Specialist in Emotional Intelligence Jackey Backman held a session with a group of people who wanted to donate blood, yet feared it, telling them that the way to get over a phobia is to reprogram how we speak and think about it. Ms Backman, who also specializes in Behavioral Change and Neuro Linguistic Programming around Malta, spoke to a group of employees and other attendees at Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA)offices in Floriana, in collaboration with the Malta National Blood Transfusion Service to help individuals conquer the fear of giving blood.
Ms Backman advised those present to notice our “internal dialogue”, or what we tell ourselves when thinking about the action of giving blood. She explained how, when not motivated to do something, we often say ‘we should give blood’, explaining how the word ‘should’ is a ‘model operator’ and it should be changed to the word ‘could’, “so don’t ‘should’ yourself about giving blood,” she said. Addressing the Information Technology professionals, Ms Backman elaborated on the direct link between the “brain-computer” that’s running and your language patterns. So the way we speak actually provides a representation of the programme that is running, that is our code.”
The specialist recalled her experience nine years ago, where she needed blood in order to survive, saying how she suffered from a haemorrhage and “if it wasn’t for blood donations, I would have most definitely died”. When asking individuals present about their feelings towards giving blood, answers varied from “I don’t give blood at all because I’m scared of needles”, to “I have no problem with giving blood”, to “for some reason I faint each time” and “no specific reason, I just make excuses not to go”.
When asked about what people are fearing exactly, Practice Nurse of the Malta National Blood Transfusion Service Tony Micallef said that from his experience, “fear is the biggest reason people don’t give blood. The fear comes in different forms. Firstly, needles. Secondly, fainting.The third, because from the sample of blood that we take from the donor, we can sometimes find an illness and they won’t want to know.And another fear people have is getting infected by a needle, but that is usually the least worrying. Needles instill fear.
The service has been working together with companies like MITA, encouraging employees to donate blood.