What Is Trypanophobia? Are You Afraid Of Injections?
The fear of injections is called trypanophobia. This is not too uncommon. This fear can be related to needle phobia which is actually the fear of needles, only it involves actual penetration through the skin. This was officially recognized as a specific phobia in 1994 in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition.
Types of Trypanophobia
Since trypanophobia is broadly classified as a fear of injections, there are actually four forms of this fear of injections. The four forms of trypanophobia are vaso-vagal, associative, resistive and hyperalgesic.
Vaso-Vagal Trypanophobia
A majority of the trypanophobes are classified under vaso-vagal. These are the people who have a fear of feeling, seeing or even thinking about needle-like objects. There are several changes that can occur because this fear of injections. Normally, the physical effects that they experience their blood pressure decrease or fainting. Physiological changes include panic attacks, sweating, nausea, ringing in their ears, feeling faint or turning pale at the moment that they are injected.
The dangerous thing about this is the fact that it can actually kill a person. This is because it can greatly and directly affect your heart rate and blood pressure which can cause severe shock leading to death.
Associative Trypanophobia
This type of fear of injections is the next most common trypanophobia. The needle phobes affected by this type is around 30%, while Vaso-Vagal trypanophobes are averaging about 50%. This is cause by a traumatic experience with a needle, directly or indirectly involving the trypanophobe. It could have occurred during a medical procedure that was extremely painful, or by witnessing someone who went through a painful event dealing with injections.
Associative trypanophobia is more of a psychological illness than physiological. The person classified under this type of fear of injections is more likely to feel anxiety and panic attacks. There are instances where they can be preoccupied with upcoming procedures dealing with getting injected, even leading to insomnia.
Resistive and Hyperalgesic Trypanophobia
These last two types of fear of injections take up the rest of the 30% of needle phobes, with resistive trypanophobia at 20% and hyperalgesic at 10%.
Resistive trypanophobia involves fear of injections but also being restrained or controlled. This normally comes from poor handling of needle procedures or repressive upbringing with forced restraint. Someone who has been deemed “hysterical” might experience this if they have to be handled in a forceful manner by being given a sedative via syringe.
Hyperalgesic is the fear of injections that does not really involve faring the actual needle. A person with this fear has probably inherited hyperalgesia which is extreme sensitivity to pain. The thought of getting an injection is extremely unbearable to them, let alone experiencing it.
Through Hypnosis
Overcoming fear like this is one accomplishment and with the option of hypnosis, one should be able to get over the fear of injections. The process of hypnosis is by changing the way one is thinking and relaxation means to provide the necessary solution.