All of our feelings and emotions come from our brains - things like being happy, sad, excited, angry and worried. Feelings are normal, and something that everybody gets.

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Feeling worried is also normal, and even though it usually doesn't feel very nice, it can be very helpful. Worry, or being frightened or anxious, helps us to keep ourselves out of danger. If we opened our bedroom doors and saw a tiger, for example, we would be worried and our brain would tell us to close the door and hide! When we are worried, our brain notices and prepares us to protect ourselves by releasing a hormone called adrenaline. This means we can act to keep ourselves safe by fighting, freezing or running away. 

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Feeling worried is kind of like the brain's smoke alarm.

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A smoke alarm makes a loud noise when there is a fire, to let us know that we are in danger. This means we can leave the building and go somewhere safe. Sometimes, a smoke alarm can be too sensitive, and it might go off when there isn't really a fire - like when someone burns their toast! While this can be annoying, it is really useful as it makes sure that it doesn’t miss anything. The same thing can happen in your brain - when your worry alarm works properly it can be helpful (like if we meet a tiger), but when it goes off and we aren't in real danger (like when we need to have treatment with a needle) it can be unhelpful. 

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Sometimes feeling worried can make us think we can't do something, or our worries tell us that we can't. Feeling worried about needles is very normal - half of all young people feel the same way as you. Sometimes you might need to have treatment with a needle, and this can feel really hard when you are worried about them. 

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This resource was made to help you stop the unwanted thoughts that can make you feel worried, and to give you information about needles and how to cope when you need to have one.

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