#1974 Lower the Threshold

I want to double back to the needle phobia thing because I have to admit to not understanding completely.

You did MDI for a while, but you can pass out from a needle.

So you got to square that circle for me.

So I actually was one of the people who, you did an episode on neophobia with Erica, I think.

I was one of the people who sent in, right when COVID happened, I was terrified of getting the needles.

And my mom took me to a therapist who did EMDR on me, which I think helped.

And I also think she gave me some advice, not just the EMDR, but she gave me some advice that's basically, if you use music and you also close your eyes your brain can only focus on so many senses at one time so if you're clogging up like the hearing thing and you're not seeing things as well then like your brain can't focus on like other things as well um so and then also one of the things that freaked me out a lot was when you know when they do the little like wipe thing on your arm before they give you the needle I that part like scared the hell out of me because I think it was just like oh like I'm under this person's control in some weird way um so what I do is I'm like I need to be sitting up when you do the little wipe on my arm and then when you're actually when that's done I'll lie down and then you stab me and then we're good um Because I think it's just a way for me to put control over the situation to some degree, which I think helps me.

Was your mom injecting you every time you needed an injection?

No.

So that's the other thing is.

I, like, for some reason, like, the needles for EMDI are just, like, they're so small that it wasn't really that much of a problem, frankly.

I mainly injected into my, like, legs at first because injecting into my stomach scared me.

But the first time, because my diabetes educator, I told her I'm really scared of needles.

And she was like, okay, well, let's just sit together and you can just basically stab yourself with the needle for the first time with me.

And I did.

And I think I got lucky.

And I didn't hit one of my nerves because I didn't feel it.

And I

kind of did it.

And it was like...

When

you

feel it, is it this over-exaggerated pain that you think to yourself, like, this can't be real? Or is it more just panic?

Like when I get a needle and I'm scared?

Yeah.