Phobia advice coming from a scaredy-cat. Read at your leisure!
4 thoughts on “Arachnophobia: Fear of Spiders”
Arachnophobia seems to be very common! Personally spiders don’t bother me (within reason), but I can definitely see why they would bother someone. Very interesting topic! Great post!
I had no idea that arachnophobia is the oldest phobia in Western culture! Also, the fact that spiders eat the “equivalent of the weight of the entire human population in insects each day” was simply shocking! Although this fact certainly demonstrated spiders’ importance, it is somewhat off-putting to imagine this! I also enjoyed reading about the ways in which physiologists may address this issue.
Although I myself am scared of spiders, I don’t think I would mind it if I knew the spider was safe. For example, if I was at a fair or some kind of exhibit and was told to hold a spider, I would definitely do it in a heart beat. Although a different story would be if a spider randomly would appear in my room. I think the difference if having the control over the spider. I always hear exposure therapy to be something that helps most, I wonder how effective it is in the long run.
Even though I understand how important spiders’ function is, the fact that spiders eat about the weight of the human population in insects daily might be one of the worst things I have ever heard. I thought that I had grown out of my (mild) arachnophobia but that mental image has shaken me to my core.
It’s really interesting how a fear built on a survival mechanism can have such a broad spectrum of how much it affects people, and I never would have thought that just the sight of a cobweb could be so debilitating for some people.
Arachnophobia seems to be very common! Personally spiders don’t bother me (within reason), but I can definitely see why they would bother someone. Very interesting topic! Great post!
I had no idea that arachnophobia is the oldest phobia in Western culture! Also, the fact that spiders eat the “equivalent of the weight of the entire human population in insects each day” was simply shocking! Although this fact certainly demonstrated spiders’ importance, it is somewhat off-putting to imagine this! I also enjoyed reading about the ways in which physiologists may address this issue.
Although I myself am scared of spiders, I don’t think I would mind it if I knew the spider was safe. For example, if I was at a fair or some kind of exhibit and was told to hold a spider, I would definitely do it in a heart beat. Although a different story would be if a spider randomly would appear in my room. I think the difference if having the control over the spider. I always hear exposure therapy to be something that helps most, I wonder how effective it is in the long run.
Even though I understand how important spiders’ function is, the fact that spiders eat about the weight of the human population in insects daily might be one of the worst things I have ever heard. I thought that I had grown out of my (mild) arachnophobia but that mental image has shaken me to my core.
It’s really interesting how a fear built on a survival mechanism can have such a broad spectrum of how much it affects people, and I never would have thought that just the sight of a cobweb could be so debilitating for some people.