yes, therapy helps!
Fear of injections (trypanophobia): causes, symptoms and consequences

Fear of injections (trypanophobia): causes, symptoms and consequences

February 27, 2024

One of the most frequent extreme fears, which is not only present in children, is the phobia of injections or trypanophobia . Surely we all know someone feels this great fear of getting vaccinated or having a simple blood test.

Tripanphobes have a really bad time when they have to give themselves an injection and go to the health center. And, in many cases, they can even avoid these situations without caring about putting their lives at risk (by not getting vaccinated against diseases such as tetanus) or reducing pain or inflammation with corticosteroids.

  • Related article: "Types of phobias: exploring the disorders of fear"

What is injection phobia?

A phobia it is an intense, irrational and persistent fear towards some situations, objects, activities or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive desire to avoid the stimulus that causes great anxiety, and in the case of trypanophobia, this phobic stimulus is the syringes and the possibility of receiving injections. This phobia is one of the most common, estimated that about 10% of the population suffers it to some degree.


Sometimes, trypanophobia can be confused with fear of blood (hematophobia) or fear of sharp objects (aicmofobia); however, the fear of injections may only be a great fear of these objects, and people with trypanophobia do not necessarily experience fear of blood or other sharp objects.

There are different types of phobias, which usually fall into three groups. Trypanophobia would be included within the specific phobias which are usually fears to certain objects or situations. Some specific phobic stimuli are spiders, snakes, elevators or fly.

Related article: "Types of phobias: exploring the disorders of fear"


Other types of phobias

In addition to this group of phobias, which are also known as simple phobias, there are two more that are social phobias , that involve other people or social situations such as anxiety for performance, fear of shame or humiliation or the valuation of others; and agoraphobia is a fear of experiencing a panic attack in a place or situation in which the person feels unprotected. These last two phobias are often considered complex phobias.

Causes of trypanophobia

Fear of injections usually develops during childhood and in many cases it usually lasts in adulthood. Its cause is often a traumatic experience in childhood or adolescence, and although injections do not really cause much pain, these people interpret it as a serious threat to their physical integrity. It is not that they believe that they are going to die because of the injection, but that the pain will be so strong that they will not be able to stand it.


The learning of this fear usually occurs through what is known as classical conditioning, a type of associative learning initially investigated by Ivan Pávlov, a Russian physiologist, but made famous by the behaviorist John B. Watson, who believed that human beings could learn strong emotions by conditioning and then generalize them to similar situations.

For this he devised a series of experiments with children, and in one of them he managed to make a little boy, named Albert, learn to be afraid of a white rat that he adored at first. This experiment could not be carried out at present because it is considered unethical. You can see it in the video below:

Other causes of this phobia

This phobia many times can be developed by vicar conditioning , that is, by observation. For example, in the case of a child seeing an adult who panics at the time of giving himself an injection, or watching a movie in which injections or syringes appear.

Some theorists also think that the causes can be genetic; and others who are predisposed to suffer certain phobias. In fact, this last theory affirms that it is easy to associate certain stimuli with fear, because this is an adaptive emotion that has helped the human species to survive. In this sense, the phobic disorders are formed by primitive and non-cognitive associations , which are not easily modified by logical arguments.

  • Related article: "Vicar conditioning: how does this type of learning work?"

Symptoms of fear of injections

The fear of injections presents the same symptomatology as any phobia, where there is a predominance of anxiety and discomfort and an exaggerated attempt to avoid situations in which the phobic stimulus may appear.

The symptoms of trypanophobia are:

  • Cognitive symptoms : fear and anxiety in front of the syringes and the possibility of receiving an injection, anguish, confusion, lack of concentration, irrational thoughts ...
  • Behavioral symptoms : avoidance of any situation in which the person can receive an injection.
  • Physical symptoms : pulse acceleration, hyperventilation, stomach pain and nausea, choking sensation, dry mouth, etc.

Treatment

The treatment of phobias is similar in most cases, and psychological therapy , according to research, has a high degree of effectiveness. There are different currents that can be useful to treat trypanophobia; however, cognitive behavioral therapy seems to be the one that provides the best results. This type of therapy aims to modify the internal events (thoughts, emotions, beliefs, etc.) and behaviors that are considered to be the cause of the discomfort.

For this reason, different techniques are used, among which the relaxation techniques (especially indicated for specific moments in which the person experiences great anxiety) stand out. and systematic desensitization , which is a type of exposure technique in which, as the name suggests, the patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus in a gradual manner. He also learns different coping strategies that allow him to see with his own eyes that his fears and fears are irrational.

To treat this phobia It is also possible to use cognitive therapy based on Mindfulness or the therapy of acceptance and commitment, which belong both to third-generation therapies, and do not intend to modify behaviors but accept experience, which automatically reduces symptoms because there is no resistance to the facts. This is what the latest scientific studies conclude, which seems to indicate that this methodology is especially useful for treating anxiety disorders, because if we try to modify our internal events or behaviors, a rebound effect occurs and the anxious symptoms increase.

In specific and extreme cases anxiolytics can be administered; nevertheless, always next to psychotherapy.


What Causes The Fear Of Needles? (February 2024).


Similar Articles