h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am afraid of hypodermic needles (I believe it's called tripanophobia, but I'm not certain). It's completely irrational I know, but I simply cannot bear the concept of someone sticking a sharp tube of metal into my body somewhere to inject liquid in. It's disgusting. I'm cringing just writing this, because I have to think about it in order to do it. Vaccinations, anaesthetics, all that kind of thing just make me absolutely terrified.

There's no way in the world I could have teeth out under local anaesthetic, as from what I hear it often requires multiple injections, and one's bad enough. Plus it's in my mouth...

The fear also extends to surgical procedures of all kinds. I nearly walked out of having my wisdom teeth done, but then they gave me some tranquilisers and after that I was fine. It still makes me cringe when I think about it though.

There's a good thing about it though - at least it keeps me clear of drugs (the injected kind anyway - not that'd I'd take them anyway).

I've always found dental injections to be remarkably painless. Same goes for all the other injections I've had. As long as you're relaxed and not focused on the percieved pain you're about to recieve, you should be fine. As for the revusion of having something foreign introduced into your body, you might try some desensitsation excersises. Lick a toilet, eat some maggots, you'll soon find injections appear rather clean and sterile by comparison.

I've always found the injections of needles to have the same qualitites of a borg assimilation...

Pain really has nothing to do with it. I can cope with a necessary stabbing pain - I've done it before after all. As far as my fear of needles goes, the pain's nothing compared with the actual knowledge that someone's sticking a needle in me.

Cyberspook, you have a point.

As for licking toilets, that's completely different.

Then is it perhaps a matter of trust? Do you distrust the person weilding the needle? Would you feel happy if you were administering it yourself?

perhaps...


I am Locutus of Borg....


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Resistance is futile...

Being afraid of injections is common, I used to be terrified of them and on most occasions would pass out at the sight of one. I got over my fear of needles by doing something useful, giving blood. I was dragged along the first time by my best mate, who told me that if i chickened out she would tell the crowd at work, so I lay down and tried to think of something else and succeeded, now needles don't scare me and at least when they stick one in my arm now I can say I'm helping towards saving a life. Try it you might be surprised.

I'm also afraid of needles... and it's the whole random person peircing my body with something that invades my space idea that's the problem. (Yes, I know what the implications of that are ) I can't look when I get vaccinations (I actually have to pinch myself somewhere else just to take my mind off it), and when I had my wisdom teeth out last summer, they had to give me local anesthetic in a patch form so I wouldn't completely freak out on them when they administered the general anesthetic.

I'm afraid of people who suddenly pop out of nowhere-- my sister has the bruise to prove that.

I'm afraid of unusual sounds during the night.

I'm afraid of speaking in public to a group of more than ten.

It is something to do with lack of trust, I think, but then when I think about the possibility of administering an injection myself, I also freak out. Lovely.

I can't look away when I get vaccinations.

I also can't even think about giving blood... besides, I don't think my BMI is suitable for giving blood even if I could bear the thought. I don't tend to pass out as such, just freak out, panic and try to run away. Thankfully, most nurses are very understanding.

Sometimes I wish I could pass out, then they could do the deed and I wouldn't know about it!

I always really really really wanted to give blood at my school's annual blood drive-- mainly because it'll help out people, plus I want to know my blood type, but I just never could do it. I think it's cause I had a traumatic experience when I was little (4 or 5) and had blood taken... I remember being in the basement of a hospital (which I swear looked like a medieval dungeon) and in that desky-chair thing that they use for it and screaming my head off.... I don't even remember any pain, just pure fright.

I don't know if the trust thing is true for me...a doctor I've gone to for years and year could give me a vaccination and it wouldn't be any different for me than some random stranger coming and sticking me with a hypodermic. And as for administering them myself... *s away and cowers under the covers*

Amy?

*peeks out from under covers*

Yeah? *whimper*

It's okaaaaay..

Nobody with needles is here....


AAAAAAhhhhggggg


:needle protrudes from chest:

emerges as I fall to the floor...

Actually, I find the entire concept to be rather frightening also, but for some odd reason I can't quite put my finger on..

I wonder if perhaps evolution has evolved an intense fear of bodily penetration beacuse people who weren't bothered by it would get killed by trying to cut themselves open to find where their dinner went...


Or something like that.

That or common sense dictates that anything that hurts can't be good...

If our brain wiring is the result of evolution, our theories concur.

Fears are genetic?

Outside of extreme phobias, I seriously doubt that...

If you look at a lot of things, that are instinctual, you notice they have an evolutionary purpose. Suppose cave-man Bob and woman Alice are living near the grand canyon. Alice has, through a genetic mutation, a fear of heights. Suppose that fearless Bob and Alice are hunting lemmings, and they run over the edge of a cliff, (you know the one I'm talking about)

Bob wants dinner and so he runs over the cliff after the lemmings. ... ... ...

Alice chases the lemmings to the edge, get's really scared, backs away from the edge, and buys a snack at the local tourist attraction




Alice survives, and passes on her fear to her children, and if some of them aren't afraid, they die off, leaving the fear to spread.


Hows that!

Fears are aquired through experience and knowledge, though. Alice would have to teach her children that it's okay to be afraid of the cliff because one might fall. This is why babies are not instinctively afraid of fire or posionous snakes or anything like that until something bad happens that makes them fear it.

I've never fallen, slipped, ben pushed, or anything, but I'm still afraid of heights.

I've been burned several times by lightbulbs, but I'm not afraid of them...

I am, however, afraid intensely of spiders.


AAHHHHHHHHGGGG!

but I've never had a bad experience with them.

Maybe it's a combination.