Fear Of Injections (trypanophobia): Causes, Symptoms And Consequences
One of the most frequent extreme fears, which is not only present in children, It is injection phobia or trypanophobia. Surely we all know someone who feels this great fear of getting vaccinated or taking a simple blood test.
Trypanophobes have a really bad time when they have to get an injection and go to the health center. And, in many cases, they can even avoid these situations without worrying about putting their lives at risk (by not getting vaccinated against diseases such as tetanus) or reducing pain or inflammation with corticosteroids.
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 syringes and the possibility of receiving injections. This phobia is one of the most common, it is estimated that around 10% of the population suffers from it to some degree.
Trypanophobia can sometimes be confused with the fear of blood (hematophobia) or the fear of sharp objects (aichmophobia); However, fear of injections may just be a strong 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 are usually grouped into three groups. trypanophobia would be included within specific phobias which are generally fears of certain objects or situations. Some specific phobic stimuli are spiders, snakes, elevators or flying.
Related article: “Types of phobias: exploring fear disorders”
Other types of phobias
In addition to this group of phobias, which are also known as simple phobias, There are two more, which are social phobias, involving other people or social situations such as performance anxiety, fear of embarrassment or humiliation, or appraisal by others; and agoraphobia is a fear of experiencing a panic attack in a place or situation where the person feels unprotected. These last two phobias are usually considered complex phobias.
Causes of trypanophobia
Fear of injections usually develops during childhood and in many cases it usually lasts into adulthood. Its cause is often a traumatic experience in childhood or adolescence, and although the injections do not actually cause much pain, these people interpret it as a serious threat to their physical integrity. It is not that they believe that they will die from the injection, but that the pain will be so strong that they will not even be able to bear it.
Learning this fear usually occurs through what is known as classical conditioning, a type of associative learning that was initially investigated by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, but made famous by the behaviorist John B. Watson, who believed that human beings could learn. strong emotions through conditioning and then generalizing them to similar situations.
To do this, he devised a series of experiments with children, and in one of them he managed to get a little boy, named Albert, to learn to be afraid of a white rat that he initially adored. This experiment could not be carried out today because it is considered unethical. You can see it in the video below:
This phobia many times can develop through vicarious conditioning, that is, by observation. For example, in the event that a child sees an adult who panics when giving themselves an injection, or watching a movie in which injections or syringes appear.
Some theorists also think that the causes may be genetic; and others who are predisposed to suffer from certain phobias. In fact, this last theory states that it is easy to associate certain stimuli with fear, because this is an adaptive emotion that has helped the human species survive. In this sense, Phobic disorders are formed by primitive and non-cognitive associations which are not easily modified by logical arguments.
Symptoms of fear of injections
The fear of injections presents the same symptoms 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:
Treatment
The treatment of phobias is similar in most cases, and psychological therapy According to research, it has a high degree of effectiveness. There are different currents that can be useful to treat trypanophobia; However, cognitive behavioral therapy seems to provide the best results. This type of therapy aims to modify internal events (thoughts, emotions, beliefs, etc.) and behaviors that are considered to be causing the discomfort.
For this reason, different techniques are used, among which relaxation techniques stand out (especially indicated for specific moments in which the person experiences great anxiety). and systematic desensitization, which is a type of exposure technique in which, as its name suggests, the patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus gradually. He also learns different coping strategies that allow him to see with his own eyes that his fears are irrational.
To treat this phobia It is also possible to use cognitive therapy based on Mindfulness or acceptance and commitment therapy, which both belong to third generation therapies, and do not aim to modify behaviors but rather accept the experience, which automatically reduces the symptoms because there is no resistance to the facts. This is what the latest scientific studies conclude, which seem 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 anxious symptoms increase.
In specific and extreme cases, anxiolytics can be administered; However, always together with psychotherapy.
