For some, getting vaccinated means facing one of their most nagging fears: needle phobia, or belenophobia. But there are some techniques to channel it and get past it.
- More and more people consult because of needle phobia.
- Doing work on the breath helps to reduce the rises in stress caused by the phobia.
- Longer-term therapies exist and can desensitize.
About one in ten French people suffers from a phobia. If agoraphobia is the most widespread, belenophobia is not far behind. The fear of needles is proving to be particularly disabling at a time when the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 is in full swing. Currently, more than 31,000 million people have received their first dose and 17 million both injections. To amplify this figure and reach the target set by the government of 40 million people who have been vaccinated for the first time and 35 million people who have received a full vaccination by mid-August, it will be necessary to convince people, in particular belenophobic people, that their phobia of needles prevents them from receiving a dose of vaccine.
A growing phobia
Belenophobia is a fear of needles because they sting. By extension, taking medication can also be a great fear. With the current health crisis, this phobia seems to be more and more widespread. “It is relatively widespread and we see it more and more with vaccination obligations and PCR tests. There is a resurgence of people who come to consult us for these reasons”, noted Rodolphe Oppenheimer, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, at BFM-TV. This is manifested by panic attacks, tachycardia, sweating, tingling in the fingertips or cotton legs. The anxiety of crossing needles can also follow belenophobic people.
The origins of this phobia can be multiple. “Reasons may vary from person to person.detailed the professional at The mountain. Sometimes it’s a trauma found in childhood, a blood test, a medical operation… Sometimes the fear can come from mimicry with a phobic parent who tells stories related to scissors or sharp objects. Sometimes, the bélénophobe prefers not to go out for fear of injury and having to go to the emergency room.”
Long-term therapies exist
Coping with the fear of bites is not insurmountable. “There are common sense tips, get in touch with the person when you see that the person who is going to vaccinate, tell him, explain to him that we have a somewhat irrational fear or that we have already passed outsays Rodolphe Oppenheimer. Establish contact with the person so that it all seems less nebulous.” Before a sting, it is important to focus on your breathing since this phobia leads to increases in stress which can cause either hypoventilation or hyperventilation which it is essential to calm down.
If this phobia persists and proves to be very disabling, longer-term therapies exist. “What works are behavioral and cognitive therapies, what we call brief therapies, which consist of desensitizing the patient from phobiassays the psychotherapist. With virtual reality, thanks to a helmet, I take my patient to a medical analysis center in which he will discover what scared him before. It can be treated, it can be cured, it can be overcome.”
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