What Is Trypanophobia? Are You Afraid Of
Injections?
Author: Mark Goodworthy

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.

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