At the start of this year I did some research and decided to try cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This is an oversimplification but at its core you have to analyze your mental process to see where and why it goes haywire. Then you have to reprogram your brain. 7/
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This next step is hard to swallow. Most of it happens through exposure. By (safely) being put in stressful situations and realizing that it wasn't so bad in the end. With a topic that depends on medical equipment, (during a pandemic!), there aren't many opportunities. 8/
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So step one was to demystify needles and injections. My partner (thank you so much!) put together a slideshow of photos from single needles to them being used in hospital environments, to eventually a video of injections. Things that would always make me avert my gaze. 9/
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I wrote my prediction of how stressful I thought it would be (1-100), faced each for some time, tried to look at them in detail, then wrote down how it really felt and compared them to the predictions. It was not as much! Even better, with repetition the values went down. 10/
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Then, my only reasonable solution for exposure involved facing TWO phobias at once. I had to do all the dental work I had been postponing for years, mostly for the chance to face the anesthesia. 11/
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With the help of anti-anxiety medication I still had from a previous procedure, I did the treatments. I've had 13 shots of anesthetics since January. They do them in threes and fours. This was not easy or cheap but helped to build tolerance and prove to me that I could do it. 12/
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One thing that absolutely did not help was my close relatives trying to convince me multiple times not to take it. I debunked their claims and links but nothing worked. I didn't tell them about today. They'll find out when they snoop on this thread. Hello!
Trust science.
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Today I finally took my vaccine. I talked to the people there until I felt more confident, tried a few things, tried to get my heart rate down. It was very hard for me to tell them I was ready. But when it did happen, it was fairly quick and mostly painless. It's done. 14/
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I'm sharing this in the hope it helps someone in a similar situation. It caused me a lot of distress for decades, that I didn't think I was capable of changing, but I did, and you can too. Good luck! 15/
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Replying to @gamesbymanuel
Congrats, that's awesome! It was really interesting to see your process for overcoming it. It's something that's been hard for me to understand. I always felt the fear was mostly around the pain, but your description helped me appreciate that the reaction is more visceral.
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Thank you! I think it started with the pain but all the experience adds to it, starting from the anxiety to the clinical setting, the smell of ether, the waiting rooms. The thing that made it jump to another level was the anesthesia not working.
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