Being afraid of spiders often feels a little silly, but arachnophobia can be super annoying. If you've seen a spider in your home, it can give you sleepless nights. Especially if you live alone and you are afraid of spiders, it is very annoying that you can't just call someone to clean up the spider for you. Of course, avoiding a room in your house is not the solution either. That's why in this article I will discuss spider fear and what you can do about it.
Why are people afraid of spiders?
The fear of spiders should logically relate to the fear of being bitten, but that is precisely not always what people fear. Especially the movements of spider legs and how weird that looks creates the fear. First, this fear may have to do with conditioning. That means that you have had a nasty experience with spiders before and have become afraid because of that. Who doesn't know the stories of angry boys putting a spider in the back of a classmate's shirt? That of course scares you and the fear can be born just like that.
Or if you walk through a spider web during the fall and then the spider is in your hair.
Second, fear can also be passed down through family members. For example, the fear of spiders can be transmitted from parent to child by copying the parents' behavior. Thus, the fear of spiders is not genetic, but learned.
People who are afraid of spiders are not necessarily afraid of all animals, but often of animals where it is also "normal" to be afraid of them, such as wasps, mice, snakes and other critters. Researchers therefore also want to look further into whether this fear has anything to do with the urge to survive and defend against dangerous animals. You can be allergic to wasps, for example, and mice and rats pass on diseases, such as the plague in the Middle Ages.
It is also notable that mostly women are afraid of spiders. This is because girls learn as early as 11 months that a spider is part of a scared face. So for a spider you should be afraid. Little boys of 11 months do not yet get this association. This study was conducted with pictures shown to the children while sitting on their parents' laps. After the spider and fearful picture, they were shown a picture of a happy person with a spider next to them and a happy person with a flower next to them. Girls looked significantly longer at the picture with the happy person next to the spider compared to the boys. According to the researchers, this was because the girls did not trust the happy person because of the spider. The researchers explain that this may be because women used to take care of children and thus need to know what is safe and what is not while men need to take more risks for hunting and it is not useful to be afraid of a spider. There is still plenty of debate as to whether it is hereditary or not, but one can assume that it is mostly copy behavior from the mother.
Spider anxiety symptoms
When faced with a spider, someone who is afraid of spiders may get the following physical reactions:
- Faster Heart Rate.
- Dizziness.
- You suddenly get very hot or cold.
- Sense of loss of control.
- Chest Pain.
- Shortness of breath/ feeling like you can't breathe.
- No longer able to distinguish between what is real and what is fake.
- Vibrate.
- Sweat.
- Thoughts on Death.
- Nausea or cramping.
These are all very intense reactions that make it difficult to deal with the spider in a controlled and focused way. This makes killing or cleaning up the spider extra difficult. Then, if this also fails you can feel uncomfortable in your own home as a result. If it bothers you very much you also avoid places where you expect spiders to be.
Spider Fear Therapy
Precisely because a fear of spiders is so awkward, there are all kinds of therapies available to overcome your fear of spiders. Sometimes even medication is given to reduce reactions, but these have side effects and do not solve the problem. Symptom relief is never the solution.
Spider anxiety hypnosis
Hypnosis is also a great tool for reducing unreal fears. In the case of a spider fear, regression can be used to see where the fear came from. In this case, during hypnosis you go back to the moment where the fear originated, such as that moment when you suddenly walked through a spider web and suddenly had a spider on your face. You and the hypnotherapist will then look at your reaction to that situation and the beliefs you've acquired about spiders as a result. You will then gain insights into how you could have handled that situation differently so that you no longer suffer from that fear.
The hypnotherapist can also change your values about spinning with suggestions. Initially, your values about spiders may be:
"Spiders are life-threatening."
"Spiders just crawl into your mouth."
"Spiders can hurt me."
In the Netherlands, few spiders are truly dangerous. The only poisonous spider for humans in the Netherlands lives in and on water, and of these, the bite and the consequences are comparable to a wasp sting. So that's not so bad. Therefore, it is wise to change these kinds of values to the versions that better suit the spiders found in the Netherlands, such as.
"Spiders do nothing."
"Spiders don't crawl in your mouth."
"The most venomous spider in the Netherlands can't even bite through my skin."
Tips to combat spider anxiety at home.
In addition to these tips, a hypnotherapist can also provide treatment that will make you less fearful by confronting you with your anxiety, but you can also do a lot at home. Therefore a few practical and self-hypnosis tips to reduce the fear of spiders.
Relax
The first step to reducing anxiety is to relax. With fear, you cramp up quickly, and it is precisely when you relax that you do not allow that physical reaction to occur. So when faced with a spider, instead of screaming immediately, try taking ten deep breaths in and out first. Instead of admitting your fears, look at the situation factually first. You are standing somewhere and that spider is somewhere further away. He is not attacking you. He is actually very small, yes even a 10-centimeter spider is very small even if you are 1.5 meters. Then you can calmly call for help or grab the vacuum cleaner to suck up the spider from a distance with the vacuum cleaner hose or calmly walk on.
Relaxing is also how you begin self-hypnosis. You lie or sit on the couch or any other comfortable place in your home and begin to relax. Then you can begin hypnosis techniques.
Visualize the spin
One way to become less sensitive to your fear is to confront the fear. Now I don't want you to immediately have all kinds of tarantulas walk all over you. You start quietly by visualizing the spider. Then you can visualize yourself sucking up the spider with a vacuum cleaner without fear. Then you can visualize how you beat it to death with a slipper or something and then clean it up with a dustpan, all without fear. So you do this while relaxing for self-hypnosis. On the other hand, don't you want to kill spiders either? Then you can also visualize putting a glass on it and holding a piece of paper under it to bring it out.
View daily images of spiders on the Internet
Visualizing the spider is 1 method of making the spider less scary. We fortunately live in the age of the Internet and there are many images of spiders on there. If visualizing situations with spiders goes well, you can go further by viewing real images of spiders. By looking at images of spiders daily, you can get used to the spider's appearance and keep your composure longer in real life before you break out into total panic. You may even then avoid that panic.
You can use that spider inspiration in subsequent visualizations and to face the spider more often.
Watch a video of spinning on the Internet
The next step is to watch videos of spiders. Nature films in particular can show that spiders also have very beautiful sides. Some spiders have amazing rituals to find a mate. There are even brightly colored spiders that look almost like a bird of paradise. Seeing just the beauty of the spider can give you very different values about the spider. Anyway, afterwards you are less frightened when you see a spider walking in real life, because you get used to moving spiders.
Highly recommended, however, is a documentary about the portia spider, that little jumping spider that kills big spiders. This little spider not only kills those dirty hairy spiders in your house, the portia is also a really intelligent spider. A very interesting documentary to take a look at.
Do you find it difficult to implement these tips independently because the fear is very strong? Then you can learn more about hypnosis and self-hypnosis at Hypnosis Institute Netherlands so that you can help not only yourself but also others get rid of that terrible fear of spiders.
Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:
Sources:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08917779208248798
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1210748/Are-women-born-scared-spiders-men.html
