Hi everyone,

so I've had this phobia of getting blood tests, or injections, or even stuff like removing a wisdom tooth. Pretty much anything that involves getting pierced or cut up makes me extremely anxious for days and days before the procedure. I have fainted three times:

* once when getting blood taken
* once when getting my tattoo (at this point I wasn't even feeling scared, just pretty excited about it, as I didn't associate getting a tattoo with anything medical. But when I looked and saw blood, I sort of just passed out for a minute)
* once when removing my wisdom tooth (I either passed out or was close to it, but I was basically having a panic attack).

The wisdom tooth experience + another occasion where I thought I had to get an injection and spent an entire week thinking about it, without being able to focus on other things, made me think that enough is enough, and take some steps to overcome this fear. I started doing psychotherapy, and am working on exposure and applied tension (basically it's a technique to avoid passing out).

However, I am afraid I bit more than I could chew: it's been a couple of weeks, I've been watching videos of people donating blood without even flinching; I even psyched myself up and managed to go prick my finger to see my glucose levels; but still the concept of drawing/donating blood is not getting much easier. Even the glucose test - I didn't even feel it, and I'm still afraid to do it again.

The worst part is that I've been thinking obsessively about this, and imagining the feeling of needles, and my head is getting pretty exhausted. This is making me pretty tired and feeling down, and I've considered giving up and just dealing with medical procedures as they appear...

Does anyone have any tips on how I can deal with this? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks