Hello! I am Star and I'm a 20 year old uni student.
For a very long time, I have been afraid of being in medical situations, and I specifically fear needles and syringes. As mentioned previously I'm 20 years old, and a 20 year old throwing tantrums and weeping on the hospital floor is extremely embarrassing for anyone near me. I duely hope to overcome this fear and I don't know if I actually have phobia.
Personally, I always look the other way when someone is drawing my blood, and I always say to them "I'll be fine as long as I don't look". It works for me.
I try to do the same thing, and I close my eyes but it doesn't seem to do the trick at all. Like the pain is too real man. Maybe I'll try it again next time. Thank you for replying!
As a nurse I can tell you this is very common, with needles it seems to be mostly men. We understand and you are not the only one. We see it every day. Not sure how to make it better for you though.
The trick for me when I used to be nervous was to think about something else and to look away until my nerves calmed down and it was over. That was fairly easy to do. Now I'm so used to it I'm not nervous anymore at all. Problem gone!!
I think one of the things you should do is tell the person drawing your blood that you get nervous.
They can try and distract you with conversation. A caring professional will go that extra mile to help you get through it.
You can overcome this fear. Jk and Dolphin14 have good advice. You can also ask your Doctor to be referred for some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help you change your thoughts and feelings and overcome this fear.
My son 28 year old son faints and my 25 year old daughter has the screaming abdabs when faced with a jab. They are too busy with their lives to take any advice in between times.
First thing is, ...unless the person is important to you, who cares if they get embarrassed. You need to think about yourself and not others (I never say this normally) in this situation. You have a few options.
- talk to the nurse/ doctor
- distract yourself with a video/ app on ur phone, ...comedy normally enthrals a person quickly
- bite your lip/ dig your nails into ur hands (the other hand to the one being pricked) and wiggle your toes. It sounds weird, but they are all distraction techniques to take your focus off one pain to the others. It causes the pain to appear less intense as your brain can't focus on 2/3 places at the same time.
I hope this helps.
Take care.
From someone who had blood tests weekly for years... (they still make me cringe at times)
Thank you for your good advice. I hope that I can work this out next time 😊
Happy to help. 
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