it's not the pain that is the issue (though I do hate the pain). It's hard to explain but I don't like the idea of somebody else having the ability to insert something under my skin. Plus because of that fainting episode I'm always afraid that I'll faint. It's really weird. Unfortunately, I've never had much of a chance to overcome this fear. Even after all my vaccinations, it hasn't changed my repulsion towards hypodermic needles.

same

I'm not sure I'd go as far as to say I have a fear of needles, but I have a very strong dislike of them. Even after the injection is over I still feel like the needle is in my arm. Does anyone else get this?

That's exactly the fear my son has. I'm afraid of the pain, but just the idea of something in there freaks him out. When he was in the hospital after having his appendix out and the IV was still in, he "couldn't move his arm" because the IV was in his hand. Therefore he couldn't move his other arm either. He couldn't even have the IV pole or tubing in his vision, so I couldn't just cover his hand up with a towel, I had to go get more linens and tape from the nurses station and construct a tent to hide his entire arm and the whole IV apparatus. He was 21 at the time.