Scared of needles

I have a friend who just turned 30. He has a lot of social anxiety issues he's working on getting over.
In the past year he has had some health issues that need to be diagnosed via obtaining blood samples.

But he will not allow anything needle like near him, so he's never had bloodwork done.

I live too far away to be there in person for him, so I have to deal with this long distance.

How do you get someone over this fear so he can get his bloodwork done?

Is there an alternate method of getting bloodwork?

If your friend still hasn't had his blood work done I would recommend he get a small prescription of Klonopin or other Benzo just for the blood draw ahead of time. I absolutely hate blood tests and have nearly passed out on more than one occasion. Taking a Benzo beforehand will calm him down. Also lying down will help rather than sitting in a chair. If pain of the needle is also an issue you can put a numbing cream on the vein beforehand as well or ask the office if they have a cold spray that briefly numbs the area. I havent had a test since 2016 but know I probably need to get updated bloodwork. I hate it too but it can be bearable.

I take it they don't have tattoos.... just a wry observation that having a tattoo addiction gets you rather more used to needles, unless ofc you're having them stuck in extremely deep, or in places you'd much rather them not be stuck, such as eyeballs. The run-of-the-mill shot/blood draw/IV drip doesn't bother me much at all, whereas once they would have been more bothersome- getting a lot of tattoos cured me of that. In fact, that's the most exciting part of getting inked- the moment just before they place the needle gun on your flesh, the anticipation.

Having said that, I still can't actually watch myself get so much as a flu shot.

I agree that getting a prescription for something to 'take the edge off' would be in order, as long as it's not something that's going to screw the results up.

I also hate needles. The best thing you can do is drink lots of water beforehand and if you don’t like the feeli g get numbing patches for your arm. If you feel sick or faint after tell them and you should lie down with your feel up against a wall so the blood stays in your head.