I hope being able to plan ahead for the occasional jab makes it not much of a real issue in your life.

Basically that. I schedule a day off if I need a jab for any reason, and work from home anyway when I'm miserable the next several days.

Does it happen for accidental/“natural” pokes? You mentioned the splinter thing, but if you had a thorn, cactus needle, or even a piece of glass stuck in your skin and pulled it out, would you do alright?

All of those are fine. And unlike a lot of people with my issue, blood doesn't bother me in the least. Once in a great while I've gotten a mild version of that from an insect bite, but the feeling is just completely different.

Oddly, I think if a needle hurt more and did some tearing, it wouldn't bother me so much.

But you're asking some really thought-provoking questions. I have a lot of food-related texture issues and while this is COMPLETELY different, I'm suddenly wondering if it's a little more similar than I thought. I do believe there's a psychological component to it; I haven't been able to test, but if I were surprised with a needle jab outside of a medical setting, I have no idea if it would happen to me or not.

What I did discover is that my blood pressure doesn't rise and my heartbeat doesn't go up in "prep". I don't seem to have a stress-rise effect for it to be stress-plummet related. I'm not asking anyone to surprise me with a shot, but I really do wonder what would happen.