Needle Fear No More

At best, most of us tolerate needles. Whether a vaccine, an IV drip, or a blood draw, we can talk ourselves through it with the knowledge that it is for the greater good and will only cause temporary discomfort. On the other side of the spectrum, there are people with such an intense fear of needles that they are considered to have a phobia, trypanophobia to be precise.

Many articles have been written discussing this topic and they all seem to offer similar solutions: meditation, medication, and everything in between. All these solutions have something in common; they treat a fear that already exists and overlook what could have been done to prevent the fear from developing into a phobia in the first place. It has become common knowledge that emotions shape our pain experience, and yet, when a child (those most likely to have high levels of needle fear) expresses the negative emotion of fear it is often ignored (McMurtry, 2015).