Belonephobia or fear of needles

We are semi-blown in the dentist's seat. A light points directly to the face. Someone holds a huge injection with a long and fine needle. Little by little, we see how the needle approaches us. We begin to sweat. The needle is getting closer. Our nervous system is activated and we only think about fleeing. Tension, sweat, palpitations, nervousness .. If you feel identified with this description, you may suffer BELONEFOBIA or fear of needles.

The same goes for those people who must be extracted by a medical analysis. His phobia does not lie in seeing the blood, but in the fear of being punctured. Despite this, studies on needles fear has been studied through patients with this phobia and hematophobia, that is, blood phobia. Investigations on this phobia are scarce, even so, in this article it will be detailed as much as possible everything written so far.

Content

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• What is Belonephobia?
• BELONEFOBIA TREATMENT
  • 1. Anticipatory Anxiety Control
  • 2. Gradual exposure
  • 3. Applied tension training
  • 4. Gradual exposure and applied voltage
  • 5. Live exhibition
• Final comment
  • Bibliography

What is Belonephobia?

Belonephobia is an irrational fear of needles and sharp objects. However, it should not be confused with hematophobia. The one who suffers from hematophobia or phobia to the blood does not have to fear the needles. However, according to scientific literature, the response of fear of needles is the same as those who suffer from hematophobia. Therefore, the treatments of one phobia are being applied to the other.

Those who suffer phobia from blood or needles can suffer dizziness and even fainting, which is known as Vasovagal syncope. Why this reaction? First, there is an increase in blood pressure. As a result of this increase, there is a hyper-reaction of a mechanism called butoaortic barroerflejo arc. This mechanism compensates for the abrupt increase in blood pressure and makes it decrease.

"Fear is always willing to see the worse things of what they are". -Livio-

In other words, an initial response of the sympathetic nervous system is followed by an immediate response of the parasympathetic nervous system. This double response is the cause of dizziness and fainting. The complexity of this phobia implies a different treatment than that usually applies to another type of more common phobias. Research suggests that the overcon of overcompensation could be a hereditary component.

BELONEFOBIA TREATMENT

Treatments for Belonephobia cases, to date, are practically the same as for hematophobia. Even so, the treatment they carried out in the article will be exposed "Applied tension and gradual exposure in a case of phobia to injections" (2003) by Pedro Espada, Xavier Méndez and Mireia Orgiles.

In the article the treatment of a unique case of a patient with phobia to injections is presented. In the absence of more research on Belonephobia, this article sheds light on how to address the issue. The authors established two objectives. First, the Acquisition of skills to control anxiety prior to the exposure of the phobic stimulus (Anticipatory thoughts, concern and physiological activation).

In second place, They taught the patient to face blood extractions without getting to disamay. As Sword, Méndez and Orgiles indicate: "For this I should learn to identify the first symptoms of Vasavagal syncope and be able to increase its blood pressure at the appropriate time".

1. Anticipatory Anxiety Control

In order to understand and control anxiety it is important to know more about it. For this purpose, the patient is informed of the different characteristics about their operation. Know the anxiety response, its components, the acquisition mechanisms and maintenance of phobic behaviors, provide the patient with very important information that can help him know what is happening. In this way, the patient can observe herself when anxiety begins to emerge.

He is also informed about the biphasic response and the reason why fainting occur. For this, the Anticipatory Anxiety Control. Many of these patients not only have anxiety at the time of coming into contact with needles, but previous hours or days can show symptoms of such anxiety.

The patient is instructed to practice abdominal breathing every time he feels anxiety. It is indicated to carry it out until you feel calmer. At the same time, the A-B-C model is exposed. It is explained that anxiety (c) is not produced by the needle (a), but by thoughts (b). In this way, little by little, Ansogenos thoughts are eliminated and replaced by more functional thoughts. For example: "Nothing will happen", "I am able to control my pulsations," "This is going well"..

2. Gradual exposure

The objective of the gradual exposure is to habituate the patient to the phobic stimulus. At the same time, You try to keep the heart rate within normal parameters. It begins with an approach to the phobic stimulus in imagination. In the last phase you go to the exhibition live. The authors chose a series of trigger for anxiety to work with the patient. In this way, it is gradually familiar with this type of contexts:

• Listen to the experience of someone who put an injection.
• Smell of alcohol and hospital.
• Visit a patient in a hospital that has placed a way.
• Receive an intramuscular injection.
• Observe others to other people while clicking on their vein with a syringe.
• Go to a clinic to perform a blood test.
• Make a blood donation

The patient is explained to flee from feared situations only reinforces fear. Hence It is exposed to the stimuli that generate anxiety until the habituation process. Strengthening escape behavior would only perpetuate the phobia more.

3. Applied tension training

This is training to facilitate the control of Vasavagal activation. As a sword, Méndez and Orgiles describe, this training is carried out "Intercalating tension periods of 20-25 seconds and distension without 15-20 second relaxation". The objective is to increase the number of pulsations. In this way, when the patient perceives that he can faint, through this technique he can recover normality.

"The utility of tension resided by applying it just at the time it perceives that it is close to a fain". -Sword, Méndez and Orgiles-

4. Gradual exposure and applied voltage

In this phase the exposure in imagination supported with concrete stimuli such as the smell of alcohol is practiced. The difference between this phase and the previous.

5. Live exhibition

A clinical analysis laboratory is used. The patient uses self -instructs previously learned to encourage and make use of deep breath. The therapist who also accompanies her calm and explains everything that happens in case necessary. Once the blood was extracted, the patient is praised to reinforce her behavior. Acute stress disorder

Final comment

Psychology is a scientific discipline that advances day by day in search of the best solutions. In the case of Belonephobia, despite being a rather widespread fear, literature is still scarce. However, the same treatment applied to hematophobia seems to give good results. Even so, each phobia has its peculiarities and this does not go unnoticed in the field of research.

Over time, we will observe great advances both on this subject and in others that have to do with the well -being of the person. Psychology never stops and with all technological and research advances available to professionals, we will enjoy increasingly precise and effective techniques.

Bibliography

Sword, j., Méndez, x. And orgiles, m. (2004). Applied tension and gradual exposure in a phobia case to injections. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 4 (2), 425-438.