needle phobia

[Shankara20]

I had blood drawn today and, as always, the lab tech was great about making sure I did not freak-out about the needle, and, as always, I had to resist the urge to say "I love needles" This time we did talk about needle fear a bit and I learned something, some folks have a very real fear of needles. As I drove away I remembered teasing a friend here no so long ago basically poo-pooing her fear. For that I now apologize.

All that said - I love needle play - what about you?

Needles, Yes? No? Maybe-just not sure yet?

Below is a bit of info good old Google just provided me.

So what's this condition called?
Take your pick...
Belonephobia:fear of needles
Aichmophobia:fear of pointed objects
Algophobia:fear of pain
Trypanophobia:fear of injections

Symptoms of needle phobia:

Seeing a needle or only thinking about a needle can result in the following symptoms:
breathlessness, dizziness, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth, feeling sick, shaking, heart palpitations, inability to speak or think clearly, a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control, a sensation of detachment from reality or a full blown anxiety attack.

(Shank's comment - hell some of those symptoms I expect before any great play session)

Needle phobia is an intense fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. While adults with needle phobia realize that these fears are irrational, they often find that facing, or even thinking about facing, the feared situation brings on a panic attack or severe anxiety.

 

[catalina_francisco]

Have to admit I have had a phobia of needles since childhood when I had to have blood tests every day for just over a month. At its worst I would hyperventilate and pass out even when lying down. LOL, I once went to a doctor with my mother in my early teens and he began doing a blood test in my hand....I warned him I was going to pass out and he told me not to be so silly...then he paniced when I did pass out just as he got the needle in and I started to slide to the floor, needle still in the hand.

I still struggle with it, though in recent years I have gained a little more control over myself. Regardless, it made needle play a difficult thing to submit to and was not without moments of me breaking out in sweats and seeing black spots before my eyes and struggling to breath...and it continues even though we have done it a few times now.

Catalina

 

[graceanne]

I used to be terrified. I have 0+ blood, and so I would force myself to give blood routinely (they won't take it anymore, I'm too anemic). Anyway I would SCARE the nurses, cause I'd get so pale. They always made me lay down, cause they were afraid I was gonna pass out.

Now I just detest them. I have to be careful not to watch when they're being put in, or I get dizzy and nauseous. But frankly they take blood so freaken often that I can doze through having blood drawn. Especially at 6 in the morning.

It doesn't help that I have 'irritable veins'. That means that even once the needles in, it still hurts. I can't keep an IV for more than 2 days without my arm swelling up. Then I gotta let them stick me again.

 

[BiBunny]

I'm not afraid of needles at all, and I'm extremely interested in needle play. We've only fucked around with it a little, not anything serious. I just wanted to come in this thread to share this story.

I went to the doctor's office a couple of years ago for something. (I don't even remember what it was now.) I have always been one of those people with really, really *thin* blood. If I get a paper cut, I'll bleed for hours.

Anyway, the nurse weighed me and sat me down to take my blood pressure. She looked at big ol' fat me and automatically started lecturing on high blood pressure, thickened blood, and hardened arteries before she even takes my blood pressure. It is always, always, always LOW (probably in part because of the thin blood thing), so low, in fact, that the mechanized cuff thingies won't actually measure it. I just sat there, smiling and nodding, while she lectured on about the evils of high blood pressure. She set the cuff on its highest setting and pushed the button. I waited. After three attempts, the machine still wouldn't give a reading. She did it manually, and I think my blood pressure was maybe 98/65 or something. Score one for the fat girl.

Then, she had to draw blood. I think she was pissed off that she'd made herself look like a fool with her lecturing, so she tied that stupid tourniquet so tightly that my arm was turning blue. I have huge veins that are very close to the surface of my skin, so any idiot can draw blood from me. Miss Pissy pulled the plunger back, and blood rapidly filled the syringe. She looked away for a moment, and when she looked back, my lovely, thin blood was squirting EVERYWHERE! The syringe was full, and blood was shooting out in all directions around the hole the needle had left in my arm. She looked horrified, and understandably so, because it looked like something out of a bad horror movie.

It took awhile to make me stop bleeding, and I had a HUGE bruise there for a couple of weeks. But, by God, I bet that prissy little nurse will think twice before she starts lecturing the next fat person about the dangers of high blood pressure and thickened blood before she even takes a blood pressure reading.

 

[HottieMama]

Needles are a hard limit for me.

i am a former IV drug user and needles "trigger" me BIG TIME. (Almost 9 yrs clean. )

 

[graceanne]

I'm not afraid of needles at all, and I'm extremely interested in needle play. We've only fucked around with it a little, not anything serious. I just wanted to come in this thread to share this story.

I went to the doctor's office a couple of years ago for something. (I don't even remember what it was now.) I have always been one of those people with really, really *thin* blood. If I get a paper cut, I'll bleed for hours.

Anyway, the nurse weighed me and sat me down to take my blood pressure. She looked at big ol' fat me and automatically started lecturing on high blood pressure, thickened blood, and hardened arteries before she even takes my blood pressure. It is always, always, always LOW (probably in part because of the thin blood thing), so low, in fact, that the mechanized cuff thingies won't actually measure it. I just sat there, smiling and nodding, while she lectured on about the evils of high blood pressure. She set the cuff on its highest setting and pushed the button. I waited. After three attempts, the machine still wouldn't give a reading. She did it manually, and I think my blood pressure was maybe 98/65 or something. Score one for the fat girl.

Then, she had to draw blood. I think she was pissed off that she'd made herself look like a fool with her lecturing, so she tied that stupid tourniquet so tightly that my arm was turning blue. I have huge veins that are very close to the surface of my skin, so any idiot can draw blood from me. Miss Pissy pulled the plunger back, and blood rapidly filled the syringe. She looked away for a moment, and when she looked back, my lovely, thin blood was squirting EVERYWHERE! The syringe was full, and blood was shooting out in all directions around the hole the needle had left in my arm. She looked horrified, and understandably so, because it looked like something out of a bad horror movie.

It took awhile to make me stop bleeding, and I had a HUGE bruise there for a couple of weeks. But, by God, I bet that prissy little nurse will think twice before she starts lecturing the next fat person about the dangers of high blood pressure and thickened blood before she even takes a blood pressure reading.

I have really low blood pressure, too. (Averages about 100/70ish) But if some nurse started on me even before taking my blood pressure I'd probably have said something snotty back. Something along the lines of 'don't you think that's between me and my doctor?'. People like that piss me off.

 

[SweetErika]

I'd be willing to try taking one small needle, then continue slowly if I do okay with that, but honestly, the thought of needle play makes me extremely anxious.

I'm fine with acupuncture, but injections and draws really freak me out. I usually get a very strong urge to run out, and I actually have walked away and had to reschedule a time or two. I haven't given blood, even though I really want to. I've even had fleeting thoughts about not getting pregnant due to the number of blood draws and shots involved.

My phobia comes from having A LOT of blood draws and tests as a child, and not having great veins. Oh, and WAY too much dental work, but I don't want to think about that!

Fortunately, I've gotten a lot better with the draws in the past year. Perhaps needle play--with me controlling the action so I could confront the fear as it welled up--would help me do more conquering, but I'm not too anxious to try it anytime soon.

 

[catalina_francisco]

I had low blood pressure all my life, but that has changed in the last 7-8 years...it can happen.

Catalina

 

[Shankara20]

I certainly can understand how an early history of medical need and a lot of needle exposure including drug use (thanks for the share HM) can set up negative associations.

For some it is the fact that their protective coat, skin, is opened up to whatever is out "there". I have had play partners tell me that it is a very intimate act to give or receive needles.

I'm glad I could pass through my fear - but self-play is still a reach.

 

[NemoAlia]

Gawd, I can't believe it. I'm coming up on my ten-year anniversary of my first (and only ) needle-play relationship. I loved it, at the time, and would jump (or hold still) at the chance to do it again.

The closest thing I've done recently was insist that a shot of steroids, locally, would be better for me than a run of oral steroids.

 

[myinnerslut]

i get blood tests regularly to test medicine levels so needles now do not bother me in a medical sense. they used to big time. wen i was younger and had to have blood drawn it took four technitions and my mother to hold me down while a fifth drew the blood. in the process of doing this i bit my mother so hard it drew blood and left a mark for months and months to come.

needles in play on the other hand are a hard limit for me.

 

[Puman]

Have to admit I have had a phobia of needles since childhood when I had to have blood tests every day for just over a month. At its worst I would hyperventilate and pass out even when lying down. LOL, I once went to a doctor with my mother in my early teens and he began doing a blood test in my hand....I warned him I was going to pass out and he told me not to be so silly...then he paniced when I did pass out just as he got the needle in and I started to slide to the floor, needle still in the hand.

I still struggle with it, though in recent years I have gained a little more control over myself. Regardless, it made needle play a difficult thing to submit to and was not without moments of me breaking out in sweats and seeing black spots before my eyes and struggling to breath...and it continues even though we have done it a few times now.

Catalina

My dear sweet PYL had a very similar reaction to needles... Though now he simply faints at the sight of one. He cannot even watch injections or blood tests on TV without turning pale and wanting to faint. As a standard rule between the two of us, I always go with him when he needs to have a blood test/injection so that I can catch him when he faints or hold him upright in the chair, while he's passed out, so that the pathologist/nurse can at least finish the job.

 

[the captians wench]

I am very phobic of needles. It's one reason why I try to keep my hypoglicemia under control, so it won't go into diabetis and I won't have to deal with needles all the time. But I tend to be a clumbsy and sickly lil thing, my mom calls me the sickliest healthy person she's ever met, so I tend to visit the hospital on adverage about once every other month, and of course they always have to draw blood.

I have to lie down and I still get queezie and almost pass out every time. I'm also blessed with thick skin and tough tiny veins, so drawing blood from me is not fun to begin with, add in my phobia and it's a wonder the nurses go back to work after dealing with me.

I have gotten a lot better at dealing with it. I've learned to meditate a bit so I can take myself away from what's going on, they do their thing, and then mom lets me know when it's time to "wake up".

There was one person who got the brilliant idea to try needle play with me. I know I told him about my fear of needles, but I think he just brushed it off, he was a doctor to boot so I think that had a little to do with it as well. Any way, I was tied up and blind folded, and he was doing some sinsation play where I had to guess the object. When he did the needles at first I didn't feel anything...then insted of incerting them properly like he must have been doing, he started poking me with them, jabbing me like, so that I could tell what it was. Well I felt a full on panic attack coming, I started shaking and tears started forming. I tried to remain calm, tried to go to my happy place, but still calmly tell him that this was not cool and he needed to get rid of the needles. I think he saw my reaction and realized that soemthing was not right because with out me saying a word, the needles were removed and I was untied. I kept the blind fold on, for one I was pissed off and didn't want to look at him, two I thought it might help calm me down a bit.

The idea in general kind of facinates me in some weird way, but it would take a lot to get me to the point where I could do it with out having to be "centered" first. Hell at this point I can't stand to go with my mom when she has blood drawn, just the idea that it is going on in the next room is enough to almost make me pass out.

 

[Puman]

I'm not afraid of needles at all, and I'm extremely interested in needle play. We've only fucked around with it a little, not anything serious. I just wanted to come in this thread to share this story.

I went to the doctor's office a couple of years ago for something. (I don't even remember what it was now.) I have always been one of those people with really, really *thin* blood. If I get a paper cut, I'll bleed for hours.

Anyway, the nurse weighed me and sat me down to take my blood pressure. She looked at big ol' fat me and automatically started lecturing on high blood pressure, thickened blood, and hardened arteries before she even takes my blood pressure. It is always, always, always LOW (probably in part because of the thin blood thing), so low, in fact, that the mechanized cuff thingies won't actually measure it. I just sat there, smiling and nodding, while she lectured on about the evils of high blood pressure. She set the cuff on its highest setting and pushed the button. I waited. After three attempts, the machine still wouldn't give a reading. She did it manually, and I think my blood pressure was maybe 98/65 or something. Score one for the fat girl.

Then, she had to draw blood. I think she was pissed off that she'd made herself look like a fool with her lecturing, so she tied that stupid tourniquet so tightly that my arm was turning blue. I have huge veins that are very close to the surface of my skin, so any idiot can draw blood from me. Miss Pissy pulled the plunger back, and blood rapidly filled the syringe. She looked away for a moment, and when she looked back, my lovely, thin blood was squirting EVERYWHERE! The syringe was full, and blood was shooting out in all directions around the hole the needle had left in my arm. She looked horrified, and understandably so, because it looked like something out of a bad horror movie.

It took awhile to make me stop bleeding, and I had a HUGE bruise there for a couple of weeks. But, by God, I bet that prissy little nurse will think twice before she starts lecturing the next fat person about the dangers of high blood pressure and thickened blood before she even takes a blood pressure reading.

LOL. Serves her right! I wish I could have been a fly on the wall! I hate medical professionals who think it's their right to lecture you on anything and everything...

Nice new AV, by the way!

 

[CutieMouse]

Erica, if it's an option for you, see if you can do prenatal care under a midwive's model. My last 4 pregnancies were low key events, and I had a total of umm... 2 vials of blood drawn each pregnancy.

Needles don't freak me out (I had to do draws from med levels as a teen, so I got over it), but I do'nt really have an interest in needle-play.

... blood pressure readings, on the other hand - sigh. They always have to take it at least twice, because I start to worry, then my BP goes through the roof. My last midwife was fabulous, and was able to get my readings down to 100/70. I miss her. LOL The last BP reading was 136/80 on the first try, and the nurse said it was fine, but I wish she'd have taken a second reading.

 

[northwoods_sub]

Needle play is definately a hard limit for me. They just freak me out when I am at the doctors office when a professional is doing it I cannot imagine what I would do if some layperson came at me with a needle!

I think it is just a medical thing for me though, I have tattoos and piercings and the needles in those situations, although slightly scary, kinda get me hot. Then again it is a pro doing the work so....

 

[Bandit58]

Master Gil has needle phobia, yet He has learned to deal with it. He has been putting in His own cannulas for dialysis for at least six months now, which means 2" long needles going into the fistula graft 3 times a week. He would rather do that than have to keep going to the hospital

He uses local anasthetic patches so He doesn't have to have local injected, and I inject His insulin for Him although He can do it Himself by the "close my eyes and stab" method

For myself I'm a little curious about needle play, but I can't see Him wanting to indulge me somehow

 

[Netzach]

I used to really love them, and they really are completely different from medical needles in play. But I did so much needle/blood stuff (including a year on warfarin, for which I had to have blood drawn DAILY for 3 weeks and had M administer heparin shots 2xdaily for a month - I just can't stick a needle in my own stomach, not to save my life, I'm afraid...) It's become a less interesting area for me unless there's a lot more going on other than needles. Whether that's playing with qi or whether it's adding predicament or fucking or something - just putting a needle in me is going to make me upset or bored or some combination thereof.

 

[ecstaticsub]

I have no fear of needles for medical purposes and I used to give blood regularly. However, I have no interest at all of involving them in play. I am way too concerned about risk of infection.

 

[HottieMama]

[hijack]

You know i am truly AMAZED at the ignorance of some "people" that visit us here at Lit.

i just signed on to two DIFFERENT PMs from ignorant assholes asking me if i had AIDS because i am a "fucking junkie whore."

Now really....Are you fucking kidding me?????? i posted what i did as an explanation for my limit and because of the fact that quite frankly i am PROUD of being CLEAN!!! It's a huge deal to me. These people can go take a long walk off a short pier.

[/hijack]

 

[BiBunny]

[hijack]

You know i am truly AMAZED at the ignorance of some "people" that visit us here at Lit.

i just signed on to two DIFFERENT PMs from ignorant assholes asking me if i had AIDS because i am a "fucking junkie whore."

Now really....Are you fucking kidding me?????? i posted what i did as an explanation for my limit and because of the fact that quite frankly i am PROUD of being CLEAN!!! It's a huge deal to me. These people can go take a long walk off a short pier.

[/hijack]

While it sucks ass that people would say shit like that, I would've just HAD to say, "Why, yes. Wanna fuck?"

 

[graceanne]

[hijack]

You know i am truly AMAZED at the ignorance of some "people" that visit us here at Lit.

i just signed on to two DIFFERENT PMs from ignorant assholes asking me if i had AIDS because i am a "fucking junkie whore."

Now really....Are you fucking kidding me?????? i posted what i did as an explanation for my limit and because of the fact that quite frankly i am PROUD of being CLEAN!!! It's a huge deal to me. These people can go take a long walk off a short pier.

[/hijack]

Fuck them. Not literally, of course. Obviously, as I stated in another thread, they're perfect and never made bad decisions. They're probably perfect parents, and have never been divorced or done any drugs. They've never been drunk, or gotten in any fights. Hell, they better be careful, someone might nail them to a cross.

My parents are recovering addicts, and it's hard to do. Quit that is. You should be proud of yourself.

 

[graceanne]

While it sucks ass that people would say shit like that, I would've just HAD to say, "Why, yes. Wanna fuck?"

LOL I love you.

Wanna cookie?

 

[BiBunny]

LOL I love you.

Wanna cookie?

I love you, too.

And, yes, I'd like a cookie, please.

 

[marieR19]

*raises hand sheepishly*

I am very seriously afraid of needles. When I was a kid it would take three or four doctors to hold me down in order to give me my shots...

As I got older I learned to accept it a little bit more. But then a little over a year ago I had a hospital visit because of severe anemia, and it was a very very horrible experience, in which I got jabbed with needles more times then I could count, and everywhere too, because they couldn't get a vein. I was bruised and sore and terrified for weeks.

After that, the phobia came back strong, and the last two times I've had blood drawn I cried and had panic attacks. I have to get blood tests every 6 months for the meds I'm on, so it's not like I can avoid it.


Heather