I'm not afraid of needles at all, and I never really have been. But I look at it as some kind of primal, instinctive tension. It's like your hindbrain, the lizard brain, knows what you're doing is going to be painful, and it goes against your body's instinctive drive to keep things out that don't belong in the body. As I said, that's the way I look at it and the way it seems for me. I mean, I donated plasma a lot when I was at university, and as routine as it became, going to the clinic a couple times a week, getting stuck, having to sit there for 30+ minutes during the draw-return cycles, the act of having to be stuck with a needle always gave me the instinctive creepy crawlies.
And I say that to make the point that I have this sort of anxious mental and physical response even though I have no conscious fear or even real dislike of needles. I don't really feel one way or the other about them, consciously, but my body seems to have a strong aversion.
Anyway, my point is, I think that it can be a biological, hindbrain sort of thing more than a more phobic situation when it comes to shots. I'm planning to try meditating or yoga before my next shot and seeing if that helps, but if that doesn't work and I still feel keyed up, I might just ask my mom to do it, as much as I hate to consider that. The stupid macho parts of me want to do everything myself, even when it would be ten times easier to do it with someone else's help. But when it comes to something as important to me as this, I'd rather do it right.
So, I don't know, but if you have a partner or a close friend or family member you could ask, that would be my suggestion.
