How do you get over Arachnophobia?
When I saw a spider in the pool yesterday, I screamed, smashed it, but then refused to go back in the pool.
When I watch TV shows about spiders, I feel like something's crawling on me, and I can't get to sleep.
Then, one day I was getting out of the shower and I went to go pick up my clothes to put on, and a BIG (not Goliath Bird-Eating Spider big, but it was still pretty big) spider hopped off the clothes and scurried away. It took me two and a half hours to get dressed in different clothes after that.
I literally have NIGHTMARES about spiders.
I'm always looking around to see if there's a spider, and I always check my clothes.
It's not like I live in Australia where they have lots of venomous spiders and insects, I live in Florida!
I don't know what to do - how do you get over arachnophobia?
And how bad do I have it?
Answer:
I also have a STRONG fear of spiders. I can't be in the same room with them. I can't squish them. For one, I don't want to get that close and two, I don't like to feel that crunch when you squish their bodies. I realize that the fear is irrational and that most spiders don't hurt, but the phobia persists. Honestly, at this point, I have no desire to rid myself of the fear, I just married a man who doesn't mind killing them.
You can try some desensitization techniques (I think they actually did a Dateline on it). You're not going to like what I am going to say, but if you want to rid yourself of this fear, you may want to try these. These techniques are usually best when done with a behavioral therapist. Basically, you want to gradually expose yourself to spider stimuli, starting with something safe until you are able to touch a spider. First, teach yourself some relaxation techniques (breathing, visualization, meditation, etc) that you can do if you are having trouble and starting to feel anxious. Then, start with something fairly benign. Watch a movie or documentary with spiders. Then move up to holding a picture of a spider. Then maybe hold a toy spider. If you have a lot of anxiety during this, do your relaxation techniques, or pull away and start again at a slower pace. The beauty of this technique is to move at a pace you are comfortable with, to help your body adjust to the fear. You can then try just being in the same room with a spider. Then move up to holding a spider in a container. Then, take it from there. The point is to build up a tolerance to spiders (and to kind of retrain your nervous system to NOT going into fight or flight mode when you see the 8 legged creatures).
im the same way. you have it pretty bad but its nothing you can't get over
be4 u sleep, check the sheets and make sure there are no bugs around.
I HATE spiders! I feel your pain!
Okay, there are two techniques I can think of: one is called flooding...which (you're going to hate this,) consists of basically overwhelming and forcing yourself to experience your fear in great amounts. Yeah, tried that with my doll phobia...I had an anxiety attack. The next best thing is to do is slowly warm-up to them. It would help to learn about the ones around your state, so that you can see you have nothing to fear. Slowly, let yourself get used to them by trying to stay near them, etc. It might help if you had someone around that could encourage you! Good luck...
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