This is a response to a portion of message 1964.

> > An example involving a physical-psychological phenomenon: I have
> > never enjoyed drawing blood, even for a small sample used for
> > determining my blood content and their respective concentrations. I
> > would like to respond differently, more focused on the benefits
> > (rather than the sickening feeling of being sucked dry) and less
> > likely to steer away from opportunities to learn more about my body.
>
> I think it is unlikely that *anyone* actually enjoys the direct process
> of having blood taken from hir body. It is slightly painful (as is any
> puncture wound), but that should be all the harm that you
> physiologically receive. It the phlebotomist is competent, then that
> should be the only negative of the process.

I can recall only competent blood draws, yet I've always experienced
some sort of "shut down" by my body.

> Any "sickening feeling of
> being sucked dry" is merely your own emotional (psychological) baggage
> (it is a very tiny amount of your total blood, so the whole idea of
> being "sucked dry" is simply nonsense) which you can and would best work
> to eliminate.

I have tried lying in bed at night and envisioning the mechanics of the
draw, and to date I have been surprised at how anxious I get right there
in the bed, tensing up, breathing shallow and quickly.
I have attended two blood draws within the past year, one where the
needle was very small and the phlebotomist very competent, one where the
needle was relatively large and the phlebotomist new but fairly steady.

I definitely had a greater physical response (much like the one
described above) to the draw with a larger needle.

Since many years ago, I have always prepared myself with very positive
thoughts about the usefulness of the draw along with the interesting
physics of pressure differences between vein and tube/needle, plus I
always watch the needle enter and leave. I typically am slightly tense
just before the needle goes in, then I wait a little bit (breath,
breath), then a rush of something comes over my body accompanied by
emphysema-like shortness of breath and I feel warned that I am in danger
("sucked dry" is what I used before, but it's not clearly related to
blood loss, maybe something to do with "invasion" too -- hard to say
because there are no relevant thoughts prior to or during).

When this first happened to me (my first blood draw in many years,
between 12 and 16 years ago), I was naive about the whole process.
Again, I watched the needle go in and was slightly tense from the pain
but really just naive, and suddenly in a few seconds, that same rush
came over me. I ended up blacking out (sweating profusely and reality
almost disappeared into a small round dot), followed by recovery within
minutes, though I was still weak in the knees from the novelty.

I was shocked and interested in why it happened. "Low sugar" and
"sudden drop in blood pressure", were suggested, with only the blood
pressure drop making any sense to me.
Is it possible that my initial anxiety causes a drop in blood pressure,
further escalating my anxiety, like a feedback loop?

> As with any other irrational emotion, you work to
> reprogram yourself so that it no longer occurs. You do this by first
> having at your mind's edge, all the positive reasons why getting blood
> drawn is beneficial to you and even the benefits of the process itself
> (enjoying the interesting mechanics of it: the competence of your body
> pumping out the blood to fill the tubes, the competent work of the
> phlebotomist and the technically neat way that such a blood draw can be
> accomplished, the friendly chatting with hir, particularly if s/he is
> someone who you see regularly, the way your own competent body
> quickly seals and heals the puncture).

These are VERY helpful, thank you. I am practicing these perspectives
and learning more details of the healing puncture.

I have a blood draw for LEF/Labcorp to accomplish this month...

> So as soon as this "sickening
> feeling" occurs you tell yourself what an idiot you are to feel this
> way, you strongly squelch and deny the feeling (effectively tell it to
> "get lost and do not bother me any more"), you then concentrate on
> all the
> short and long range positives of the procedure and its end results.

Thank you -- I will practice this as well, maybe even write it on an
index card for reminders in case I distract myself with other thoughts.
I have not been well-focused in past personal blood draws thus
inviting hazard to the outcome, so being prepared and maintaining focus
will help.

(Thanks for the word "hazard" -- I gained it from your exchange with Chad)

> If
> you keep doing this, then in time the emotion will be eradicated and you
> will be *free* of it (similar to the way your immune system rids your
> body of a pathogen - an inconsistent emotion is a pathogen of the mind).

"Pathogen of the mind" -- I will remember this :)

> Actually, I have been through all this before in past posts on the
> subject of changing emotional habits, so I am surprised that you did not
> realize that those posts about other emotions and emotions in general
> apply to this one also. You must sometime get to the point where you
> fully understand that your emotions do not come out of nowhere and are
> not in control of you, but rather they are products of your values and
> rational thoughts and are totally under your control with respect to
> making them consistent with those values and thoughts.

I recognized the similar methods and have been practicing a few as I
described above. However, I have not *strongly* squelched or denied
feelings before, as I always thought of them as interesting in addition
to debilitating. I gained some happiness from considering the strange
phenomenon, but I also realize that I have missed out on much more
happiness regarding future blood draws.

--David Jackemeyer
(left the remainder for context and review)

> [I was a person who for many years dreaded venipunctures and even
> fingersticks - to the point that I actually felt faint when they took
> place. (Having been a nurse for 16 years didn't change this.) I knew
> that this was a psychological reaction but also knew no way to really
> get rid of the awful emotional reaction/physiological sensations that
> occurred. I went through the process because I was well aware of the
> importance and physical benefit to me; I just tried to not look or
> even think about it and hope that I wouldn't pass out.
>
> It wasn't too long after joining Paul that the periodic fingersticks
> for fasting blood glucose started - he'd been doing it for years. I
> couldn't bring myself to prick my own finger but let Paul do it to me
> - while I was lying in bed because the first couple times I felt
> faint. With explanation by Paul as to how to take control of these
> (and other) emotions (and Paul has improved his explanation since
> then), I began to do just that. Within a couple weeks I was sticking
> myself with the automatic gadget without any sickening fear. (Changing
> the lancet at the first indication that it's beginning to get dull -
> it then starts to hurt - makes a big difference.)
>
> I still don't watch the phlebotomist do the actual draw on me - though
> I don't mind watching Paul get stuck and had little problem doing
> numerous venipunctures on others for starting infusions when I was a
> nurse. But I no longer get faint, even when the phlebotomist is not
> the very best and misses my excellent veins.
>
> I know from personal experience that ridding oneself of these
> pathogenic emotional responses (as Paul has newly named them) can be
> done - this experience above is just one where I've succeeded. Maybe
> some others on the group will share their experiences. **Kitty]
>
>
> > Instead of comfortably avoiding blood drawings, I ought to seek them,
> > possibly even participate in training to learn to safely and
> > effectively draw from myself.
>
> Any puncture to the body is a chance for infection and should never be
> done intentionally unless there is a good overall benefit from its
> occurrence. With respect to doing it to yourself, while it would always
> be beneficial to learn such a technique, and you could perhaps draw
> your own blood from a leg vein, it would be both difficult and possibly
> error prone (harmful to yourself) to draw blood from your own arm
> (injecting a fluid is far easier than drawing/removing blood).
>
> > With the right schedule and attitude, I think I could eventually lean
> > toward drawing blood rather than avoiding it.
>
> You will never do so without conscious action to eliminate your
> irrational negative emotions (not to say that negative emotions are
> always irrational or that positive ones are always rational) about it
> and replace them with positive ones. You will never succeed for very
> long at any attempt to act counter to your emotions. Rather you will
> only succeed in such action if you eliminate the negative emotion and
> replace it with a positive one. Put another way, you cannot for long
> make yourself do anything that you do not feel good about, and it is
> folly to try, because the ultimate result will only be a feeling of
> failure and a resultant loss of self-esteem.