Hypnotherapy

My 14 year old son has a terrible fear of injections. He doesnt have the communication or rationalisation skills to move past this and goes into an absolute meltdown if it gets mentioned. He has missed various vaccinations, and of course is refusing to get the COVID vaccine which may cause us issues with holidays in the future. Has anyone had experience with a hypnotherapist that specialises with children with autism?

We have tried more than 20 times to get him into the doctors, but the battle is lost. Because the fear is so deep routed, he cant get his head around the idea of getting him help and wanting to resolve this. I need a therapist that can help him want to accept help, and then reprogram him to accept getting an injection

Thanks in advance

Parents
  • I suspect that obtaining something like a largish dose of oral valium, or similar, before the injection would be more effective.

  • yes sedatives are an option, but you'd better tell him you're giving him it and why before hand or you'll run into legal trouble and it'll create lingering mistrust.

  • I was suggesting that the valium be administered by a clinician, as is often done before anaesthetic is given prior to surgery, or procedures like gastroscopy. As a minor, I think parental permission is enough legally, but maintaining trust is, of course, essential.

  • Yeah, interesting discussion, but to be honest that's a bit of rabbit hole, isn't it?

    None of us (here) can really help with an emergency situation of that sort.  

    Whatever the law says, and whatever the clinician is willing to do, that would only be effective if loss of life was imminent, and it would only kick the can down the road.  

    If the root problem wasn't solved, the poor young man and his family would presumably end up in the same position again, eventually.   

    We all have to cope with injections, currently for our whole lives, that's the issue.  

    I think it's perhaps more helpful if we focus on what might help the family over the longer term? 

    We can't determine the law or critical clinical issues but this group could be quite helpful in terms of sharing experience, ideas and suggestions, as some have already done.   

    I suspect it isn't one thing, it will be a combination of things, and they'll have try stuff out and make judgements about whatever is suggested, judgements which only they can make. 

    Researchers at The University of Bath (amongst many others) are working on alternatives to injections (https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/the-pain-free-injection-alternative-gets-a-boost/). 

    That's just one example - there are projects like this (not just based on patches, but on things like Needle Free Jet Injectors (NFJIs) and other systems) all over the world, so I suspect that within a few years the problem may be solved by advancing technology.

    But it may be a challenge to bridge that gap, and it would be great if we could help them to do that.  

Reply
  • Yeah, interesting discussion, but to be honest that's a bit of rabbit hole, isn't it?

    None of us (here) can really help with an emergency situation of that sort.  

    Whatever the law says, and whatever the clinician is willing to do, that would only be effective if loss of life was imminent, and it would only kick the can down the road.  

    If the root problem wasn't solved, the poor young man and his family would presumably end up in the same position again, eventually.   

    We all have to cope with injections, currently for our whole lives, that's the issue.  

    I think it's perhaps more helpful if we focus on what might help the family over the longer term? 

    We can't determine the law or critical clinical issues but this group could be quite helpful in terms of sharing experience, ideas and suggestions, as some have already done.   

    I suspect it isn't one thing, it will be a combination of things, and they'll have try stuff out and make judgements about whatever is suggested, judgements which only they can make. 

    Researchers at The University of Bath (amongst many others) are working on alternatives to injections (https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/the-pain-free-injection-alternative-gets-a-boost/). 

    That's just one example - there are projects like this (not just based on patches, but on things like Needle Free Jet Injectors (NFJIs) and other systems) all over the world, so I suspect that within a few years the problem may be solved by advancing technology.

    But it may be a challenge to bridge that gap, and it would be great if we could help them to do that.  

Children
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