Breaching The Web

House Peters, Jr., the original Mr. Clean died Wednesday at the age of 92. Prior to portraying Mr. Clean, he was a character actor who specialized in burly bad-guys.

I have a phobia of needles. It’s completely irrational — I’m not afraid of the pain of an injection or blood draw, nor am I afraid of medical treatment — I am afraid of seeing a needle. I look away when they are shown in movies or TV, I look away at doctor’s offices and labs (dentists are harder, but I try to look away then too). I usually cry a bit when a needle is near me in person. I’m completely creeped out by the idea of that slim bit of metal sliding into my body. It’s fundamentally unnatural.

I take a medication that I have to inject myself with twice a week. Obviously, my usual coping strategies don’t work — I have to look at the injector to complete the task. I am lucky in one sense, because the medication comes in a pen-style auto-injector rather than a syringe. I really and truly never see the needle. But it still freaks me out and is a very difficult thing to do. Actively giving myself an injection is so much harder than passively allowing someone else to.

Which is why I found comfort in this article about one reporter’s fear of bridges, in particular her fear of the Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake, not too far from where I live (link via GirlHacker). The article has some useful advice for overcoming a phobia, which mostly involves desensitizing yourself to the source of fear:

If you keep going over bridges, you eventually learn to trust that your feelings are frightening but not dangerous. And if you do start to freak out…you shouldn’t fight the symptoms; just acknowledge them and try to refocus. If you’re breathing too quickly, try to slow it down. If you’re clenching your hands, relax them. You could also envision your reward at the end - a plate of crab cakes, a trip to the designer outlet mall, sailing on the ocean.

This is useful advice.