Many people suffer from a fear of injections during vaccinations, infusions or blood tests. This fear leads them to avoid important injections, such as vaccinations or blood tests. What helps against the fear of injections?

Firstly, everyone has to decide for themselves whether they suffer from a phobia of syringes or are just nervous and anxious. A phobia is characterised by real anxiety attacks immediately before the event and manifests itself in the form of sweating, trembling, shortness of breath or even fainting. Read more about this under Tips for calming syringe phobia.
Although anxiety and nervousness are minor in contrast to phobia, they cannot simply be ignored. For people who are anxious about injections, this trick helps. It is a simple trick, but has been clearly proven effective in research. If you get an injection, don't look at it! As you watch the needle approach the skin, your anxiety increases and your muscles tense up in anticipation of the prick. The muscle tension causes you to feel more pain than necessary, which further exacerbates the fear of future injections.

It is even better if you distract yourself while looking away, concentrate your thoughts on something else and consciously take a deep breath. At the same time, consciously relax your muscles as you breathe out. If possible, take someone with you to the practice to help you distract yourself. The distraction manoeuvre works because our brain is not able to process several trains of thought at the same time.

It is important for fellow human beings and the doctor to understand that such fear is not based on rational thinking. Logical reasoning does not help to allay the fear. Instead, you should accept the fear and try to trick it by looking away and distracting yourself.