Hi all!

Have suffered from Arachnofobia for approx. 15 years, and have grown tired of relying on others to remove/kill spiders for me. Anyone who can recommend effective treatment options? While I recognize that spiders are beneficial, I sincerely doubt that they are more afraid of me than I am of them, which is why I need professional help. Does cognitive therapy/Neuro-Linguistic Programming work? Can you effectively overcome it yourself, or is therapy sessions the only realistic option?

Thanks!

Hi Erik and welcome to oFear

There are plenty of different ways to deal with phobias. Have a look in the treatment section here.

Thanks for the quick reply, will browse thru the list u sent me.

Erik

Hiya Erik and welcome to Ofear

You can find more treatment options here

That should keep you busy for a while stongue

I hope you get all the help and support you need.

John

Thanks, guys!

I am definitely motivated to take care of my phobia, and I have noticed that I go through periods where my symptoms seem to weaken, i.e. I am forced to act and remove smaller spiders for an extended period of time. However, when I am confronted with a spider after I have relied on someone to take care of it for me for a while, I freeze up and have to leave the room, which makes it hard to handle any treatment myself. This is especially true given the fact that I do have difficulties looking at pictures of large spiders, not to mention video footage. I am just in awe how powerful a phobia can be, especially to a person such as myself who has no mental health issues, no mental health family history, and who thrives in social situations.

What about the ads you see of 5 day do-it-yourself phobia release programs? Does that hold any merit? Or is it just an appeal to my very strong desire to find a quick and easy solution?

I appreciate your feedback!

Put yourself in the spiders shoes, how would you feel if the spider was you and a human giant was towering over you, you would be scared to hell right and run for it!
Theres so many myths about spiders being bad creatures, but has anyone ever thought about how they help keep the fly population down, otherwise houses would be full of damn annoying blue bottles! :laugh:
You have to think about your fear and break it up, what is it that makes you fear that spider, and from this is that feeling logical and a proven fact.
Make a spider chart (no pun intended lol!) with the fear in the middle and the things what make up that fear around it
Some spiders are harmful, but those are not the ones you find in your house spaces, unless you live in iraq or such desert areas.

Stu

Stu:

Your comments are completely logical. However, anyone who suffers, or has suffered, from a phobia knows that there is very little which is logical about it. No argument that a spider has a more legitimate reason to fear me than I do of fearing it, or its ability to preserve an ecological equilibrium, is by itself going to change anything. Believe me, I have heard comments like that for a while. I am completely fearless of animals that can inflict far more harm that spiders. In my experience, comments like that do more harm than they do good, because they shift focus from constructive solutions to the notion that a phobia sufferer simply needs to re-evaluate logical beliefs.

If you have experienced an anxiety attack from a phobia, you know how severe and debilitating it is. If you have not, I will probably never be able to rightfully convey it to you.

I do appreciate your suggestion of charting out my fears. I am willing to try anything constructive...

I do apologize if I may have offended you Erik.
I thought perhaps if you were to write what thoughts stem from your fear you might be able to elaborate from this and expand from one aspect to the other aspects, like a self research kind of thing.
All fears have triggers its looking into those which helps us understand.

I'm no expert, just airing a view ssmile

Stu

Hi Erik,

I have had great success with NLP for phobias including spiders. If you can find an NLP practitioner in your area, I'd give that a try as it often gives fast results. One thing that is important is to choose your NLP practitioner carefully- rapport is a very important part of the process so you have to feel comfortable with whoever you work with.

Good luck!

Lee

Stu:

Don't worry about it, none taken! ssmile

Leeshut:

Thanks for the advice! I will definitely look into it!

Erik

I suffer from it too, and imagine how shocked I was when my doctor prescribed a medicine called Aranea for my depression, apparently made from ..something that has to do with spiders.. i don't know, I never looked it up on Google, i was too scared to find a picture. confused1
the point is, i never got over my phobia.