CBT and Exposure Therapy?

[Anxious_gal]

I hope I am not being rude, but I think maybe the fear and anticipation is worse than the injection it's self.
How do you react when you do get an injection? It only takes a few seconds and the pain is usually not bad at all.

I understand the need to be in control and that horrible panicked feeling where you'd kill just to get away from the fear.

I do think if you watched people get injections it'd help, you'd see how they have no reaction and everything is ok, maybe then get a nurse to explain injections to you, show you the needle and how it all works and maybe with her
support work your way up to having injections with just the needle? Maybe even watch people get piercing done in tattoo shops? A lot of them are really friendly and don't mind you hanging around and asking questions

[8bit]

I don't think the anticipation is the problem; there's a deep-rooted feeling within me that needles piercing the skin is un-natural and wrong and I don't seem to be able to shake this, even with all the CBT. The rational me knows it's a completely safe, normal procedure, but when faced with it myself, I just cannot handle it.

I can't accurately answer how I react when I have an injection, as I've refused to have once since the age of 10, but I had to be restrained for that one as my phobia was already severely bad - I do however know that the pain is not an issue for me, as most people assume is the case with needle phobias - mine's a fear of the process of it piercing the skin, nothing else.

I've already watched people having injections and piercings as part of my exposure therapy and although it's helped to a degree (I can now watch these procedures and see needles without having a panic attack etc.), I'm still no closer to having them done myself.

As you can see, I've already tried a variety of techniques to try and get over it and I'm running out of ideas