I fucking hate needles.

I may have to get a whole bunch of them shortly.  Other than,"Stop being a pussy", does anyone have any constructive suggestions for getting over this insane fear?

Q(Don't mind bullets...hate needles)S

donate blood and watch them stick the needle in you arm.

while they are getting ready say this!

come on, hurry up!
Put the needle in me
your to slow, stab me
Look me in the eye and see what's
Going on in there!
When you turn it
come on, let's party


or are you chicken shit!

I'm with 308wood on one point...  Give blood, and look at the firehose of a needle they use there.  After seeing that, regular shot needles will look puny and utterly insignificant.

{edited to remove redundant redundancy}

go rent "Major Payne" and watch the opening scene.  

you will learn a neat trick to "take your mind off that arm"

I got the NEW rabies series when i was 12. I'm mid 20s now. I got bit by a bat. Anyway, we got to county, all the BoyScouts would pay for, and this HUGE BLACK aunt Jemima nurse whips the towel off the tray like it was dinner time and i almost fainted. 8 HUGE syringes with Globulin or something that was ICE COLD and THICK. And two smaller needles. She must have saw me start to back away cause she said to me...

"get over here BOY, and drop those shorts like a man, or i'll drop em for ya." with those big scary crazy eyes.

needles(s) to say, it didnt hurt and i was a man about it.

(edited to remove that parts with crying and my mommy holding me down)

A suitable dose of Ativan, Klonopin, or Xanax one hour prior to exposure.

Or, Inderal if you want, though you might pass out more easily with the decreased blood pressure...




That, and stop being a pussy!  [:D]

Here's some fun reading:

[url]http://www.futurescience.com/needles.html[/url]

Or, just be glad you're not *this* guy:  [url]http://home.columbus.rr.com/klamb/pages/needlephobia.htm[/url]


(Unless you ARE this guy!)

Yep me too, although I am getting better with age.  I was actually able to sit on the edge of a table the other day while the doctor deadened a mole on my temple and cut it off.

Usually I feel faint after the whole thing is over.  Don't ask me why.

One way to look at it is that it's a pretty good buzz.

I recommend immersion therapy.


Go get a big honk'n tattoo on the end of yer crank.... or a little one as the case may be.

I hate needles too, the last time I got shots was on base a while back. The nurse (or whatever she was) was CUTE and talkitave too. She did this cool trick where she took her fingernail and pulled it across the area where the needle was going in and then jabbed me before she let her finger up. Something about the never receptors not feeling the jab, all I could feel was this weird ass sensation of her fingernail in my elbow.

If she knew that trick, I was wondering what she could do in bed...

Too bad I'm legaly spoken for...

Part of my job involves drawing blood.  When I was in school, how do you think we learned?  By practicing on each other!  There's nothing like KNOWING that the person on the other end of the needle has [u]no fucking clue[/u] what he or she is doing, as you're watching it get [size=3]closer[/size=3] [size=4]and[/size=4] [size=5]closer[/size=5] to your arm.

Couple things:

Pinching the area before the shot helps to reduce the nerve signal.

"jackhammering" the needle supposedly works also--tapping the tip lightly against the skin just before you stick it in.

Ethyl Chloride spray to freez the area.

I personally don't have any problems with needles--I gave myself a flu shot last year (had the stuff and the wife was too chicken to give me the shot).  

I had a couple of classmates start an IV on me for our workshop.  I let one do it and she did fine.  The other, well, lets just say she dug around looking for the vein with the needle long enough for the OR nurse running the workshop to get a little nauseous (I was doing fine--except for a little sweat on my forehead).  

AFARR

PS--the current theory I have heard amongst clinicians that I have been with is that the strongest guys are the ones most likely to faint at the needle stick.  Firemen and Policemen are at the top of the list.

i just close my eyes and think of nailing the nurse if shes hot which is often the case [:D]

if shes not i close my eyes and think of someother hot chick

QS - Your problems are almost over.

I had a bad experience as a kid when they tricked me and freaked me out with a shot, caused me to pass out & they had to wake me up with ammonia or 'smelling salts'.

For years, every time I had to get a shot or have blood drawn, I'd get light headed & have to put my head [strikeout]up my[/strikeout] between my knees for a looong time till my BP came back up or whatever.   It was all in my head.  Not that it was imaginary, it was just that conditioned response to seeing the needle.

Then eventually I went on active duty rather suddenly (I P.O.'d the local skipper, canceling out of a program and requesting active duty, so they got my orders and "misplaced" them until [b]after[/b] I was supposed to report, and sent the Sheriff out after me one night).

After some school, I was right where I think you are, except I was about to prepare for overseas duty with the Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club and you are not in that branch, if you are at Camp Atterbury (sp?).

Anyway they gave me these "shot cards" and it looked like I was getting a needle for one of every vaccine they could think of, except for something they were using the needle-less machine for.

I thought I would drop flat on my face and not sure if I thought it would be the actual shot or the fear of embarassment that did it.

However when the moment of truth arrived, I  looked away, and they were barking at us and jabbing us with one needle then another, and frankly I didn't have a chance to freak out or pass out.   It all worked out OK, and that pretty much cured me.

If they are still using the high-pressure gun, just be sure and hold real still no matter what and it will go fine.  If you jerk your arm, you may make a bigger hole than necessary, and if the serum doesn't all go in, you may have to do a repeat on that one.

However, the other guys are right about people who don't know what they're doing -- avoid them at all costs.

Lab tech (experienced): OK, some so good you cna't even feel it.

Lab tech (learning) avoid like the plague, (often will have someone coaching them)

Nurse:  Usually pretty good, but if they look butchy, find an excuse to get someone else to do it.

Doctor who says, "Here, let me do it, I haven't done one of these in a while": BAAAAAAD!!!!


You will be fine, soldier.

Yeah, I thought that would work too..and it didn't [:D]

Pretty fucking sad when the worst thing you can think of about deployment is the inoculations.

I hope that was an offer to prescribe...

All this talk about shots and the military made me remember something-

I hate, absolutly HATE injection guns.
You see them on "Star Trek" and think "Oh, thats F*ing cool, no needles". Well, I'm here to tell you THEY AINT COOL. All of our "Gun" injections left BIG welts and stung like the blazes. Imagine getting shot with a BB at close range so it burries itself in your skin. Same principle.

When I was at Knox the first time (will be going again presently, 2nd Jan, 03) a bunch of us volunteered to give blood. I'd done it before for the Red Cross, so I wasnt worried. This nurse gets over me with a needle and says:

"You nervous?"
me: "No, I just dont like needles, but this has never been too bad"
"Well, I'm a little nervous, I'm actually in training to be a Medic for an artillery unit, I've never done this before"

They proceeded to jab me, and then fan the needle around under my skin looking for the vein. So not only did I get a big fan shaped bruise on my left arm, they ruined any chance for me to give blood out of that arm again.

F*n AYE

R.G.

I wish!  [:D]

Get with your doctor, they understand.  Or better yet, go see a behavioral therapist, one who specializes in the treatment of needle phobias.  They can help you beat the phobia, and get shots without it driving you completely crazy.

Try one of these people:

[url]http://www.aabt.org/CLINICAL/IN.HTM[/url]

Got your solution right here: EMLA cream.  EMLA is a topical cream that is applied to the injection site before they stab ya.  It anesthetizes the area and makes the stick pain-free.  Most doctors offices either have it or can get it and all hospitals that I know of stock it.  Just don't look when they stick you and you'll never know what happened.  It is available by prescription only, so you might want to get your doc to write you a prescription for it so you can apply it at home before you go in to get your shot.

I am a hospital pharmacist and we use LOTS of it on non-emergency pediatric patients.  You can't use it when a blood draw or IV needs to be started immediately because it takes 30 minutes or so to work.  It sure does reduce the mental trauma of kids who have to be stuck, and it works for adults, too.

Hope this helps!

Paul...AR15.com's self-appointed staff pharmacist  [;)]

I saw that stuff...only thing is, it's not the pain...it's just a [puke] kind of gut reaction to getting jabbed with a needle.  Kind of like some folks feel about spiders.

Most inoculations are painless. The trick with having blood drawn is to look away while chatting with the doctor/nurse/tech. You will just feel a little pressure.

The drawbacks are after effects which may be painful for a few days. ( Had an MMR at the University clinic, needed a second one since my original shot was as a child in the 60s, no pain from the shot, arm was sore for a week starting the next day, sick for about five days as well. Signing the waiver warning me about seizures was a bit annoying...)

The other drawback is the occasional incompetent putting a needle through the vein.[:(!]

effect not affect, grr

I wonder what hot nurses are thinking when they jab that big spike into an ugly guys arm?

The only way I get through them is by looking away.   I tried punching the doctor when I was younger, but apparently they don't like that.  They also jab you with the needle to get revenge.  
I don't get novacaine for when I have a cavity, I don't get locals for stitches.  When I had the wisdom teeth removed, I told them "gas only".  When they pulled out the needle, I passed out cold.  Those sadistic mutherfuckers actually woke me up to jab me in the arm then gas me.  If it weren't for feeling sick, I probably woulda kicked his ass after it was all done.  Shit, maybe I should go back anyway!

You guys [i]are[/i] making me feel better about it, anyway! [8D]  My wife should be so supportive - she thinks this is funny as hell!