Staying calm in anxiety situation

I have quite bad needle anxiety. It's not the needle itself but the actual penetration that is so painful to me that it is rather self-fulfilling- I get extremely anxious leading up to it and because I'm tense it hurts again... and I'll avoid injections if at all possible.

That said, I'm a blood donor, because I felt that my anxiety shouldn't get in the way of saving people's lives. I've donated twice and nearly been kicked out both times. In a month, my due date is up again and I wondered if there is any advice for me to try to calm me down (I'm fairly sure that getting mildly drunk is not an option ) because already I'm getting anxious and I'm not sure how many times I can put myself through this and whether there is anything I can take (like herbal remedies, I don't take pharmaceuticals) that might be ok to take while donating...

Have you tried looking away?

I never look! lol

I know the pain is coming you see... so whether or not I look makes no difference.

maybe next time you can take some music or a book along with you or anything else that might calm you down. bringing a friend with you might help too. i think its great that you donate despite having so much anxiety about it.

i agree with laura on this one..

music is a great choice- especially if it's something you really like.

you'll be so distracted singing along to it you won't notice the pain

Agreed on the music and a friend. If you have a friend's hand to hold onto, maybe he/she can make you laugh.

I had a bad bad anxiety episode the other nite, and it helped so much to have my bf there to make me laugh and get me out of the moment for a bit,

Another idea is to hyperventilate. I do mildly painful laser hair removal, every 5-6 weeks, and when it is painful, I hyperventilate and it helps me through the pain. The pain from a needle is much shorter, so you won't need to hyperventilate a lot. The drawback: the person who is drawing your blood will notice.

I don't have any friends. I do have a walkman radio which I guess I could take with me, but guaranteed I won't be singing along to it lol. I'm not sure it'll do anything to my anxiety but worth a go I guess