How To Get Over Trypanophobia

Tryapanophobia is the fear of needles. According to Wikipedia it is also known as aichmophobia, belonephobia, enetophobia and simply (and most commonly) needle phobia. The caption for this photo for sale on E-bay is "seven year old Jason Peterson wields a giant syringe". This photograph is dated March 9th 1983. Below is an excerpt from the article (Chicago Sun-Times) entitled "Kids Play Doctor To Rid Fear Of Hospitals". James Klepitsch is the photographer (in the old days journalism consisted of a reporter and a photographer - see old issues of Spiderman to see an old fashioned newspaper photographer in action. The trend now is for reporter/producers aka writer and photographer in one ala DNAinfo.com. There still are a few pro photogs left for the major news outlets).

"Evanston's St. Francis Hospital is doing what parents have longed to do for decades -- convince children not to be afraid of doctors. The three-year-old program instills the notion that hospitals can be fun. ------ Instead of cringing from syringes and needles, children are encouraged to spray paint on a canvas from syringes (sans needle)."

Maybe its time that a similar program was started up again. Cursory internet search turns up zilch for programs of this kind today. Here is a link from a Chicago Tribune article from 1999. The story covers a Teddy Bear clinic which was held for one week at St Joseph's Provena Hospital in Joliet. Children were prepared for emergencies and acted out scenarios with the teddy bears.

It certainly is possible that such programs do exist. But likely not very common. This is an everyday problem (at least ten percent of the population). It has helped some soldiers with PTSD to virtually reimmerse them in the associated environment where the trauma occurred. If no program exists to help children with needle phobia playing with a toy doctor kit would probably help.